Where did you meet Jesus?

Romans 15:14-16

“I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”

One might say the apostle Paul was excited about the condition of the house churches at Rome, in that he could see and hear about how God had equipped them for service.  They had the gift of the Spirit and were using them to minister to others, and the church though under persecution was growing.

Today by all the research that is available we find reports of a declining church, where one will encounter in your neighborhood, at school, in the marketplace the results found in this report from the Barna Group.  “For the first time since Barna Group and American Bible Society’s Bible engagement tracking began, Bible skepticism is tied with Bible engagement. The number of those who are skeptical or agnostic toward the Bible—who believes the Bible is “just another book of teachings written by men that contains stories and advice”—has nearly doubled from 10% to 19% in just three years. This is now equal to the number of people who are Bible engaged—who read the Bible at least four times a week and believe it is the actual or inspired Word of God.”

If you go by the title Christian do you have any understanding of what that means?  It seems that even in decline the Church has many who attend for reasons other than being a follower of Jesus Christ, of allowing Him to direct your path, and to obey His commands.  Dr. Richard J. Krejcir from the (Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development) shares these statistics from Barna Research reported.  “That perhaps 50% of people who go to a church are not even Christians. I first heard of this statistic when I was in seminary, and even from my "hero," J. Vernon McGee, whom I visited as often as possible. I remember a conversation I had with Francis Schaeffer; he often said he believed a strong percentage of people in the church were not Christians, that they only go for a show! At first, I did not believe it could be a significant percentage, but after years of pastoral experience, I now know this to be fact.”

Before the age of 27 and my encounter with Jesus Christ in a hotel room in Victoria, Texas, I was a Baptist who had been drug to church every time the doors were open.  I gave a tithe from the time I got a job, was nice to little ladies unless they were trying to teach me something in public school and I believed in God the Father, and God as three in one personality.  I believed Jesus was born of a Virgin and that He died for the sins of all people, but I was not willing to turn over control of my life to Jesus.  I was one of those statistics referenced above, and inside of me was a dead spirit to the ways of God. 

The apostle Paul gives this insight into the larger problem of today's Church found in 1 Corinthians 2: 12-14, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”  Jesus told the Pharisee named Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  It has not one thing to do with church membership, baptism, or cleaning up your act, it has everything to do with confessing sin, acknowledging that only God has the power to forgive sin, and to exchange your dead spirit for the Spirit of the living Christ, who sits at the right hand of the Father.  It is coming to grips with this truth, Jesus’ blood has the power to cover your sin, no matter what, the apostle Paul took part in the death of many who were followers of Jesus Christ, and he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, I met Him in Victoria, Texas, where did you meet Jesus?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice