Apathy And The Lord 's Vineyard

This shows that in unity one another together are what help bring out the Word of God, which is “Solum Verbum Dei.’

Although some want a Church with no weeds, the Church is made up of broken, fallen people: Yes, people like you and I. The beauty of it is that God gracefully accepts us and we gracefully accept one another; yet, some want to weed the Church and the world before God does. When we pass final judgment before God does, we arrogate ourselves to be God and destroy the good along with the bad (Matthew 13:36-43).

Early Sunday morning, people shuffle in through the mahogany doors as the smell of Frankincense and Myrrh tickle the nose. Rays of sunlight beam through the stained glass windows, making rainbow images on the red velvet carpet. What sounds like the voices of angels singing praise to the lord harmoniously circulates in the air. A mighty voice roars from the altar, “Now, let us bow our heads in prayer.” This is a majestic place where one can find peace, confess sins and thank the lord for all of the blessings he has bestowed upon them.

As we enter a new Church year and the season of Advent, the time is now to prepare our hearts to more fully experience the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We must rid ourselves of those attitudes and behaviors that prevent God from making a dwelling place among us. Let us take to heart the words of Jesus and “…stay awake! For [we] do not know on which day [our] Lord will come.”

Worshipping in community gatherings is important because it brings unity within God’s people. Foster proclaims, “when the people of God meet together, there often comes a sense of being “gathered” into one mind, becoming of one accord (Phil.

Worship has transformed throughout time. The views that various cultures have on what it means to worship have become a controversial topic and a battle known as the worship wars. Could this battle be the plot of the enemy to drive God’s army apart? Despite the brokenness worship wars has brought to the church over several decades, this last year has shown a near resolution to the war.

The sermon started well: I had managed to capture my congregation's attention and had communicated all I had intended to when all of a sudden, I became self-conscious . My stage fright came rushing back and I started crying. This event prompted me to join The Lectors Association.

As many of us agree, God concerns the Christian workers more than the ministry works. The spiritual health condition of a church planter determines the health of the church. It is very important for the church planter to invest time and effort on his soul. We lead more out of who we are than out of what we do. Therefore, we should deal with our inner being in order to expand God’s kingdom through our outer deeds.

9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

As the clock struck 8 o’clock we all hurried to our seats throughout the stadium, hoping that the general session wouldn’t start before we reached our seats. This great session starts out with popular speaker Mark Hart spreading his wide words, and preparing us for the main event of the evening, Adoration. However, even though he tried to prepare us for what we were going to go through, I don’t think we could completely comprehend the magnitude of what was to proceed. We were led in Adoration by Father Louis Merosne who exposed us to Christ

Nevertheless, Icenogle emphasizes, "Where there is no community, there is no ministry. Where there is no ministry, there is no community. If we will not attend to one another, like Cain, we will destroy one another." (105) To experience community with each other in a small group there are struggles with leaderships. However, God desires for believers to show compassion and be in a relationship with one another.

A primary reason parishes are dying today is because the music and language of Christian worship rarely mirror the commonly understood idioms of the host culture. Assemblies today are guilty of preserving the Gospel's idiom rather than proclaiming its content. As a result, assemblies end up showing too much mercy toward themselves (the indoctrinated) - who do not need it - and too little mercy to spiritually starving outsiders who do.

To begin with, the sermon is given out in a church. The audience where the people who attended the church, but he also spoke in general. During the sermon he brings up a situation that says, “Have you ever heard people that – you know, and I’m sure you’ve met them -- that really become sickening because they just sit up all the time talking about themselves. And they just boast and boast and boast, and that's the person who has not

Far too often, in this emerging new culture, we want to treat God as friend, and not as creator and sustainer. Humans are flawed fleshly beings, therefore whenever in the true presence of God a transformation from old to new should occur. We should feel so convicted about our transgressions until we have an earnest desire to change. The flesh dies and slowly loses control of our lives, leaving the Holy Spirit to freely dwell. Ironically enough the next topic he mentioned was praise. He talked about a song which was sung by the choir “Praise is what we do” and he couldn’t understand the relevance behind these words. Once again, I slowly raised my hand and injected that praise is what we do, worship transcends beyond these parameters as an act of honoring and revering God. Worship is the entire church experience. Before I could elaborate further, he quickly indicated it was time to close out and we didn’t have time for further discussion. This Sunday School experience demonstrated the necessity for us to educate those persons who uphold leadership positions in the Church. If the Sunday school teacher had simply taken the time to research the answers to his questions, he would have been properly equipped to lead the discussion. It saddened me to realize that in essence it was the blind leading the blind. In a situation such as this, it is imperative that

True Christians needs to understand that leaving an empty seat is a decision that only affects you, but it also affects the next generation. This book especially attempts to appeal to those Christians who once occupied their seats, but then failed to keep their promise.