Top 10 Topics Christians Are Not Learning About

As infected saints, we would do well to not avoid topics because they are convicting. If we desire to be like Jesus, we should want to know and experience the deeper things of the faith. Here are the topics I believe are being neglected by most Christians today.

1. Fasting– Fasting is found throughout Scripture as a way of mourning and refocusing. Even Jesus fasted before He started His ministry. Fasting is a spiritual act of creating space by abstaining for a period of time from something good in order to draw nearer to God. I can say from my own experience with fasting that it is a megaphone to God’s voice in my life. I gain clarity of purpose and perspective from the Lord. It is a neglected discipline that would be powerful in our lives if we practiced it.

2. Repentance– Who wants to talk about turning away from the pleasures of sin? Repentance is out of style with churches that have gone easier on sin. Yet, repentance is a way of life for a Christian trying to be like Jesus. Confessing and turning away from sin must be part of the Christian life.

3. Holiness– We are called to be holy as God is holy. We don’t talk often enough about being “set apart” as a holy people. Holiness is what makes us different than the world. If we look like the world, then our message loses its relevance and power to a lost world. How we live matters.

4. Accountability– In our rebellion towards God, we resist accountability. We don’t want to be told we are wrong, especially when we like doing what we are doing. We find all kinds of ways to excuse accountability and rationalize our sin. Many Christians neglect this practice in their lives and are hindered spiritually because of it.

5. Singleness– The church often lacks a strong message about being single. Most messages and programs are centered around the married. Singleness is not addressed as it should be. The Bible celebrates singleness as an opportunity to be more devoted, without distraction, to the Lord (1 Cor 7).

6. The Holy Spirit– We often celebrate two members of the triune Godhead. We magnify the Father in worship and prayer. We highlight the Son as our hope of salvation. So often, the Holy Spirit is, at best, insinuated in our churches. There is the assumption the Spirit is real and moving. We non-charismatics just don’t speak about Him often enough. He was so vital to the church that Jesus told His disciples to be glad He was leaving because He was sending the Spirit!

7. Sex– This is often a taboo topic in church, though it is a major topic in the minds of young people and adults. Its distortion is plastered on billboards, magazines, Internet, and television. Yet, God created it as good. The church needs to speak boldly and clearly on the topic.

8. Old Testament– It is easy to focus on the New Testament as a Christian; it is the story of Jesus and His church.  On the other hand, the Old Testament offers strange stories, the constant failure of Israel, several gruesome battles, and prophets preaching naked in the streets and talking about dry bones. It feels more appropriate for a Jerry Springer show than our reading list. Yet, the Old Testament is raw because life is hard and cruel—it gets real about sin and consequence. It tells the story of man’s restoration to God and the promise of the coming Savior.  Therefore, it is vital to our understanding of the Gospel.

9. Heaven/Hell– We refer to Heaven and Hell a lot, but do we talk about them as a future reality in our lives? We need to talk about Hell because it creates urgency within us to share the Gospel with those who are without Jesus. We need to talk more about Heaven because it spurs us on to endure and finish well.

10. Parents as Spiritual Leaders– Parenthood is the toughest thing I do! It is difficult to parent well. Our kids need to see their parents are not Christian in name only. Kids should not get all of their spiritual knowledge and training just from the church. Parents need to be challenged to be spiritual leaders at home. This is an epidemic in churches today. The church is given the task of raising students spiritually. That robs children of the guidance they need from their parents spiritually. It robs parents of playing a role in the most important area of their child’s life!

I pray we give more and more attention to these topics. They are vital to our spiritual life.  ~Dax

Christian Your Views Are No Longer Tolerated

But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.  Acts 5:29

Things are changing rapidly in our culture. We have hit a tipping point. For years movements like the LGBT have been preaching equality and winning over society.  Sexual freedom is glorified more and more. The idea of waiting to have sex until marriage has become taboo. Tolerance is being rammed down our throats at every turn. It is no longer enough that these lifestyles be allowed in our culture.  They have become bolder in their demands. There is a demand for it to be accepted.

People are losing their jobs for speaking out against these lifestyles. Christians are being seen as bigots because they are unwilling to accept what they consider to be immoral actions. Society will not allow Christians to love them without agreeing with them. Yet, this is our calling.  People don’t like feeling guilty so the rise in anger increases in order to try and shut the mouths of Christians. Here is the reality. Persecution is coming.

More and more momentum is building to tolerate every group but Christians. It is ok for you to do about anything you want and it be accepted anymore. Morality has been replaced with anything goes mentality. The loud voice of our culture preaches toleration for everyone except those who disagree and take a stand. That will not be tolerated. It can’t be. If someone disagrees hey might have to face the possibility it is wrong. That will not be allowed.

The tipping point is here. It used to be just angry dismissal of Christians. Now if one speaks out publicly, their job is on the line. Very soon society will demand churches conform or there will be consequences. Government will bow to the pressure of the majority and begin to take freedoms away from the church. It might be our tax exempt status or a censorship of sermon topics or forcing ministers to marry those of LGBT community. It might be all of these. Is there a day coming when Christians will face jail time if they don’t conform? I think it might.

So what are we to do?  Stand up. Count the cost. Hold firm to our conviction. Trust Jesus to the very end. We don’t want to start a war but we are already in a war. We can’t compromise. We can’t lose faith.

And while they spit at us and call us names we are to love. Not retaliate. We are to pray for them and show them kindness even if they seek to destroy us. It is what Jesus did.

We must obey God rather than men!

Top 5 Christian Quotes That Will Move You

 

Top 5

Christian Quotes that Will Move You

God whispers to us in our pleasures; speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.              

                                                                                                 C.S Lewis

Is it not strange that we can for one moment lose sight of heaven, and the increasing glory; and grovel in the dust to gather pebbles for the pleasure of throwing them afterwards away.    

                                                                                                Mary Winslow

I have a great need for Christ… I have a great Christ for my need.              

                                                                                                  C.H. Spurgeon                                                                                  

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.  

                                                                                                   John Piper

 

You are the only Bible some unbelievers will ever read.  

                                                                                                John MacArthur 

What are your favorites? Please share. Love to read them.

Let The Judging Start With You

 

Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.  Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.  Matt. 7:2-5                     

Tendencyitis.

I suffer from tendencies. The word tendency means how one generally behaves in a situation is predictable based off of past behavior in similar situations.  I have a tendency when it comes to how I interpret God’s Word.  This tendency happens when I hear a good sermon or read a good Christian book.  I tend to take the things that I have heard or read and think about how they apply to others.  How the politicians need to hear this or how liberal preachers need to be reformed by that.  I think about people I know well and how they could benefit from this word if they only apply it.  And I feel good about this tendency.  After all, I am only trying to help others be more Christ-like. You have this same disease.

Show a lot of grace to myself

I am much less critical of myself.  I do not scrutinize my own life in the same way I scrutinize the politician or liberal pastor or Christian brother or sister who has faults.  I don’t take as serious my own sinfulness as I do the sinfulness of others.  I am easily annoyed by their shortcomings and sins but not so much by my own.  I get angry at how ignorant people can be but don’t like for people to point out my own ignorance. I am tough on them but easy on myself. Or even if I am tough on myself it just is to feel guilty but I don’t really do a throng to change the issue.

I pride myself in being quick to perceive the splinter in other people’s eye.  After all,  a splinter of wood in your eye would hurt something awful.  So I am being a good brother by helping you remove it from your eye.  I even justify it by my gifts.  I am discerning and a leader.  It is my job to help others be better.  All this effort and energy without near as much thought to my own issue… the log in my eye.

What if I put the same energy and time that I spend diagnosing everyone’s else issues into taking an honest look into my own sinfulness?  It takes courage to confront my own log.  It’s much more comfortable to deal with the splinters of others than to face the truth of one’s own failing and sin.

Are we being hypocritical?

Jesus calls my tendency hypocritical.  That stings, but no doubt true when I concern myself so much about other people’s issues and not nearly enough about my own.  I feel great conviction from this and have spent time today repenting of my hypocrisy.  I want to break this evil tendency.  I don’t want to live under such deception any longer.

What might God do in us if we started reading the Word, hungry to see what it says to us?  To let the first reflection not be about others but about our own shortcomings, our own sin.  Let the Word read you first today.  Be slow to call out the splinter in the eyes of others when you are walking around quite clueless of the log that is lodged in your own eye.

Let me say it this way:

Let the word read you today!

Dax

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Repentance is not being sorry for the things you have done, but being sorry you are the kind of person that does such things.

The Deeper Journey by Robert Mulholland Jr.

Repentance is something we don’t talk about much in the church but it was the appropriate response to our sin in the Bible. Repentance is not just about turning away from a particular sin. That is a band aid fix. Repentance is about going deeper, to the root of the weed and pulling from there. It’s about Jesus confronting our love affair with sin and our attitude of rebellion. That’s where God wants to do his work. He does not just want to tackle lust, anger, laziness, and other sins that stir up in us; He wants to bring the whole operation down on its head and remove our love for sin and motive for rebellion. That is the work of repentance in us.

They Are Watching

“Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.”
                                                                                                                                       Robert Fulghum

How this quote has brought conviction to my heart! There is no greater duty I have on earth than to be a godly example to my own kids. I want them to know what a Daddy, Husband, and Christian should be because of my example. To my friends who are parents I pray you would seize this day and find time to be an example to your kids today.  Lord help me to be the kind of example to Reagan, Addicus, and Noah that would honor your name. Forgive me for my selfishness that so many times keeps me from being what they need me to be. Praise you for grace and for new days where I find your mercy renewed. It is never to late to make changes when you know that you are forgiven! Glory to the name of Christ.