Signs that something is wrong with a church

Have you ever felt that something a church/christian organization is doing is off, but feels too afraid to do anything because you are not sure if you're discernment is right? Here are some signs that may indicate something is wrong with a church.

Ignorance of scripture - This can come in many forms. Sometimes it's the excuse "Doctrine is not important because it brings arguments and divisions". Other times it can be subtle manipulation in preaching, where a pastor adds his/her own ideas and preferences dogmatically into the Bible(this can be tricky to tell).

No one is allowed to bring up concerns to the leaders - People who bring up concerns are labeled as the bad guys and sometimes "scripturally thumped" into silence. Leadership never communicates the reasons behind their decisions and just wants the congregation to obey whatever they are told.

A rigid rule systems is taught instead of the gospel and spiritual principles - the congregations is never encouraged to think and make decisions on their own

No discipline/bad discipline - Sin is not called out and repentance is not urged. In large people don't hold each other accountable. Or sin is called out and dealt shamefully when the person wants to be free from it, and accountability is done so people feel good about themselves.

Lack of care/warmth in relationships - relationships are superficial where people just greet each other on sundays asking "how are you?" No one cares/are too afraid to ask how people are walking with the Lord. Or people ask about others' spiritual lives just to validate themselves and shame the other person when they are struggling.

If you find yourself in such situations, run far far away(unless you are sure that God's plan for you is to reform the church) and find a good church where the bible is honored and properly handled, where the gospel is repeated over and over again, and where the people love and care for each other deeply and truthfully.

Assurance of salvation

Assurance of salvation(being sure that you are saved and loved by God) is an amazing blessing. It brings lots of joy in life and it gives Christian power in their ministry.

But the problem is Christians can be in a state where they are unsure whether they are saved or not. And that is an agonizing state to be in.

The Bible speaks of something like tasting the goodness of God, or experiencing the heavenly gift and partaking the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 6). It is like something that stirs up inside of us when the gospel is preached, we understand what is being said and "see" the glory of Christ (with faith, not with physical eyes)

It is hard to put into words, but that is what stops people from trusting in their works and efforts, and rest in peace on the righteousness of Christ, and that is where assurance of salvation is found, and that is what it means for Christ to be our solid rock.

What can cause a lack of assurance?
1. Sinning or doing something against our conscience is the main cause. But the bible tells us how to deal with it.
The preventive measure is to avoid doing things that we know are sins, and things that we are unsure of but we know would go against our conscience, while also caring for others by being mindful of what would defile their conscience. (not putting a stumbling block in a brother's path)
But when prevention fails and we sin, 1 John tells us that sin is not erradicated in this life, and we need to confess our sins to God, then He will be faithful and just to forgive us. Denying the truth that sin still exists in a Christian or doubting whether or not God will forgive us when we confess will further kill our assurance.

2. Ignorant of scripture - need to find balance and have our reasoning guided by scripture
This can come in many forms. In my personal experience it's not understanding God's standard of what is good and right.  For example, it is shown in the 10 commandments that thou shalt not steal, and I would make excuses for downloading copyrighted material. And in doing so, I'm denying the essence of the law to not steal by taking thing I didn't pay for.

Another instance is when people discover something about election (Some people say that every teaching on election should come with a big warning - "Will cause a crisis of faith!"). Then their reasoning takes them to extremes, thinking: if God chooses people to be saved before the foundation of the earth, then what's the point of me trying anything? or How do I know I'm one of the chosen?

But looking at scripture, it presents a balance between God's work of election and human decisions. 2 Peter tells us that we are responsible for making our calling and election sure by doing a whole bunch of stuff after we have faith. It's true that faith is a gift, and we know we have that gift when we can say with confidence that my righteousness is not within myself, but only on the righteousness of Christ, but we have to put in efforts as well. We are responsible for making a response to God's word. Because that's the means God uses to give us faith. "Faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God."

So our concern shouldn't be whether we are chosen or not, but have I responded to the gospel as God wants me to? (repent and trust in Christ) Then we know we are chosen if at this moment I can say with confidence, yes I have, while looking to God's promise for the future that he who began a good work in you will finish it until the day of Christ Jesus.

May God bless us with assurance and joy.

Being shrewd

The parable of the unjust steward always left me scratching my head. But it made sense experiencing the mentality I have when justifying my sins. For the audience is people who loved money, who also justified themselves.

There is a certain mentality when a person justifies themselves, we are unwilling to let go of the wrong things we love, yet we like to pretend we are not wrong. And one way to do this is to go hard against the exact same thing we love so much!

Perhaps this is one reason why Christ told the story the way he did, the protagonist is not a moral man(he cheated his master to prepare for his future in case he got fired, and was called unjust), yet Christ told the story to commend how he used money to make friends(for both him and his master!!! Christ did not commend the unjust aspect though) so that Pharisees learn from him. Perhaps this is also to rattle our self righteous feathers a bit.

He then built up on the theme of money handling and went on to the real issue, the love of money, and he does it graciously and truthfully, pointing to how giving away their idol(money in this case) would benefit them - they would have friends, and also pointing to the fact that they would be able to serve God, no longer being bound to money.

Not surprisingly, the Pharisees justified themselves and rebuked Jesus.

How do we be shrewd? Get to know Christ from the scriptures and imitate him, he is the most shrewd of them all. People were blown away after hearing him speak, or they were convicted because his words pierced their hearts.

Encouragement

Yesterday I went to play ball(basketball) with a friend from university. The original plan was to watch a movie with him over the weekend because his mom was supposed to use the car, but it turns out she didn't need it anymore.

My friend is Muslim, after meeting up with him and catching up for a bit he told me a lot of encouraging things. He says that a lot of bible verses seems pretty awesome to him, such as when Jesus says "Let him who has no sin cast the first stone" and "If God is for us, then who can be against us?", another thing is that he noticed the love and care between Christians, how "people at church seems to have got each other's backs" and how the atmosphere during basketball games(it was at a church, I dunno about this but maybe a lot of those who show up are members of that church) is different, people are relaxed and friendly and polite. That was such an awesome encouragement because when we love our brothers and sisters others notice.

On the way back we got to talk about sin and our need for Christ, I don't think I did a good job because I should've been more focused on Christ, but I hope God will make him see the truth one day that God indeed can become man, and He did it because He loves us. But overall yesterday was a good day.

A reason to love our neighbours - God's marvelous love for ungodly nations.

The Lord, Merciful and Just - Great cause for worship

In Exodus 34, it is written that when Moses heard God proclaiming that He is a God who abounds in mercy, forgiving iniquity, yet also by no means leaving the guilty unpunished, he bowed down and worshiped. These 2 great truths of who God is ought to cause us to worship as well, because they are great gospel truths.

First of all, if God was not merciful, we would all be dead. since Adam and Eve's first act of disobedience, they would've been destroyed for the satisfaction of justice, perhaps God would not even create them in the first place.

But if God was not just, at least the coming age would not be anything good to look forward to, one amazing thing about the new heaven and earth is that all that is wrong and perverse with this world will be made right.

Last but not least, these are the characteristics of God that compelled Him to create, despite knowing Adam and Eve would sin, it is what compelled Him to send Christ, so that both the sinner and God would be justified in reconciliation through the cross, that He would be just in showing mercy to all. This should cause all who believe to marvel and worship.

Numbers 11-14: Bitter pills of unblief

After numbering off the warriors and laying down more laws, the Israelites offer sacrifices to be used in the tabernacle, all seems good until the complaining begins.

People desired to return to Egypt because they were sick of eating mana, so they complained
People did not believe that God would give them the land so they did not obey God to go and fight, but spread fear of their enemies to others and wanted to go back to Egypt.

After their initial disobedience people did not believe that God is no longer giving them the land so they went up to fight and were defeated.

Here's a couple of things I noticed

• The root of disobedience is not believing in God's promises
• The result is not acting when you are supposed to and acting when you are not supposed to act, and an exaggeration of the goodness of the former things (they were slaves in Egypt, yet they remembered supposedly the abundance of fish, meat, melons, onions...)
• Even though sins are forgiven, there is still consequences of sin in this life
• Parallel with Lot's wife who longed after Sodom after leaving
• Parallel with the NT's warning of longing after this world and sin after coming to the knowledge of the gospel
• The remedy for unbelief is belief, holding unto God's promises, parallel with NT is believing the things unseen and are to come is better than what is seen now.
• What do I do after sinning? Is it to accept Lord's forgiveness and consequences or is it to try and make things better myself?