Sunday, August 14, 2011
Rebuilding the Temple of God: Ready to Give Answers
Topic: Church
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. (II Timothy 4:2 KJV) 
Our mission is not about how we can be in the world popularity contest, but it’s about spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to lost souls. There are many preachers today who travel around the world to share the Good News of Christianity, except the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to change our concept to spread the Words of God.
We need to be ready to open to share the Gospel to other people around us. In II Timothy 4:3-4 says, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” We cannot be like Joel Osteen, a pastor of Lakewood Community Church in Houston, Texas, who avoids teachings on sins, judgment, and the wrath of God. Even though God is a loving God, He is also God of justice.
In Proverbs 6:16-19 says, “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” We cannot let sins go unpunished. We need to correct from our errors before God would correct us. Sadly, today’s media evangelists would preach from unbiblical aspect of Christianity. Some churches may decide to do the communion each Sunday, which Roman Catholic Church practices this ritual.
We cannot be too religious of Christianity because that’s not all about. We need to train for ourselves by spending our time with God, and be alert to ready to give answers to those who questions about Christianity and our faiths in Jesus Christ.
Posted by MGJC Web Ministry
at 12:01 AM EDT
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Rebuilding the Temple of God: Be a Salt of the Earth
Topic: Church
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. (Matthew 5:13-14 KJV)
To rebuild the temple of God, we would need to be salt and light of this world for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Before He ascent to the Heaven, Jesus commended us to preach the gospel to the world (see Matthew 28:18-20). Even though we see many evangelists would go to other parts of the world, it doesn’t mean that they’d have successful mission trip. They would need to put extra effort to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let’s look Seven Statics on World Needs by Doug Nichols, Founder and International Director Emeritus of Action International Ministries:
- There are 28 million people in slavery worldwide; many are children and victims of human trafficking. 400,000 children are in slavery in Haiti. [“Finding Slavery in My Own Backyard”, by David Batstone. “Missions Frontiers”, September-October 2007 29:5, p.12]
- There are 3.2 million untrained or undertrained pastors throughout the world. Pray for missionary mentors and trainers to assist these needy pastors [www.topic.us].
- There are 100 million Christians living in persecution throughout the world [www.persecution.com].
- There are 145 million orphans worldwide. If one missionary (or one church) took responsibility for 1,000 orphans, there would, therefore, be a need for 145,000 missionaries (or individual churches) [www.viva.org; www.compassion.com; www.actioncic.org].
- There are 160 million street children, especially in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Thousands of missionaries and Christian workers are needed to take the Gospel and compassionate care to these needy children [www.actioninternational.org; www.actioncic.org].
- There are 200 million people worldwide on the move (referred to as the Diaspora) in search of employment and a better education, because of persecution and natural disasters, and so forth. Many are open to kindness and hospitality which opens the door for the Gospel [www.fin-online.org].
- There are three billion people worldwide with no nearby Christian or church to share the Gospel with them. They can only be reached by someone (a missionary) going to them with the Gospel. If one missionary went to 5,000 of these, there would be the need for 600,000 additional missionaries [www.actioninternational.org].
Resource: Spring 2011 Newsletter at www.epm.org.
If we’d look at all these numbers of people, we need more than one person to share the Gospel with them. Even though MGJC Web Ministries can touch millions of lives through today’s modern technologies, it cannot reach other millions of people, who don’t have access to computers.
It’s sad enough some today’s evangelists go and preach the gospel to the world for their recognition, such as Benny Hinn, Rick Warren, and Robert Schuler, Sr. We need to evangelize to proclaim the Words of God to people, who don’t know about Jesus Christ.
The number one of today’s world religion would be Islam. Why? They are evangelizing throughout the world, even though they are hurting millions of people. I believe September 11, 2001 terror attack on U.S. was their remark of spreading their gospel. After a decade later, we see some Christian leaders turn their faiths to Islam and rename the religion into Chrislam. This is sad.
We need to rebuild Christianity from the biblical (KJV) standard and not by someone else or any modern day of Bible versions. Some today’s Bible versions (NIV, CEV, MSG, TLB, NASB) are fulfilled with today’s manuscripts, which contains many constrictions with original manuscripts from the KJV (1611) Bible. To heal our land, we would need to return to God and begin to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ within our community before we’d reach the other parts of world.
Posted by MGJC Web Ministry
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Sunday, July 17, 2011
Rebuilding the Temple of God: The Apostasy Church
Topic: Church
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. (I Timothy 4:1-5 KJV)
The word “apostasy” is “a falling away from the faith.” We are living where some Christians may decide to give up their faiths in Christ and decide to follow the other ways to life. This message is specifically for believers to be ready for the return of Jesus Christ. Matthew 24:5 tells us that “many shall come in” His “name.” In a few moment, I’m going to name some evangelists who proclaim to be prophet of God or Messiah.
In Old Testament, we read how King Saul turned away from God and deceived his people. Unlike his successor, Saul didn’t learn from his mistakes. He kept trying to do his way to please others. We cannot keep try to please other people. Instead, we need to try to please God.
Recently, I watched one of Dr. Jack van Impe’s DVD on apostasy churches. In this DVD, Dr. Impe explained why some America churches are falling from the faith. Some churches have lost the fundamentalism of Christianity, such as virgin birth, Jesus’ baptism, ministry, death, and resurrection. Instead, many preachers teach on prosperity messages. Even though we need money to survive our lives, God wants us to be lived healthier life in both physical and spiritual. We just cannot have nice things to live for Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Right now, this maybe shocked you. If you’d visit TBN Bookstore, you’ll find a side by side book on the Bible and Qur’an. The description of this book says, “Many of the Bible's characters and stories are also found in the Qur'an, but there are often differing details or new twists in the Qur'an's retelling of biblical narrative. In this compelling book, seasoned theologian Michael Lodahl explores these fascinating divergences to discover the theological difference they make.Writing from a Christian perspective that is respectful of the Islamic tradition, Lodahl offers an accessible introduction to Muslim theology and to the Qur'an's leading themes to help readers better understand Islam. Lodahl compares and contrasts how the Bible and the Qur'an depict and treat certain characters in common to both religions, including Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. He offers theological reflection on doctrines held in common by Christians and Muslims, such as creation, revelation, and the resurrection of the body. Lodahl also explores the Jewish tradition as an important source for understanding the Qur'an.”
There is no common between the Bible and Qur’an. Islam is about summiting or surrender to that religion or else die. But the Christianity is about building a loving and personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Recently, Rick Warren spoke at the Islamic conference. In this conference, Warren wanted to build partnership with Christianity and Islam communities. It is also sad in his book, Purpose of the Driven Church, teaches us how to build secular world mega church rather than a place for us to come to worship God and fellowship with brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
As we see TBN, Rick Warren, and others are trying to make biblical Christian churches into One World Religion church. These and other apostasy churches/organizations are accountable when they’d come to the Judgment Seat of Christ.
As I said from previous message, the church has to be in unity with Christ and not separate from each other. We must stand against all these apostasy activities within our churches. If we’d see one or more apostasy activities, we must walk away from the churches or let us put pastors out from the churches.
Are you saved in Jesus Christ? If you’d like to know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, I’d like to encourage you to do two simple things. First, confess your sins and invite Jesus Christ to your life. Paul said in Romans 10:9-11, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” There is no sinner prayer formula. Instead, you just talk to God at where you are now. Secondly, I’d like to encourage you to find a good solid biblical teaching church and Christian friends. They can help you to build strong relationship with God.
Posted by MGJC Web Ministry
at 12:01 AM EDT
Friday, July 8, 2011
Rebuilding the Temple of God: Division of the Church of Christ
Topic: Church
For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. (I Corinthians 3:3-6 KJV)
There are many divisions are going on in today’s Christian churches as well as divisions of the Holy Bible. Instead we should be in unity with other Christian brothers and sisters in Christ, we are dividing from each other within church and family. No wonder why many Christians are pulling themselves from their home churches. “According to Rainer Research, 70 percent of youth leave church by the time they are 22 years old. Barna Group estimates that 80 percent of those reared in the church will be "disengaged" by the time they are 29 years old. Unlike older church dropouts, these young "leavers" are unlikely to seek out alternative forms of Christian community, such as home churches and small groups. When they leave church, many leave the faith as well.” (See Christianity Today article: The Ones Who WalkAway.)
Many Christians have decided to change the church because either they would itchy for the lifestyle messages or the preacher wouldn’t bring the truth from the Word of God. Either way, we are accountable what we have done when we would come to the Judge before we’d enter the eternality.
Sadly, we have too many divisions within the church. We have Baptist, Pentecostal, Seven Days of Advance, Mormonism, Church of God, Church of Christ, Calvary and many others. These church denominations are good, but when we’d try to believe certain biblical doctrines, then we would have problems in our hearts. For example, Baptist church doesn’t believe speaking in different tongue, even though it’s one of spiritual gifts in the Bible. Some denominational churches may proclaim that Roman Catholic Church is the sister of Christian churches, or we can combine Christian and Islam together. These are against the Word of God.
We must believe all the doctrines in the Bible and not portion of it. We also must not be embraced with other religions. Right now, TBN is starting to sell Quran (Islamic Bible) in their bookstores. I used to enjoy watching some TV programs on TBN during 90s, but when I heard what TBN was doing and some preachers tried to twist the Word of God, I stopped to watching of it. They are few good and solid preachers on any Christian TV channels. But when any preacher (your or mine) may try to manipulate to against the Bible, we may need to resign from that church. Not only the preachers are accountable, we also are accountable as well if we would decide to keep staying in the same church.
The church has to be in unity with Christ and not separate from each other.
Posted by MGJC Web Ministry
at 12:01 AM EDT
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Rebuilding the Temple of God: Defining the Church of God
Topic: Church
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:15-19 KJV)
Many Catholics use Matthew 16:19 as Peter is the cornerstone of the church. Even Jesus gave permission for Peter to start the church, it doesn’t means that he was the pope or cornerstone of all Christian churches. The word church means “a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly.” It is not about Peter or actual building.
Jesus wanted to establish the church that many people can come together to worship God and encourage each other. Some people may think that the Old Testament church is ceased. Even though we don’t do the animal sacrifice anymore, it does not mean the Old Testament church is useless. We still need present our sacrifice life to God. We still need to bring tithe for our storehouse. The ceremonial laws are fulfilled by Jesus Christ, but He summarized other laws with two simple commandments—love God and love people.
Church is not about building, but it’s about people who work for God to touch lives of other people into Christ.
Posted by MGJC Web Ministry
at 12:01 AM EDT
Monday, July 28, 2008
Build the Church Upon the Name of Jesus Christ
Topic: Church
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18 KJV)
In the past couple messages, I discussed about how today’s churches are corrupted by their denominational backgrounds. For example, the Church of God doesn’t believe the existence of the Trinity in the Bible. Or some churches believe in the doctrine of the spirit of water as the gospel message. If we believe that the spirit of water to access to God, how it can take us to the eternity? If we don’t believe the Trinity, how can we understand who made the wind, earth, and us? We have three parts as persons—spirit, soul, and physical body.
Many Catholic Churches use Mathew 16:18 recognize that Apostle Peter as the pope, who started the church. However, this verse does not say that. Jesus didn’t give permission for Peter to take the religious position. Jesus said that He will build His church upon the earth that the gates of hell cannot knock against it. His church is not a building, but His people. We are the church that Satan and the devils cannot break through.
You may the next statement as shock. There is no Scriptural reference for certain types of denominational church. None. The denominational church began at the reformation period and it meant separation between church groups. Let me say this: The Roman Catholic Church is not a denominational church, but it’s the pagan religion. Mormonism is not a Christian church, because they believe in the other gospels as the Latter Day of Saints. God doesn’t care about denominational churches. However, we cannot pick certain doctrine into our churches. We need the whole council of the Word of God.
Paul pointed out that Jesus is not separated (I Corinthians 3). If we are children of God, we are not supposed to be separated from each other. Do you know why we have so many bible versions? Some of us are trying to justify our sins as sinless. The New Century Version Bible, for example, omits the word gospel and replaces with Good News. Or we do not see the words, such as condemnation, fornication, ashamed, guilty, or sinful.
Many televangelists are falling apart from God. Sadly, we see that they put their names on the title of their ministries. I decided not to put my name as ministry, because 1) this web ministry is not about me, but God; 2) putting my name as ministry is sinned against God; and 3) it’s about bringing the people into the relationship with God.
Let me ask you. Are you building your church upon the Rock? If your church is sand and come to realize that you need to build it with the rock foundation, please surrender your life to Jesus Christ by asking Him forgiveness of your sins and invite Him to your life.
Posted by MGJC Web Ministry
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Saturday, June 21, 2008
Judgment Begins in the House of God
Topic: Church
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (I Peter 4:17 KJV)
Even though most of us don’t like to hear about the wrath of God begins in the Church, we need to take it seriously. Why did Peter write this warning down? There are several ways to answer this, but Jesus warned His apostles that there would be false prophets among the believers, who would try to lead us to the antichrist.
As we see today’s Christianity, we have become as the rest of this world and have been lukewarm our relationship with God. Many televangelists are becoming more popular to the world, because they teach the messages from the worldly view. Paul said in II Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
In Revelation 2-3, God warned these seven churches of Asia that He will judge them according to their works. God doesn’t care how many activities we do in the church. He does careless about our religious practices or selling Christian products. But He only wants to have relationship with us.
The judgment begins in the house of God first before He would judge the world.
Posted by MGJC Web Ministry
at 12:01 AM EDT
Friday, July 13, 2007
God’s Judgment Against the Leaders of His Church
Topic: Church
And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever. (I Samuel 3:11-14 KJV)
In the First Book of Samuel, we see how God used Samuel’s life to restore His people from their enemies. The book begins with the brief history of Eli the priest and his two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah gave birth some children to Eli, but Hannah didn’t until much later of Eli’s days. We do not know how long that Hannah waited for her firstborn child, but we do understand that she was a prayer warrior and had an intimate relationship with God.
After Hannah gave Eli a son, Samuel, she continually raised him in the way of the Lord and brought him back to her husband for further training as the priest. Here, we see that the first mistake which Eli made. That is, Eli didn’t take Samuel to raise him as the leader. We see that Eli didn’t take his duty seriously for God and His people. As we continue reading in Samuel 3, God called Samuel and told what He would plan to do to the house of Eli. In the next chapter, we see that Eli’s two sons died in the battle and himself as Samuel prophesied to him (Chapter 3).
We also need to be obedience and lead our people to God. The title of position doesn’t mean that we can relax and give the people some duties. We can’t do that. The reason why Eli dead is that he didn’t raise his sons right and didn’t correct their mistakes. If you read further in 1 Samuel, Samuel did the same thing as Eli.
If we look in today’s Christianity, we see that some churches may decide to be lazy to lead the people into God. Some preachers have decided to reject to teach the congregations on sins, judgment, hell and false teachers. Instead, they tickle their people’s ears by proclaiming only the smooth and good messages. It is deadly sin against God. We need the full council of the Word of God and not half of it.
This is the same thing on the presidential election. We cannot have our national leaders with 50 percent is considered as true and another is false statement. We need a president who is 100 percent honest and true to the nation and God. We can be sure this if the president would realize that our national capital has an idol and decide to knock the idol down; and he would bring our nation back to God.
Are you ready to be a leader for God’s people? If not, take a moment to evaluate yourselves. Jesus just didn’t come to die for our sins, but He also came to the earth to train God’s people to build up some leaders to fight against the principalities of darkness.
Posted by MGJC Web Ministry
at 12:01 AM EDT
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