» Gospel, Church and Ay Bay Bay! (Part 1)

Ay bay bay means Culture to me in this post! For those that will stop reading because it has a lyric that will send you to hell if you hear it in the street, get over yourself and please keep reading (just having a little fun).

This post may be worldly to some, but just hear me out... Let's make sense of some things! Because we are in trouble.

This generation is acting out only on what their grandparents and parents believe, to the point that we are not checking the "subject" (whatever it is) for ourselves with the scripture. Although I believe that the things that parents and other men and women tell us, often have great value.

But let me check it out for myself With the Scriptures.

I don't want any of your traditions. I don't want any of your "I think this way" beliefs. I want to be like JESUS!

(Wow! I had to get that off my shoulders, hehe).

Hear me out. Learn something with me. I don't know everything. I learn from the best. One of my favorite writers and theologians, I can say is Mark Driscoll. Check him out. I got some stuff from him.

Anyways, let's do this...

There are 3 main Principles that Christianty revolves in...

1. Gospel
2. Church
3. Culture (Ay Bay Bay!) Haha!

1. The Gospel of Jesus is the good news of Christ.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:

"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also ye have received,
and wherein ye stand... Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again
the third day according to the scriptures"

The gospel tells us about the death of Christ, the Burial of Christ and the Resurrection of Christ.

2. The Culture that we live in.
It changes all the time. People act and dress differently. For example:

• 2,000 years ago, Guys wore robes and cultivated the ground. Ugh!
• 500 years ago, we had different cultures. Indians were hunters and wore nothing and English people wore spandex-looking pants under their "skirts" (Huh! Taking you back through History class here).
• 2007, Guys wear shorts with sandals and work at mcDonalds, while girls cut their hair short and wear t-shirts.

Culture! It changes. It evolves. Our lives are shaped by the culture that we live in.

The gospel has to be adapted to the culture. Read that last sentence again. I said ADAPTED. I did not say IMPROVED! The gospel is unchangeable. It cannot be renovated or redone.

So that our witnessing of Christ is effective, we have to strtategize to fit the gospel in the culture.

You may disagree with me. But if you keep playing your cassette preaching tapes and not switch to podcasts on your ipod. Your evangelism will be weak.

Some people are so ridiculous! They drive a 2007 Honda, have DVR in their homes, but cannot adapt to the culture when it comes to reaching the lost. They can't relate to them. They say big words and do not explain the meaning. They pass out boring "tracts" (flyers) that have their doctrine printed in black and white with 7 pt. font. They scream in church without knowing what the heck for (O.K. I'll stop).

3. The Church.
Matthew 16:18 says:

"...that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church;
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

The Church is the place where God's people and even sinners (aren't we all in need of forgiveness?) come to be equipped and get prepared in God's word to go out and have community with one another. I should say communion with one another...

In Part 2, I will talk about how these 3 Principles are used in Christianity. You need these 3 Principles to be effective in this thing called "Your Walk With God." Sometimes we only get 2 out of 3 and it puts us in categories that will be discussed tomorrow. I can't wait.

What say you?

Really give me your opinion. I would like to know.

If you disagree, tell me, I don't mind.
If you agree, tell me, that shows you have been praying (just kidding).

» SOUND DOCTRINE, PLEASE!!!

Titus 2:1

"You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine"

"Oh God! Please give us teachers that will teach your word! Give us men that will be men of God and preach your word. I want my heart to burn as we talk about scriptures, just like the 2 disciple's hearts that burned whenever you were talking about the scriptures to them."

That is my prayer tonight.

I am so excited of going back to school. I cannot wait to hit those books... and those classes. I think I'll be taking 2 or 3 classes this semester. I wish I could take 4. I will be taking:

• Bible Study Methods (I can't wait for Paul Helbig to teach this one... He is amazing! I enjoyed his Old Testament 1 class).
• New Testament 1 (I wanna be rocked by the gospels which I started to read again today).
• English Composition (Boo! Since I'm trying to get my degree in Biblical Counseling, I need this class. Sucks!).

I am excited, though. I really cannot wait to hear those lectures... It is an experience, I tell you. When I went for my first year, I was shocked to feel that no one was imposing their belief on me. They taught straight from the Bible and I went back and researched it myself. That's how it should be. Oh man! Sometimes we had mini debates because some students did not agree with others. Other times the students did not agree with the professor. It was fun.

Sound doctirne is what we need, guys. We don't need any more fluffiness... Paul said:

1 Corinthians 1:23

"but we preach Christ crucified:

a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,"

Let's preach Christ! Let's preach Jesus! That has to be our center... I have been getting a burden and conviction to preach Jesus. His redemption. His salvation. His resurrection. That's why we preach. That's the gospel! Those are the good news!

Like one of my favorite theologians said,

"We focus too much on the Kingdom... The Kingdom this, The Kingdom that. What about the King (Jesus)?"

Let's talk about Him.

Sound Doctrine.

When I think about the young people that grew up with me... oh God... Most of them know just know Acts 2... Hehe. (whoops!). Some don't even know that. They don't know of the Sin in Genesis. They don't know of the details of Christ suffering our penalty for our sin. They don't know of the Tomb. The Resurection that's talked about in 1 Corithians 15. Not even that...

"Oh God... Send us REAL teachers, and let us be RECEPTIVE to your Word!"

That's what is on my mind...

Sound Doctrine.

» Are you converted to Jesus' mission?

Nehemiah 4:17-18

"...Those who carried materials did their work with one

hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the

builders wore his sword at his side as he worked..."

We are called for a mission. We are called for service. I think that we have lost sight of that. I was raised with preachings and teachings on winning souls for Jesus. My friends and I were taught to be great soulwinners... We could evangelize in school and not be ashamed of it.

I remember one time when we missed the last Metro (bus) to take us home, and we stayed and evangelized. In about 45 minutes, at around 11 PM, we had a deacon open the church to baptize 2 men that had felt conviction and had repented. That was normal for us. But I am starting to realize something. Those 2 men came to services for about 2 months, I think. They did not come for a long time after their conversion. Why? I did not know at the time. I was so busy scurrying around trying to get more people baptized. hehe! (Ah, memories!). But really, I did not understand why.

Now I am starting to understand why these 2 men did not stay for long. I believe that these men were converted to Jesus. I was witness of that. I saw them cry and repent of their sins when they were going down the steps of the baptistry. These guys knew that they were being forgiven. But the reason that they did not stay in church for long was because they were not converted to the mission of Jesus. Now I understand this.

You can be converted to Jesus, but not converted to Jesus' mission.

WOW!

The church is so busy converting people to Jesus. They want to baptize, hold crusades, have campmeetings so ppeople can come to Jesus and be saved, but what we need to work on is our follow up. After converting people to Jesus, we need to teach them that there is a mission that we need to work on.

The only way to grow the church is if we teach people about Jesus' mission and motivate them to do it.

To grow a church people need to be driven by a mission.

To grow a church people need to feel that they have a purpose in their life.

So... meditate on this.

When we are building a wall (soul wining), we do it with a trowel (construction tool; evangelizing), but also we need to take care of our work, tending to it, defending it.

When the enemy comes to steal and to tear down our wall, mess with our deliverance, taunt us with the guilt of our past, we need to draw the sword and keep doing Jesus' mssion.

In another view, we build people, but do not defend them when the enemy comes to tempt them.

We are experts at building the wall, but we do not defend it well.

We are experts at winning souls, but we do not equip them with Jesus' mission.

Are you converted to Jesus? Sure.

Are you converted to Jesus' mission? Hmmm.

Make sense?

I think so...

» TEXANS WON!!!

I'm not really following everything in football right now, but since I knew that the Houston Texans were going to play the Dallas Cowboys, I got excited. Knowing that the first game that the Texans ever played, they beat Dallas 19-10! I knew that this was one game not to be missed.

Well, we beat them! HAHAHA! YEA!

Final Score: 28-16!

Wow! That game was awesome... Matt Schaub did a great job. And although we kind of grew up watching (or hearing...) the Dallas Cowboys win all the time, I'm looking forward to giving another chance to my home team The Houston Texans.

Good job, Texans!

Don't hate... Dallas Cowboys!