-I returned this past Monday night from a wonderful experience at the Messiah Temple Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago where my friend and brother Dr. Keith McGee serves as the Pastor for their 43rd Church Anniversary. Dr. McGee and the Messiah Temple Church treated me fabulously and the worship was outstanding. Whenever I visit a church for the first time, I am a little uneasy about what to say to the people, but the Lord directed me to an exposition that I preached at the First Mt. Zion Church some time ago, found in I Kings 18:17-21 which I tagged When Standing Up Means Standing Alone. The crux of that text is that if a people is willing to stand boldly for God even if they must stand alone, God is willing to bring a great victory into their lives. The Lord showed up and blessed the meeting. Pastor Romell Williams preached an outstanding message out of Matthew 21 regarding Jesus overturning the tables of the temple when we rode into Jerusalem which he tagged When Jesus Came to Church. I am convinced that Romell is one of the best in this country and I am proud to call both he and Keith McGee my friends.
-While I was away, one of the prayer warriors of the First Mt. Zion Family, Suzie Williams, went home to be with the Lord on Sunday Evening. Miss Suzie was a great soul who always let me know that she was both keeping her eyes on me and praying for me at the same time. She had no problem telling me when she didn't agree with a decision that I had made, but on the flip-side, she told me as long as I said that my decision was God-directed, then she would support me. I am truly appreciative for her honesty and her support and I will miss her greatly. This will be the most difficult homegoing celebration that I had to do at the church since I have been there, when we send her home on Monday. Please pray for the Williams Family, the First Mt. Zion Family and for me.
-I want to raise a couple of issues that I would really love to hear some feedback from the blogging community. These issues have been brought to me this week and they are the idea of reincarnation and the idea of voting in new members into the church. I want us to begin a rich dialogue about both of these ideas.
-I am looking forward to continuing our new series on the Model Prayer this Sunday which I call God's Blueprint for a Prayer-Filled Life, with our attempt at exposition of the first phrase of this prayer, Our Father in Heaven, found in Matthew 6:9. Please pray for the series and for me that I remain faithful to biblical exposition, sound doctrine and my calling to preach the word with power and conviction.
1 comment:
Peace and Blessings to you. I wanted to respond to request of creating dialogue on the issue voting in new members in the church. I must admit I'm not a fan of voting in the church at all. However, I know there some things that we must vote on, as church like by-laws new/ammended, loans, trustees, and re-location. That's as far as I believe it should go. As it relates to the church, I don't believe voting in new members into God's church. A few brief reasons will explain why: (1) It's not Biblical. No where in scripture do I find where we're commanded or exhorted to vote in membership into God's house. In Matthew 11, Jesus invites the restless and burden to come unto me and He will give rest for your soul. The promise in the text is that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Voting creates a burden of a win/lose situation where people can voice there dislike for person through voting and as Christians we're to edify one another. (2) It's systematic tradition - "The right hand of fellowship". Which could be considered as a form of voting in membership because if a person doesn't recieve the right hand fellowship in front of the congregation that could very well mean that they have not been accepted into the church. Voting is a win/lose situation for all parties involved that is not God's intended purpose for His church. Hebrews 10:19-25 exhorts us to create win-win situations in the church. Where everybody wins and no one loses. While I don't believe in voting in membership, I do believe new members class to introduce an individual to a church's beliefs/practices and then decision should be made by the elders of the church on an individual basis.
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