I am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God and returning to God, just hovering over the great gulf, till, a few moments hence, I am no more seen: I drop into an unchangeable eternity. I want to know one thing–the way to heaven, how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. For this very end he came from heaven. He has written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it. Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri (“a man of one book”). Here then I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone. Only God is here. In his presence I open, I read his book–for this end, to find the way to heaven. (John Wesley, as quoted by James Montgomery Boice, Romans, Vol. 1, p 34)

This is going to seem very minor and petty to some.  But I think it reflects a theological problem.  I have noticed that people use this phrase, “Jane is in love with Jesus,” or some similar phrase.  It bothers me because the preposition “in” is an import from our lost and dying culture. It is never found in Scripture.  In our world people fall in love and out of love everyday–sometimes the same person.  Being in love is about a feeling and feelings are fragile and easily damaged.  Is this how we really want to describe our relationship to God?

I much prefer for us to simply say, “Jane loves Jesus.”  It seems so slightly different but there is actually a chasm of meaning between the two.  Love, defined by Scripture, is something that is enduring and permanent.  Certainly one can grow in love but it is not something that ends.  Love is a disposition toward someone, not just our feelings about them. A disposition involves our whole being, it is at the core level of our values. No doubt, it is always good that our feelings line up with our disposition toward someone but sometimes they don’t. Some years ago, a man told me, “I love my son, but right now I don’t like him much.”  It was a turbulent time in the life of a teenage boy who was rebelling against his father.  Here the love of this father was unshaken even when emotionally he was not happy with his son.  Eventually as the boy grew up, matured, his father not only liked him again, he was very proud of him.  While his emotions moved from place to place, his love was always unshaken.

Real love does this kind of thing.  The pretend-love of today is that if I love someone, I must approve of everything they do.  So parents are permissive, schools are permissive, churches are permissive and so the average Christian is permissive.  This is not the kind of love that we find in Scripture.  While love is long suffering, it never gives in and calls good bad and bad good (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ).  The waiting father did just that, he waited for his son to return, he did not lower his standards and join his son in his sin (Luke 15:11-24).  Love calls for the best in each of us.  Real love as found is Scripture is best seen in the words, “Christ died for our sins.”  Love is an action, it is sacrificial and it puts the other person first. God never dumb downs his moral standards but his radical love for us lead him to become flesh, die for us, and rise from the grave.  He was not just in love with us, he loved us to the superlative degree.

My wife loves me deeply and I love my wife.  I know that because after 33 years of marriage she is still with me.  While I was younger, I was not too bad looking, but as I have aged, hair has sprouted from my ears, I am very overweight, I walk a little bit like a chimp, and I think I am shorter!  Yet, she still loves me.  If she was merely just in love with me, she would have left a long time ago because what she loved then is no more.  And that I think, it the fatal flaw for a Christian to use such language when we talk about loving God.  The world knows what it means to be in love but it is not too sure of what it means to love, particularly as God loves us and as we are trying to learn to love him.  While God does not change, our perceptions of him do.  We find that God permits us to suffer or allows bad things to happen to us and we are not so in love anymore.  We beg God for something and never get it, are we still in love now?

When we love God, we are involved in  a divine act.  As we are being transformed by Christ through his grace, and we learn to love. We learn to love the way God loves us.  We learn to love others with a divine love.  We learn to love with a love that cannot end, will not die, or never grow old.  We are all in the same category here.  We all must learn to love.  Though I believe we all love something or someone with real love because we are made in the image of God, even that love is distorted.  It is always, to some degree, selfish.  But when we become the subject of God’s love, we learn something entirely new.  Our Christian life becomes one long journey of love.

I hope I am not perceived as petty.  What I want is for people to draw from the rich well of the love of God and drink deeply.  Once we do, we are never just merely in love with Jesus, we deeply, directly love him.

Jessica Bryan’s CD will be out in mid July.  These are a few songs that have only been heard at Church once or twice.  Both Jessica and her husband, Dave, are very talented musicians and both hold the Master of Music degree.  Jessica has been writing music since high school.  Dave also writes and arranges music. I look forward to what God is going to do with the gifts he has given to both of them.

What Will It Take To Keep You From Jesus: I asked Jessica to find music to go with a sermon I preached, titled What Will It Take To Keep you From Jesus? She could not find a song, so, Saturday night before Church she wrote this one.

The Battle is a song about dealing with sin

For God So Loved the World, is Jessica’s take on John 3: 16

The Way EverLasting is the title cut from the CD

Cheap grace is grace without a price, grace without cost.  The essence of grace, we suppose is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. . . . Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system.  it means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth. . . It means the justification of the sin without the sinner…. The world goes on in the same old way, and we are still sinners even in the best of life. . . Instead of following Christ, let the Christian enjoy the consolation of his grace!  That is what is meant by cheap grace, the grace that amounts to the justification of the sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs.  Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin.  Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. (Cost of Discipleship, p. 45-47)

Our salvation is too costly to trivialize. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was one of the founding members of the Confessing Church started in Germany in opposition to the culturally compromised state church that supported the rise of Hitler. Helmut Thielicke was a contemporary of Bonheoffer and fellow member of the Confessing Church. Thielicke used the device he called the Borderline Situation to expose all the weaknesses and questions hidden by an idea or cultural situation. Being a Confessing Christian in the midst of Nazi Germany was certainly borderline situation in which Bonhoeffer’s faith and theology were tested to the extreme.  The experience focused his thinking on the Christian life which he expresssed in his book, Cost of Discipleship. These were no armchair observations.He wrote from the deep dungeon of oppression and suffering.  Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging at Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 9, 1945 shortly before its liberation.

Whether or not you agree with a martyr’s theology, you have to hold them in great respect for giving their life for the Gospel. God himself prizes those who die for the faith. When Bonheoffer wrote about the nature of grace, he wrote as one who had been refined by the fires of Hitler’s hell. Certainly we should hear him in our generation and be deeply moved. And perhaps we should be reminded that in any generation, we can cheapen our faith by our own behavior or we can be persecuted by others. It is good to hear again what he had to say.

Our salvation is costly, it is costly grace. costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go an sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price for which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. Such grace is costly is because it calls us to follow and is grace because it causes us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin and it is grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his son: ” ye were bought with a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the incarnation of God.” (Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 47-48)

Adapted from my Easter sermon, 2001

It is a difficult world in which we live.  The issues go from absurdity to absurdity.  On any given day, we hear about shootings and attempted shootings at our public schools.  Grade school children write up “hit” lists of people they want to kill.   We know something about the unfairness of life and the self destruction of a society.  We know what it is like to hurt and suffer without understanding.  But we still cling to our hopes in this terrible darkness.  We do so because, even in the terrible shadows of death, we still recognize him. Like a Lighthouse, we can still see him in the storm.

We can understand the confusion and hurt felt by the Disciples.  Some were hiding in fear for their lives. The two disciples in our text, one named Cleopas and the other one unnamed, got up on Sunday morning and headed home to Emmaus.  Emmaus was west of Jerusalem about seven miles.

They were just out of town when a Stranger joined them.  This Stranger approached them while they were still talking about the weekend’s events.  “What are you discussing together as you walk along,” the Stranger asked?  Luke said that they stood there looking sad.  You can feel their pain.  This word “sad” draws a word picture of someone with a sorrowful countenance.  It is a look that reflects a dark, empty place in our soul, a look that cannot be hidden because our hope is gone.

Cleopas finally answered, “Are you such a stranger to Jerusalem that you do not know what has been happening here in the last few days?”  Cleopas was exasperated, how could he not know?  But it was Cleopas who did not know, his eyes could not see that the Stranger was Jesus.

So Cleopas explained it to him.  It was about Jesus of Nazareth.  He was a prophet from God.  He did mighty things like healing the sick and raising the dead.  But the chief priests and the rulers delivered him up and they crucified him.  “We were hoping that he would deliver Israel,” but now he is dead, it has been three days.  All of their hope was gone.

This Stranger who seemed so ignorant began to explain things to them.  “Foolish men and slow of heart to believe,” have you not read the prophets, don’t you know they said that the Messiah must suffer in order to enter his glory?  Jesus, beginning with Moses, explained all the things concerning what the Messiah must experience.  You would have thought that by this time they would have guessed who Jesus was.  But their grief was too deep and the disappointment too great, they had ears but could not hear, they had eyes but could not see.

They arrived at Emmaus and it was late, so they asked him to stay with them.  Jesus went with them.  When it was time to eat, Jesus took the loaf bread and blessed it and broke it into pieces and began to hand it to them.  Suddenly their eyes were opened, it was Jesus!  At that point Luke tells us that Jesus vanished from their sight.

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the Scriptures to us?”  Their eyes were opened, they had known something was different about this man but they could not see.

These words, “were not our heats burning,”  are interesting.  The word burning means to glow like an ember.  Their faith was like small embers and as Jesus taught, the Spirit blew across their hearts and the embers became a glowing fire.

This was too great a thing to keep to themselves.  So they returned to Jerusalem to the very room where they knew that the eleven and the other believers would be.  Bursting in, “The Lord has really risen, and has appeared to Simon,” even before they could open their mouths, they found that the others had seen Jesus as well.  So they shared their story, how they recognized Jesus when he broke the bread.

What happened?  What opened their eyes and caused them to run back to Jerusalem?  The answer is, they experienced the resurrection.  But, notice that it took Jesus to open their eyes.  It was only after Jesus broke bread that they could see.  There was something in the act of blessing that revealed to them that the Stranger who walked with them was Jesus raised from the dead.  Maybe for the first time they looked at him.   Maybe they heard his tone of voice.  But it was God who opened their eyes.  And it is the same for every person who comes to Jesus by faith. God opens their eyes and only then can they recognize him.
Do you recognize him?  He is the promised Messiah.  Can you see him?  He is the light of the world. He is the Vine and we are the branches and all who abide him will never die.  Do you know him?

In a world of ugliness he is our Rose of Sharon, the Bright, Morning Star. He is all that is graceful and beautiful and true.  He is the King of Glory, our creator and sustainer and all things are through him. He is the Door and though him we enter the Kingdom of God. He is the bread of life who feeds our souls.  He is the good Shepherd who gives us every good thing. He is the resurrection and the life, the First and the Last, the first of all things.  Do you recognize him?

“In Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form,  and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.”  “He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”  Do you recognize him?

Jesus is our Passover.  He is the Lamb that takes away our sins.   He is our redemption, our propitiation, our substitute, our sacrifice, our ram caught in the thicket. He is our justifier who makes us right before the Father.  He is our sanctification who makes us holy. He is our glory and he causes eternity to flow through our veins.  Do yo recognize him?

The Historians have tried to eradicate him and the theologians have tried to explain him away.  The skeptics have twitched at his memory and the atheists have sneered at his name.  But, the soldiers could not destroy him, the grave could keep him. And he rules in the lives of literally millions who believe in him.  He storms the enemy’s gates and sets us free. He is the dragon slayer who destroyed Satan’s rule.  He plunged onto the bowels of hades and plowed open a hole so that his children can follow him into eternity.  Do you recognize him?

He is our eternal King at whose name every knee will bow.  John said:
And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war.  And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself.  And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God . . .   And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

He is the Sovereign King.   One day he will come, not as Savior, but as Judge and will judge the quick and the dead. He will separate the sheep from the goats, the holy ones from the dammed. And those who love his coming will reign with him in eternity.  And those who are his enemy will be cast into outer darkness, separated from him forever.

Do you recognize him? Have your eyes been open? Do you have eyes that see and ears that hear?  He is your Savior, your Lord and your King.

I was flipping through the TV a minute ago and saw briefly some church doing another Easter Drama.  This was not a choir singing but an elaborate well staged drama with people boldly acting out their parts.

I am not a fan of biblical movies and dramas or even novels for that matter.  Dramas of Easter diminish their subject.  I have sat with the dying enough to know that a drama or even a movie cannot capture the horrible moment when a friend, a loved one, even a stranger dies.  Whether or not there is blood spurting or a whithered face gone pale, the moment a life leaves a body, quite or dramatic, is something that rolls in you mind forever, a reality that you wish never to relive, never to remember again.

After the drama is over, the accolades begin, the false humility exudes.  All the glory focuses on the people who performed.  And the subject of the drama fades as the spot lights fade.  At this moment, there are lives being destroyed, self destructing and no drama, no movie can save them. Whenever someone tells me a movie changed their lives I run away from it because I know that a false god is being proclaimed.  When I hear how wonderful some preacher is or some ministry is, I know that something is wrong.  Unless the glory goes to Christ, unless we see that it is he who redeems and saves and frees us and empowers us, then we have misplaced fame and glory.  We have assigned what belongs to God alone to another.

Rituals remind us of the grim reality of Easter. The bread and the cup relive the drama.  Good Friday services tell the story again. Through the words of Scripture we hear the condemning words, the acts of betrayal, the pounding of hammers, the weeping of women.  Through Scripture we see the darkness fall, the false compassion of sponges of vinegar, the cry of forsakenness, and then those words of triumph, “It is Finished!”  The Word preached goes forth in the power of the Holy Spirit and renews our minds and replenishes our soul.  We do not need the editorial eye of the camera to understand the destruction of thorns, and whips and nails and wood.  However, we also know that the physical is only the surface, the tip of the iceberg.  How can a drama capture the fact that God (who dwelt in eternal bliss) chose to become man and then die for us? But more so, how can a drama capture the fact that the God-Man became sin for us.  The older I get the more I understand the sewage of the soul and how utterly repulsive our sin must be to God.  Yet, God became sin, became our scapegoat, our substitute, our lamb.  The God-man submitted to this soteriological end for sinners like us, experiencing death, even perhaps hell for our sakes. Good Friday is the ultimate expression of Love and Grace.  No drama, no movie will ever capture this reality.

While Resurrection Sunday should be filled with Joy, Great Joy, Good Friday should be a day of sorrow.  What a bittersweet sorrow.

Man of sorrows! What a name
for the Son of God, who came
ruined sinners to reclaim!
Alleluia! What a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
in my place condemned he stood;
sealed my pardon with his blood:
Alleluia! What a Savior!

Guilty, helpless, lost were we;
spotless Lamb of God was he:
full atonement-can it be?
Alleluia! What a Savior!

Lifted up was he to die;
‘It is finished!’ was his cry;
now in heaven exalted high:
Alleluia! What a Savior!

When he comes, our glorious King,
all his ransomed home to bring,
then anew this song we’ll sing:
Alleluia! What a Savior!

Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876)

Over 20 years ago, I wrote my doctoral dissertation on The Doctrine of Man in the Theology  Helmut Thielicke.  Today Thielicke is almost forgotten by the younger seminary students.  But he was an important figure in the 20th century.  He was second only to Karl Barth in literary output.  A short, (it appears to be an English translation of a German wiki article) biography can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Thielicke

I was fascinated by Thielicke because he ministered in what we call today a post modern culture.  One can only imagine ministering in a nation that had gone murderously insane and then to minister to that same culture after its fall.  How do you tell about Jesus to a culture that is in despair?  How do you return a nation to its theological and moral roots?  Even in the 1970s one could see something like this coming to our nation.  The following is taken from the introduction of my dissertation.

The cultural and spiritual situation of pre- and post-war Germany had a lasting effect upon Thielicke’s theology.  He protested Nazi thought, and his outspokenness endangered his life both before and during the war.  He was critical of the German Church for its capitulation to Hitler.  After the war the reigning thought forms in Germany were secularism, nihilism, and despair; and Thielicke addressed these issues in written and oral form.  Because modern culture must be addressed, Thielicke felt that good theology must be preachable.  It was with the goal of proclamation in mind that Thielicke wrote much of his theology as well as his sermons.  Thielicke believed that God marches throughout sacred history.  God moved in the Old Testament; he marched past the cross, and he marches into modern times.  It is the theologian’s job to help men see God as he passes by:

Thus I express my conviction that we should portray to men the poor garment of the Crucified only in such a way that we expound to them at the same time the rustling of the mantle of God in our age.  God does not merely speak; He also marches.  And why should we not venture, why should we not have to venture, to speak of this marching when we have set ourselves under the disciplines of His Word? . . . And perhaps theologians out of the pulpit, even more than preachers in it, are summoned today to hear the command of the hour and to become Socratic theologians, who will move through the markets and shelters and guard posts and command stations, and there, questioning and answering, often maintaining silence when others speak, from man to man, let this Word shine as a light in the darkness of events. (Out of the Depths, pp 22-23)

For Thielicke, theology always must address the present age.  Consequently, modernity always will have a formative influence on theology.  Theology does not capitulate to culture but always addresses culture in such a way that the gospel can be understood. (R. Davis)

We would do well to listen to Thielicke.  Theology always addresses a culture.  We are called to confront each generation with the cause of Christ.  We must speak clearly and we must be honest. Our message is too serious to pull any punches.   Every generation needs to be reminded that we are fallen sinners guilty before God and that God himself has undertaken the most incredible veture of becoming flesh and paying the price for our sins.  Our work as pastors and theologians is necessary for a world in dire need.  may we all be found faithful, not to entertain the masses, but to make clear the Gospel so that it may be understood.

Recently a friend of mine asked the question, “can we experience worship?”   I answered, “no, but we might experience God in worship.”  He said the reason he asked the question, a local church had on its sign, “Come and experience our worship!”

I thought about it for a few days and called him back.  I said, “Yes, you can experience worship, when people fall down and worship you.”

This question helped me to clarify what I find wrong with modern worship.  Worship is supposed to be our expression of the worth of God.  In worship we glorify God, praise, and celebrate him even as we fellowship with him.  However, when worship is focused on the audience instead of God, worship is given to the audience.  I use the word audience on purpose because a congregation is an assembly of the People of God intent on worship.  But when the worship is focused on the people, it is hard to call them a congregation.

Let me be clear.  This is not about musical styles. It is not about old music vs. new music. Traditional churches and formal churches can be as guilty as contemporary churches.  I am opposing any worship which is designed to be inoffensive to the audience at the expense of Scriptural truth.  One church that I am familiar with is made up primarily of senior adults. They have stated that they do not want a pastor who will preach the Gospel to them.  They want someone who will make them feel good and entertain them.  This issue is not about age or style.

Many churches will go as far as removing any signs and symbols that represent the Christian faith.  Churches remove crosses and remove the pulpits to be less offensive. Confession of sin, prayer and Scripture reading are  removed as well.  Preaching, if there is any preaching, revolves around typical self help topics that range from finance to sex.  In recent days, pastors have ridden up on the podium on a Harley.  One placed a sports car on the podium and proclaimed that your wife is like an expensive sports car.  Recently, several churches made the news by preaching on sex and encouraging all married couples to have sex every day for a week.

No doubt that a number of these issues need to be taught to Christians as part of a discipleship program.  But we cannot pretend that this is worship.  The glory and honor and worship expressed has nothing to do with God and everything to do with the audience.

Several years ago, church leaders decided that the church was no longer relevant to the world.  Of course this presupposes that the church was ever relevant to society.  I would argue in the other direction, society, culture, is not relevant to God.  It is the church’s responsibility to make people relevant to God through the very unpopular act of bearing witness to Jesus.

However, when you think the church is no longer relevant, then you will do what you think is relevant to the lost culture.  Thus, the seeker service was born.  The seeker service went one step beyond the church growth movement.  The center piece of the church growth movement involved demographic studies and the homogeneous principle.  You study the demographics of an area and you cater your church to a certain group of people based on class, status, income level and even race.  Seeker service oriented churches dropped the homogeneous principle and adopted the need to be relevant to culture. Using H. Richard Niebuhr model from his Christ and Culture, it is no longer Christ against culture, it is not even Christ transforming culture.  It is now, Christ and culture.  In fact, is all about adopting culture and dropping some key elements of church.

All too often the new view of church meant a weakening of the church’s primary message and adopting an appeal to works as a means of pleasing God and feeling good about ourselves. So good deeds became our gospel.   Today mission trips, working in soup lines, passing out food, etc. are considered acts of Gospel proclamation.  They are certainly righteous acts but it is not the Gospel.  When God calls us to give a cup of water to the thirsty, food to the hungry, clothing to the naked, it was not to be a substitute for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Social action is part of our lifestyle but it is not our primary mandate.  If you want to change a life, giving food will fill them for a few hours.  The Gospel will transform their lives.  However, it is the very least thing that Christians do.  Furthermore, it is the most feared act that any church can ask of its members.

The proclamation of the Gospel includes the fact that we are lost and that we have real guilt before God.  It also includes that idea that we have no standing before God; rather, God’s wrath is poured out on us until we are redeemed.  But the good news is that Jesus died on the cross as our substitute, as our sacrifice.  His blood was spilled in order to cover our sins and to pay the price for our sins.  Thus, we have biblical words like ransom, redemption, and propitiation.  The primary message of the church is not social action.  It is good to do good deeds.  The primary outward purpose is to tell the world what God has done about our sin.

The primary inward function of the church is worship.  But, in this new scheme, worship is almost eliminated from church.  The music is almost always “me” centered.  Of course this was true of many nineteenth and twentieth century gospel songs.  Music moved from the glory of God to the glory of what God has done for man to the glory of man.  Confession of sin is seen as negative. The reading of Scripture is not necessary and prayer is boring.  So, worship focuses on telling the congregation how good they are, making them feel good, lifting their self esteem and expressing their value before God.  This is not the worship of God but the worship and adoration of the audience.  Some will say that we have to do these things so that we can earn their trust and then we can witness to them.  Never mind that this is not the biblical model because we take our cues from society not Scripture.  The biblical model is we come in to worship and we go out to witness and proclaim Jesus as Lord.

Worship is the people of God assembling before God to bring praises and honor to him.  It should always contain confession of sin.  How could the body of Christ approach God without confession of sin?  It must contain praise and honor and glory to God for his person.  And it should also contain our recognition of what God has done for us.  These should be done through music and Scripture reading and through prayer.

The other element of worship that needs to be reformed and revived is the act of preaching.  There can be no substitute of good, expositional preaching.  I know that it seems odd for someone to stand before the church and speak for thirty minutes (if you are lucky) and expect people to come and hear.  But this is the biblical model.  And God has promised that his word would not return to him void.  God has chosen the weakness of a man through the silliness of peaching, as the means of feeding the church.

Preaching is incarnational. God is present in the preaching of his word.  The Holy Spirit goes forth in our preaching and accomplishes the intended work of God in the life of his people.  It may not be good preaching according to homiletical standards, but if it is biblical preaching the word goes forth and it accomplishes work of God.  As part of worship we are called upon to submit ourselves to the authority of the preaching of the Word of God.

I have watched the two distinct groups in church, those who attend worship regularly and submit themselves to the preaching of the Word and those who do not.  There is a tremendous difference between the two.  Those who worship regularly and listen to the preaching of Scripture have stronger marriages, they have less trouble with their kids, they tend to be less materialistic and they give more of themselves to others than those who refuse to worship.  And quite often, they do their deeds in secret and rarely do you hear them bragging about what they have done and how good it makes them feel.

I am just a simple pastor and my observations are far from scientific.  But I think my observations are true and they seem to agree with other pastors when we compare notes on the life of the church.

I also know that my message will not be positively received by a large number of people.  I will seem as old-fashioned and out of touch.  I may even be seen as somehow less “spiritual” because I do not go along with the crowd.  However, I will take my stand here on Scripture alone.  I urge other pastors to read Scripture in one hand and compare what the churches are doing in the other and weep over the difference.  But, don’t weep too long for you have work to do.  It will be a life consuming work of preaching and challenging and calling God’s people to repentance. May God bless you as you fulfill you calling of proclaiming Jesus until he comes again.