This Is Why Women Live Longer Than Men ~ #64

Change ~ Winston Churchill

Merciful To Me ~ Cleveland Baptist Church

The angry men were closing in Rocks were in their hands A decent payment for her sin Now her life must end But Jesus said 'Let He who is innocent Cast your stone today' I wasn't there to see her face But I can almost hear her say 'Merciful to me When I deserved to die Merciful to me My soul He brought to life Nothing could I bring My debt to satisfy Jesus was merciful He was merciful to me' Satan's men were closing in I knew what was in store Decent payment for my sin Eternal fire and more But Jesus said 'I have an announcement I'd like to make today You see I have the scars to prove That I've taken this one's place' Merciful to me When I deserved to die Merciful to me My soul He brought to life Nothing could I bring My debt to satisfy Jesus was merciful He was merciful to me Nothing could I bring My debt to satisfy Jesus was merciful He was merciful to me!

You Weren't Listening

5 ~ ...To the Church in Sardis ...

17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. ~ Rev 2:17

Related:

Related:

To The Church in Ephesus

To The Church in Smyrna

To the Church in Pergamum

To the Church in Thyatira

Revelation 2 begins a series of brief letters to seven churches that existed during the apostle John’s time in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Each of these messages includes information apropos to each church, and from these messages we can draw lessons applicable to our own lives today. 

What was Jesus' message to the church in Sardis in Revelation?

 The fifth letter is to the church in Sardis (Revelation 3:1-6). Sardis was one of the oldest and best defended cities in the region and the wealthy capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia.

The message to Sardis is from the Lord Jesus Christ through an angel or messenger (possibly a reference to the pastor): “To the angel of the church in Sardis write . . .” (Revelation 3:1). This was not John’s message to the church at Sardis; it was a message from the Lord. The description at the end of verse 1 further verifies the author: “These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.” Only Jesus has the seven spirits (or “seven-fold Spirit,” meaning the complete or perfect Spirit of God), and only Jesus holds the seven stars, i.e., the seven angels (or pastors) of the seven churches (Revelation 1:20).

Jesus quickly and clearly condemns the lifeless state of the Sardian church:

“I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead” (Revelation 3:2). 

This church may have had a good reputation, but they were spiritually lifeless. In other words, the church was filled with unsaved people going through the motions of religion. There were many tares among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30).

Jesus then calls them to repent of their sin: 

“Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you received and heard; obey it, and repent” (Revelation 3:2-3a). 

To “wake up” means to start paying attention to their need of salvation, to stop being careless about their heart’s condition before God.

Jesus notes the judgment that would take place if they did not repent: 

“If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you” 

~(Revelation 3:3b). 

A dead church, and one unrepentant in its deadness, will be disciplined by Jesus Himself.

After the warning, Jesus encourages those in Sardis who had remained faithful: “Yet you have still a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy” (Revelation 3:4). The faithful remnant had not soiled their garments (participated in sin). They are “worthy.” The idea of walking worthily is also found in Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 4:1; Colossians 1:10; and 1 Thessalonians 2:12. To be “worthy” is to “match up” with something—the profession of faith in the mouth matches the reality of faith in the heart. The faithful ones are promised to walk with Jesus in white (see Matthew 22:11-12; Revelation 19:8).

Jesus makes a final promise to the believers in Sardis: “He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels” (Revelation 3:5). The one who “overcomes” is anyone who is born again (1 John 5:4). The overcomer will receive a white garment (a token of righteousness), he will never have his name removed from the book of life (a promise of eternal security), and he will be confessed by Jesus in heaven (cf. Luke 12:8).

This Is Why Women Live Longer Than Men ~ #63

You have enemies? ~ Winston Churchill

Forgiveness ~ Dr. Stephen Marmer, UCLA

Editor's Note:    An Orthodox Jew Looks at  FORGIVENESS:

In 2009, Dennis Prager started a website, Prager University, offering five-minute videos on various subjects such as the Ten Commandments, the minimum wage, the Middle East, Global warming, and happiness with a conservative perspective.  To be very clear, Mr. Prager is NOT a Christian, but has his roots as an Orthodox Jew, thus his videos do not necessarily view scripture exactly as Christians view scripture, nonetheless there are many general parallels between.  Here is another video in this series:

We have all had times in our relationships when we hurt a loved one, or a loved one hurt us. That's part of life. But not all of us know how to forgive, even when the other party has offered a sincere apology. In this Prager University course, UCLA psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Marmer shares the three types of forgiveness--exoneration, forbearance, and release--and explains why anyone who wants to mend meaningful relationships must first understand forgiveness. Internalizing Dr. Marmer's teaching can be an important first step, for many people, to keeping and fixing their most valued relationships.

Nine Reasons People Aren’t Singing in Worship ~ Kenny Lamm

Worship leaders around the world are sadly changing their church’s worship (often unintentionally) into a spectator event, and before discussing our present situation, let’s look back into history. Prior to the Reformation, worship was largely done for the people. The music was performed by professional musicians and sung in an unfamiliar language (Latin). The Reformation gave worship back to the people, including congregational singing, which employed simple, attainable tunes with solid, scriptural lyrics in the language of the people. Worship once again became participatory. The evolution of the printed hymnal brought with it an explosion of congregational singing and the church’s love for singing increased. With the advent of new video technologies, churches began to project the lyrics of their songs on a screen, and the number of songs at a church’s disposal increased exponentially. [1] At first, this advance in technology led to more powerful congregational singing, but soon, a shift in worship leadership began to move the congregation back to pre-Reformation pew potatoes (spectators). What has occurred could be summed up as the re-professionalization of church music and the loss of a key goal of worship leading—enabling the people to sing their praises to God. Simply put, we are breeding a culture of spectators in our churches, changing what should be a participative worship environment to a concert event. Worship is moving to its pre-Reformation mess.

I see nine reasons congregations aren’t singing anymore: People are not singing any more.

1. They don’t know the songs. With the release of new songs weekly and the increased birthing of locally-written songs, worship leaders are providing a steady diet of the latest, greatest worship songs. Indeed, we should be singing new songs, but too high a rate of new song inclusion in worship can kill our participation rate and turn the congregation into spectators. I see this all the time. I advocate doing no more than one new song in a worship service, and then repeating the song on and off for several weeks until it becomes known by the congregation. People worship best with songs they know, so we need to teach and reinforce the new expressions of worship. (more)
2. We are singing songs not suitable for congregational singing. There are lots of great, new worship songs today, but in the vast pool of new songs, many are not suitable for congregational singing by virtue of their rhythms (too difficult for the average singer) or too wide of a range (consider the average singer—not the vocal superstar on stage).
3. We are singing in keys too high for the average singer. The people we are leading in worship generally have a limited range and do not have a high range. When we pitch songs in keys that are too high, the congregation will stop singing, tire out and eventually quit, becoming spectators. Remember that our responsibility is to enable the congregation to sing their praises, not to showcase our great platform voices by pitching songs in our power ranges. The basic range of the average singer is an octave and a fourth from A to D (more).
4. The congregation can’t hear people around them singing. If our music is too loud for people to hear each other singing, it is too loud. Conversely, if the music is too quiet, generally, the congregation will fail to sing out with power. Find the right balance—strong, but not over-bearing.
5. We have created worship services which are spectator events, building a performance environment. I am a strong advocate of setting a great environment for worship including lighting, visuals, inclusion of the arts and much more. However when our environments take things to a level that calls undue attention to those on stage or distracts from our worship of God, we have gone too far. Excellence—yes. Highly professional performance—no.
6. The congregation feels they are not expected to sing. As worship leaders, we often get so involved in our professional production of worship that we fail to be authentic, invite the congregation into the journey of worship, and then do all we can to facilitate that experience in singing familiar songs, new songs introduced properly, and all sung in the proper congregational range. (more)
7. We fail to have a common body of hymnody. With the availability of so many new songs, we often become haphazard in our worship planning, pulling songs from so many sources without reinforcing the songs and helping the congregation to take them on as a regular expression of their worship. In the old days, the hymnal was that repository. Today, we need to create song lists to use in planning our times of worship. (more)
8. Worship leaders ad lib too much. Keep the melody clear and strong. The congregation is made up of sheep with limited ranges and limited musical ability. When we stray from the melody to ad lib, the sheep try to follow us and end up frustrated and quit singing. Some ad lib is nice and can enhance worship, but don’t let it lead your sheep astray.
9. Worship leaders are not connecting with the congregation. We often get caught up in our world of amazing music production and lose sight of our purpose of helping the congregation to voice their worship. Let them know you expect them to sing. Quote the Bible to promote their expressions of worship. Stay alert to how well the congregation is tracking with you and alter course as needed. (more)

Once worship leaders regain the vision of enabling the congregation to be participants in the journey of corporate worship, I believe we can return worship to the people once again.

A Lot Can Happen In 3 Days! ~ Jesus is RISEN!