Author Archives: Royce

Jun 16 2009

Who is my brother?


I was once instructed by a dear brother that all of those with “like precious faith” are our brothers. That on its face is true. What this dear saint meant though was church of Christ only. Our further conversations confirmed that clearly.

So, here is my question. Is every member of a church of Christ my brother or sister?  Isn’t there some things one must believe to be considered a true Christian? Or, is the fact that he is a member of a coC congregation enough. That is obviously the view of many.

A man who shows none of the Christian graces and spends his days being critical of other church of Christ men who don’t agree with him about the supremacy of a cappella music and insists that everyone who does not agree with him is lost.  Is this man my brother?

A preacher denies the bodily resurrection of Jesus saying as some of the cults that the resurrection of Jesus was only “spiritual”. Never mind the passages that record Jesus walking and talking, and eating meals with his friends after he arose. Thomas touched him as did others. Is this man my brother?

A fellow denies the divinity of Jesus, the bodily resurrection, and even pokes fun at Paul for incorrect teaching and brags that the Jehovah’s Witnesses have invited him to speak for them. Is this man my brother?

What are the foundational doctrines one must hold? What are the fundamentals of the Christian faith? Is the kingdom of God broader than “some” Restoration Movement churches? If so, on what grounds?

Is a person who has been “scripturally baptised” yet believes Jesus was a fraud and liar my brother? Is there an answer to these questions? Where do we draw the line of brotherhood?

Royce

Jun 11 2009

The Jesus deficit…


jesus-savesI recently visited some unnamed blogs by church of Christ preachers who had their “tag cloud” visible. (A tag cloud is the group of key words used to point readers to a post) These are men whose church is so and so “church of Christ” so you would think that “Christ” would be the most often used key word on their blogs. Nope, “church of Christ”, “baptism”, and even “a cappella” were ahead of “Christ” and “Jesus”. What does this prove? Perhaps not much but it does deserve some thought.

Jesus promised that if He is lifted up He would draw all men to Himself. (John 12:32) Paul and the other Apostles preached Christ, the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24) and He was the center of the message and mission they served.

Are our churches of Christ known for their devotion to Christ? Do we put Him first? Is He and His story the center of our message? I’ll let you decide. I do know this for sure. Not one person will be in heaven because they were right about how to do communion or because they sung a cappella. There will be no saving grace extended to one person because they despised the Baptists.

There is one mediator between man and God, His name is Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5) Jesus declared “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through me”. (John 14:6) Since these things are true why don’t we preach Christ? Why isn’t He the focus of every ministry? Why isn’t He the most talked about on our “Christian” blogs? Why do we talk far more about the “church of Christ” than the Christ of the church? Why?

I think it is because many don’t really believe He is the only way to God. They think he is a part of the way but not the way. Or, some my believe that the sum total of believing the right doctrine, having communion each Sunday, singing a cappella, being in the right church, and believing the historic stories about Jesus combined with living a good life puts one in good standing with God. What Jesus told one of the most religeous men in his day is still true, you must be born again.

 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Unless you have this right nothing else matters. Please brothers and sisters, lets put Christ in his rightful place at the center of our living, our giving, our missions, our worship, and our dying. Let us become known for making a fuss about Jesus Christ and loving people as He did. Unless we are loving the unlovable as they are where they are seeking nothing in return we are not doing what Christ wants us to do. There is no greater task, no higher honor, no more noble endeavor than to make Christ and His work for sinners known.

In Him,
Royce

Jun 5 2009

The charges have been dropped!


cri

 

Tonight I celebrated with 14 men whose lives have been forever changed by the power of the gospel of Jesus.

My friend John Grigson called me and invited me to attend the graduation tonight at Richwood Correctional Center here in Monroe, LA. I am so very glad he invited me and that I accepted the invitation and went.

God is doing some amazing things using John and Celebrate Recovery Inside (CRI). 14 inmates gave testimony to what Christ had done in their lives in the past year. They have completed the step-studies and are now discipled and matured so that now they will themselves be leaders beginning next Monday night. Also present tonight were 63 other inmates who will begin their step studies next Monday. Those who weather the storm and endure the soul searching hard work will in all probability begin a relationship with Jesus Christ if they haven’t already done so.

In the coming months, in some form, CRI will be in 7 other prisons in N E Louisiana. God is strategically using CRI to tell the captives of sin the charges have been dropped! (Col 2:13,14) When I think about the possibilities of all the changed lives of inmates and their families it seems to me that revival could be about to burst out from inside the prison walls!

The gospel is the very good news about Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished for wicked sinners. The story of His work still transforms lives and raised the spiritually dead to new life of love and obedience to the Lordship of Christ.

A hearty AMEN and Praise the Lord for what He is up to in prison ministry in our town.

The charges have been dropped!
Royce

Jun 2 2009

Reading the Bible with understanding..


“1And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Wisdom from the Spirit

 6Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But, as it is written,

    “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
   nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—

 10these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

 14The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-14)

For the past several weeks I have followed the conversation at http://graceconversation.com between Todd Deaver and Jay Guinn (on the progressive side) and Phil Sanders, Greg Tidwell, and now Greg’s replacement, Mac Deaver (on the conservative side). As I read the posts and the dozens of comments one thing is clear. There is little communication going on.

For two or more parties to communicate they must be speaking the same language in terms that both understand or else nothing is understood by one or more parties. I sincerely believe that in the passage quoted above from 1st Corinthians there is an answer for the disconnect I have observed, especially the 14th verse.

It appears that some of the conservatives I have spoken to and have read, simply do not grasp the most elementary spiritual truths of the Scriptures. They define everything in black and white and what they teach requires no spiritual discernment at all to understand. It goes something like this.

A man called Jesus died for our sins and if you respond in a scripted way to that head knowledge and keep all of the many rules, (some are unwritten in the Bible) you can go to heaven. These rules include the name of the church you must attend, when you must attend, what you must do when you attend, and you must do it right or God will damn you. Also you must not only do the right stuff at the right time but you must also believe the right stuff as well. Never mind that one elder in Tenn. might say something is a “salvation issue” and an elder in Texas, or Alabama might add another or disagree with the first, it is your job to be “right” or you go to hell.

What a horrific hoax and a shame in the name of Christ! What kind of gospel (good news) is this? Paul had something far different in mind when he penned the words quoted above to the Corinthians. Read that chapter slowly and carefully and I think you might agree with me that only the “spiritual” person will understand the import of the message of grace.

Some men read the Bible as they would any other book. Those who are born again and have God’s Spirit living in them read it with supernatural understanding. There is a huge, life or death, difference.

Royce