Lullaby, lullaby,

Lullaby, lullaby,
Do not wake and weep;
Softly in the cradle lie,
Sleep, O sleep!
Softly in the cradle lie,
Sleep, my darling, sleep.

This seems to be the clamor of the emergent church; it would appear that they want you to be comfortable, to wear your facade, to be never changing, to be comfortable in the darkness of your sins. With statements like “We don't teach from Books of the Bible because it gets in the way of evangelism.” No wonder Christianity is in such a way, such a perverse way.

Let it be known, let this be proclaimed from the highest peak, with the loudest voice! Scripture never gets in the way! It leads the way, it lights the way, it is our schoolmaster. It should be taught, it should be loved, adored, and respected and it should be the prominent in our personal library’s and be the book most worn. While this is “of my opinion” it for the most part is a command of Christ. In Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB95)
¹⁸ And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (emphasis mine).

How can we go and make disciples and teach them to observe all that is commanded, if we do not use the Bible? We must teach! What must we teach, what Christ taught and what the apostles taught!

Maybe there is some confusion… about what a disciple is. Let us look real quick at two definitions for Disciple the first is from “Easton’s Bible dictionary”. It defines Disciple in respect to being a disciple of Christ as follows; “A disciple of Christ is one who (1) believes his doctrine, (2) rests on his sacrifice, (3) imbibes his spirit, and (4) imitates his example (Matt. 10:24; Luke 14:26, 27, 33; John 6:69).”

In the “New Bible Dictionary” it states the following, “A disciple (from Lat. discipulus, ‘pupil, learner’, corresponding to Gk. mathētēs, from manthanō, ‘to learn’) is basically the pupil of a teacher”

And from Strong’s concordance it show us that a disciple was some one who was “learned, or one that was taught”

So, even from the basics we can so clearly see that if one wants to be and do as instructed by Christ Himself, “Go and make disciples” we must also, as Christ commanded TEACH them. And that which we teach them is scripture, we do bible studies, so they can know the real power of God in their lives by seeing a radical change in who they were to who they are to be. God may want them the way they are but He does not want to keep them there!

In 1 Timothy 4:16 Paul admonishes Timothy to” Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. (emphasis mine).

There is the goal, is it not? Put the Bible on the shelf and you will have shelved Salvation, for both yourself and those who hear you.

I heard this quote and do not know who to give credit for it, but it is ever so true. “The world does not need a NEW definition of Christianity, it needs a NEW demonstration of it.”

So, I leave you with final thought and a quote form Ian Paisley, first the thought, when did a preacher become so much smarter than the Author of the book to tell Him we do not need to use it, it gets in the way? When did the messenger become more important than the Message? When did the preacher reign on High, so as to tell the Almighty that he knows better? Friends, life is from and through the Cross of Jesus Christ. There is no other way, to the Father, no other way to teach, than that which is commanded by our LORD. Return to the Scriptures, hold them as they ought to be held, with both hands, in love, wonder and awe, with respect and admiration for the Blood stained pages for which the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords died, so we could know Him and His Glory. For truly that is what it is about… His Glory!

May you be moved, may you be blessed, if needed may you repent and return to your first Love. Now the quote form Ian Paisley,

“The church of Jesus Christ is largely sleeping, like a great bedroom and you have all the Christians in bed and they’re all sleeping ... and they’re saying "Please, don't wake me up! I want to sleep on!" And of course when God starts to operate a revival people cannot sleep, you can't sleep in church when the Spirit of God awakes the people. Look at the 1st verse of this 52nd chapter (Isaiah 52) ..."Awake! Awake! Put on strength!" Wake it up! You're sleepy Christians! Awake thou that sleepeth, Arise from the dead! Christ will give you life!”

-Ian Paisley

May we all by the power of the Lord be awakened to the Power, Relevance and everyone’s need of…The Word of God!