"Death is not a topic we enjoy. Death of churches is not a topic I enjoy," "You see, I love the local church. I love it despite it's flaws, sins, and hypocrisies. Jesus loves me despite my flaws, sins, and hypocrisies."Sadly, too many churches are dying today. As a concerned Christian, there are need to share with congregations what they must avoid being to be able to survive.The Ex-Bible ChurchThe first type of churches doomed to fail is the ex-Bible church. "These churches have abandoned the truths of the Scripture. A few are explicit in their denials. But many just give lip service to the Bible,".Congregations belonging to ex-Bible churches do not study Scripture, and those pastors do not handle biblical texts. Sadly, the Word of God has no power in this kind of churches.Dress and AppearanceKnow ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you' ' The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. 1 Corinthians 3:16'17.Many churches today will say, "Well, God looks on the heart. God doesn't care what you look like on the outside. God just looks on the heart." That is true. God does look on the heart, but man cannot see the heart. Man can only see the outer. Not only that, the outer appearance is usually a pretty good indicator of what is in a person's heart. Although it is possible to look right on the outside and be wrong on the inside, it is well nigh impossible to look right on the outside and be right on the inside. What is on the outside comes from the inside. That is why Jesus said, "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matthew 12:34). Granted, a man could say the right things, and have a wrong heart, but a man who had a right heart would never say the wrong things. So the outer appearance is the only indicator that man has that someone is right with God, right in their heart. So God does care how we look. Not only does God care how we look, there are rules in the Bible for both men and women that should govern our appearance. Now, whenever you start to talking about these rules, the women are always the first ones to complain, because there are more rules for the women than there are for the men. And I often wonder why the Bible has all these rules for the women and very few rules for the men, and the reason why is because men and women are made differently. I know that is not a "politically correct" thing to say, but it is none the less true. God made man and women differently. Men are stimulated by sight. This is why Jesus told the men of His day, "whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). Men are stimulated by sight. Men are always attracted to a lady, physically, before they are connected to her emotionally. In fact, they don't even want to pursue the possibility of an emotional relationship, if the physical attraction isn't there. Club ChurchMembers in these churches see their membership as perks and privileges. They want their styles of music, their worship service times, their types of architecture, and their preferred lengths of sermons. They pay their dues, so they should get their benefits."Bad Words These are the churches where bullies go unchecked, where personnel committees and boards work in darkness, and where gossip and backstabbing are common. These churches expend most of their energy on bad words. They thus don't have the time or energy to share the good news.Churches That Fail to ForgiveMembers in the church often turn to the Pastor for prayer, advice, and comfort when facing a divorce. They are shocked when the prayer, advice, and comfort are not forthcoming. Instead they receive a shunning from the Pastor and other members of the church. Thinking the situation will improve they stay a while longer but are eventually forced to leave by the social pressures applied. In other cases they are directly told to attend some other church.The Bible clearly teaches that the Spirit-filled Christian can at times succumb to temptation and fall short. The truth is that every born again Christian still has sins of pride, coveting, dishonesty, etc. Repentance should be accepted by the Pastor, but much of the time it is not. The Pastor simply asks the member to leave. This is strictly contrary to Scripture. God's warning to Pastors is very clear.JAMES 3:1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.My hope and prayer is that God should deliver these churches from their "death throes," too many churches are already dying.#tosinjay ...
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