LIFE LESSON #14607--Get Rid of "STUFF"!!!

Monday is the day I go in for oral surgery to remove my wisdom teeth and so I had this idea that since I live alone now, in a small two story apartment, and MIGHT be under the influence of some pain medication, it would be best for me to stay with my parents for the first couple days since they have a spare bedroom. BAD idea. I wasn't aware that the bedroom was overrun with 45 years worth of STUFF they had accumulated and didn't know what to do with it. I just spent nearly two hours totin' boxes of this STUFF to the storage building out behind my parent's house. Sometimes I wonder if those guys who rent or sell metal storage buildings are making a killing on those people who are pack rats and refuse to get rid of the trinkets and mementos and whatever else they have accumulated over the span of their lifetimes.

I told my mom in the midst of all this work that when she and dad are dead and gone, I'm havin' a bonfire of the grandest proportions because I don't want to have to deal with cleaning out all that junk. Just pour gasoline on it and throw a match to it!!!!!

Just in case any of you are in a store and see something and think, "Oh!! I think Susan would love to have this".......wipe that thought right out of your mind!!!! Just turn around and go in the other direction. If you just HAVE to get me something, a gift certificate to a restaurant or for a manicure/pedicure would be great or a gift card to a Christian bookstore would be nice, also. I just don't want STUFF that sits around and collects dust.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering how I came up with the number 14607, that's how many days I've lived on this earth. I've had many life lessons but I think this one is the most important to date. Why keep this stuff if I can't take it with me when I die??

WHAT IS WRONG WITH SEEKER-FRIENDLY CHURCHES?

In the past few years, a new category of churches has come on the scene. They are what is called "seeker-friendly". You hear the title and you think "awww....how nice. How can that be bad?" Well, for starters, just the word "seeker" is wrong. Romans 3:11 says, "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." So, this title is bad from the get-go. NO ONE seeks after God. Why? Because the unregenerate person doesn't love God, so why would they seek HIM? Also, and this is the one thing that really irritates me, "seeker-friendly" churches will cater to the unsaved. They do this first of all by offering "entertainment" to draw them in. They may can draw them in, but if they do, they'll have to come up with bigger and better "entertainment" to keep them there. If not, they'll go to the church across town to get their "entertainment". Secondly, they water down or sugar-coat the Gospel so that it won't sound so offensive to those who are unsaved. Last time I checked, the Gospel is to be preached so that the unregenerate will be changed, not change the Gospel so that the lost wouldn't be offended. Romans 1:16 says "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Notice the second part of the verse. The Gospel "is THE POWER OF GOD for salvation". Pastors don't need to be messing with the Gospel message. Don't tone it down. Don't sugar-coat it. Don't soften it. LEAVE IT ALONE!! It is not to be tampered with. Just preach the Gospel as it is written and God will do the rest.

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says, "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." Notice the middle of the verse. Jesus says, "I will build my church". So if that's the case, why do churches and denominations have "church growth" programs, and different gimmicks to draw people in? If Jesus is the one who will build HIS church, why do pastors wrack their brains trying to think up the latest and greatest gimmick to bring people in? JUST PREACH THE GOSPEL!!! Pastors want the big numbers. They want to see a large crowd in church each Sunday and that's why they come up with all those church growth plans. So.....when they finally stand before God, what are they going to say? "Hey, God, look at what I did to bring people in?" Or, "look at this plan that I thought up to draw in the unsaved." Just exactly who's supposed to get the glory? I can tell you it AIN'T the pastor. Why? Because it is GOD, through the Holy Spirit, who draws the unsaved person to himself. The apostles didn't need gimmicks or church growth plans. They simply preached God's Word and God "gave the increase"....(see 1 Corinthians 3:6).

Churches don't need to be "seeker-friendly". They just need to make sure the Gospel is preached boldly and without error and without gimmicks.