Jesus Warned About The Dangers Of Traditions

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! Thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. (Mark 7:7-9,13 ESV)

This passage is one of the more severe rebukes Jesus ever delivered. Notice his rebuke isn’t because they don’t worship; instead, he says they worship in vain. And it’s significant that this rebuke was triggered by the seemingly innocent tradition of washing hands. But Jesus said when we hold to the tradition of men, we leave the commandment of God. The word leave comes from the same root word as divorce. Which means, we are separating ourselves from God’s truth in order to embrace our traditions. And by separating ourselves from God’s truth, we are forfeiting His true purposes for us.

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Is Church Membership Biblical?

Homonyms are words that are spelled the same and sound the same but have different meanings. The word “member” is a homonym. It means a body part, such as an arm or leg. But it also means someone who belongs to a club or an organization. In the Bible, the word member is used frequently to refer to a part of the body, sometimes the physical body, and sometimes referring to believers as part of the body of Christ. But the Bible never uses the word member to mean someone who belongs to a particular church. Not only is church membership absent from the Bible, it also violates clear Biblical warnings.

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Do Christians Have To Sin?

It’s important to understand that we’re not addressing the question, “Have you quit sinning?”. Keeping track of how long it’s been since you last sinned leads to self-focus and a preoccupation with your personal performance. It’s an unhealthy focus and it doesn’t accomplish God’s purposes in our life.

The question we need to answer, is “Have I been set free from the power of sin?”. This will lead us to focus on God Himself, to examine what His word declares about who we are in Christ and what God has accomplished for us through His great salvation.

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Is Sin A Big Deal To God?

Sin is a major topic in the Bible. The words sin, evil, and wicked appear more than 2,300 times in their various forms, and this doesn’t even include the numerous times specific sins are mentioned. This level of communication from God indicates just how important this issue is to Him, and how much He desires His people to have a proper understanding of sin. Yet, despite this abundance of communication, many believers have a misguided, unbiblical perception of sin.

Reading an article that focuses on sin may not be that appealing, but I pray you will commit to reading all of this because it addresses some foundational truths that are vital to our walk with the Lord. And at its core this article isn’t really about sin, it’s about becoming all that God desires us to be.

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Leadership vs Discipleship

Leadership is about people leading people. Discipleship is about people following Christ. These are distinctly different things. The goal of leadership is to organize and direct people so they can be utilized as a resource. The goal of discipleship is for people to grow into the fullness of who they are in Christ. The Bible places a strong emphasis on discipleship. On leadership… not so much.

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The Downside Of Topical Preaching

Topical preaching is the most common approach to ministering God’s word. This means the speaker chooses a topic they want to preach on, and then they select scriptures that will be utilized to present their topic to their audience. In some churches, each sermon will be based on different, random topics, while some churches will do topical series, where several sermons will focus on a particular topic. But both of these methods utilize topical preaching, with the speaker choosing the topic they want to focus on.

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Finding God’s Plan

Over the years I’ve had lots of conversations with people who were concerned about figuring out God’s plan for their life. Often, they would be frustrated or even anxious because they weren’t getting answers to their questions. But usually, the things they were so intently focused on were things like, where they should live, what career they should pursue, who they should marry, you know… the natural, physical, temporary things of this life. Jesus said the pagans run after all these things, but believers should seek first the kingdom of God ¹.

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Does The Bible Endorse Pastors Leading The Church?

Most churches today are led by a pastor. And this person is the defining influence on that church. Their leadership will shape what that church believes and what it does. The very personality of the church will reflect the pastor who leads it. This person will also be the face of that church, being the most visible representation of that church to the community.

If we’re doing this right, if the preeminence of pastors is the biblical way for churches to be governed, then pastors should be as prominent in the Bible as they are in today’s church. But instead of having a pronounced presence in the New Testament revelation of the church, pastors are only mentioned once in the Bible, and some translations don’t mention them at all. Instead of having a strong presence in the scriptures, pastors are strangely absent. It’s as if they don’t exist.

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God Says “Don’t Be A Mule”

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV)

What a remarkable declaration of the authority of the scriptures, and the power they have to make us righteous, to make us complete, and to equip us to do God’s work. But it’s imperative that we approach the Bible with the right attitude if we are to fully benefit from all that God has to say to us.

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God’s Ways Accomplish God’s Goals

When reading through the New Testament it jumps out how passionately the early church engaged in prayer and teaching the word. In the book of Acts, it says they devoted themselves to teaching and to prayer. The word devoted means to persevere, to be constantly diligent and steadfastly attentive to. Prayer and teaching weren’t things they occasionally squeezed in among a variety of other activities. Prayer and teaching were front and center, and they constantly engaged in these spiritual activities.

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