Do You See the Crowds?

Amen, Tim.

 

SFIC -

You definition of CCM is too broad.

 

Some people just like to crash parties.

Just when I was praising God for using BB, and this thread in particular to show confirm something in my life, Satan gets a foothold and allows others to accuse believers of sinning.

I know God has used this thread for good, because it is happening in my life now.
I know that God is pleased with the songs of CC, because I have had been to their concerts and worshipped with them..

 

My thoughts exactly. I had a response typed and decided to just let it go...

 

And God will continue to use Casting Crowns and others like them, regardless if some here ever get the idea or not.

SFIC, I am thankful that the Lord uses you where you are. I pray that He continues to, and that you see a plentiful harvest.

I pray that for my church, for Tater's church, for Tim's church, and for all our churches. I also pray that one of these days we will get to being as passionate about the Kingdom as we are about frivolous arguments.

 

Sometimes its the ones we would not want to go to (in our own flesh) who are the ones who come most easily to Christ. My preacher tells us about a story where he had this happen. He was approaching a man who was very scary looking.....very large and covered in leather and chains. Now my pastor is not a smallish man, and not easily intimidated by other people's physical presences, but this man was huge, and definitely projecting the image of a tough "biker dude." Well, Preacher went up to him, because God was definitely saying "Go talk to that man." The man listened with such concentration, and in the end he was crying when he trusted Christ as his Saviour.

It is a story he tells over and over to illustrate that we must go to whomever God puts in our path and indicates to our hearts. And we'd better be listening when God does that indicating, too.

 

Taking some good advice... and letting it go.

 

Yes I was trying to show some of you how God can use CCM.. my mistake, I should have known better.

 

Letting go and letting God....

 

Bottom line - we all need to be aware of the people and the needs around us. For some, the holy Spirit uses songs by Casting Crowns to cut to our hearts. For others, maybe its the hymn "Do You Really Care". Whatever He uses to convict us of our inward looking selfrighteousness, may we all seek to find the hurting and give them the love of the Father.

 

And once again, he mounts his sanctimonious high horse and rides off pretending to be more perceptive and righteous than those who take issue with his methods.

He retreats because he has no answers.

But this shouldn't surprise us, his Scripture text had nothing to do whatever with the sermon. And yet he linked them.

(Edit: Zapped a spurious preposition.)

 

Oh Aaron. You are cold and hard. And mean. No one is retreating, some things just are not worth the fight.

 

Captivate us
Lord Jesus
Set our eyes on you
Devastate us
With your presence
Falling down
And rushing river
Draw us nearer
Holy Fountain
Consume us with you
And Captivate us
Lord Jesus with you
-Watermark

 

It is wrong for the church to become "like the world" and use "worldly" means to draw people in. Whatever draws people into a church, will keep them there. If CCM draws them to a church, then CCM will keep them there, not Christ. If the church stops using CCM, then watch the crowds leave and go somewhere else where there is more CCM.

The only way to win the lost is to preach the gospel. Pretty simple.


Here are some of the words to a poem that was made into a song (NOT CCM, thank you) called Preacher On The Fence:


From out the millions of the earth
God often calls a man
To preach the Word
And for the Truth to take a royal stand.
'Tis sad to see him shun the cross,
nor stand in its defense;
Between the fields of right and wrong,
A preacher on the fence.

Before him are the souls of men
Bound for heaven or hell;
An open Bible in his hand,
And yet he will not tell
All the truth that's written there;
To them 'twould be an offense.
The joys of heaven, the woes of hell.
A preacher on the fence.

Now surely God has called a man
To battle for the right;
'Tis his to ferret out the wrong,
And turn on us the light.
And yet he dare not tell the truth;
He fears the consequence;
The most disgusting thing on earth
Is a preacher on the fence.

If he should stand up for the wrong,
The right he'd not defend.
If he should stand up for the right,
The wrong he would offend.
His mouth is closed; he cannot speak
For freedom or against.
Great God, please deliver us
From a preacher on the fence!

But soon both sides will find him out,
And brand him as a fraud.
A coward who dares not to please the devil or his God.
Oh Lord, free us from fear of man;
From cowardly pretense;
Cleanse out the dross and fear of loss,
And keep us off the fence!

Author unknown

 

Sometimes its the ones we would not want to go to (in our own flesh) who are the ones who come most easily to Christ. My preacher tells us about a story where he had this happen. He was approaching a man who was very scary looking.....very large and covered in leather and chains. Now my pastor is not a smallish man, and not easily intimidated by other people's physical presences, but this man was huge, and definitely projecting the image of a tough "biker dude." Well, Preacher went up to him, because God was definitely saying "Go talk to that man." The man listened with such concentration, and in the end he was crying when he trusted Christ as his Saviour.

It is a story he tells over and over to illustrate that we must go to whomever God puts in our path and indicates to our hearts. And we'd better be listening when God does that indicating, too. </font>[/QUOTE]Good post.
Just recently, a family started coming to our church... by invite... that most have shunned in our community.. I am so proud of the brothers and sisters in our church for caring for them and showing them the love of Christ.

There are so many that we pass by that we don't talk to.. not that we are intentionally ignoring them, but I think it is because we all live busy lives...

When you pumped gas into your car recently, did you even notice the person on the other side of the pumps?

Did you even say Hi?
Did you loook into their eyes?
Did you notice anything about them?
Were they a Christian?

Did you invite them to Christ?
Did you invite them to church?

Or was you like me, in a hurry to get home..
or to dinner, or to a school function... or even forbid, to a church meeting?

Does anybody hear her?
Do you hear her crying for truth.
We have the truth, but unless we notice who needs it what good is it?

Oh, it will get me to Heaven..

 

Can anyone name some Good things about the Pharisees?

 

um...well, they were persistent...
AND they followed the rules.

 

Prod, prod, prod... gosh... some people are just too mean for words.

 

I knew you guys weren't really "letting go."