Yeah, I've been reading over this article for the past few weeks or so. Mohler is on target. There's almost no room for discussion after you read that article. He's just so right.

I think the greatest problem is that we have become a self-centered church instead of being Christ-centered. We go to church for ourselves not for Christ. We hope for a good sermon and that our favorite hymns are sung. We hope that we are able to hang out with friends afterwards and maybe sneak in a quick nap before we come back in the evening.

In other churches, unity has become more important than theology. Multi-media presentations, emotional worship, and pop-culture references are in and holiness, purity, and discipline are out. How dare we call sin 'sin'?? Churches just let everyone figure out what sin really is. They see no need to preach against it. Mohler is right when he says that "Christ has abandoned many churches who are blissfully unaware of His departure". I like what Thomas Oden wrote, "Naturalistic reductionism has invited us to reduce alleged individual sins to social influences for which individuals are not responsible."

It's sad and tragic yet still a sign that the true Church needs men who will adhere to the Bible and not culture. Men who are not ashamed of what the Gospel is. Men who will reveal sin. As Christ turned over the tables in the Temple, we need men who are willing to turn over tables in their own living rooms because this is where it starts. Right where you live.

Will the true Church please stand up?

Thanks for joining up Tom.

To tell you the truth, I haven't read that article all the way through, myself.

The partiality of the Church today seems to me to be from simply not enough faith, and believe it or not, not enough fear. Do you or I see God as who He is?

This isn't just a vague concept, this is something that's grown in my head lately. I've found myself coming to Christ in prayer as a groveler and a whiner and not in faith.

What's really being latched onto? Is it just hoping for a quick "sign" that God will toss down to us like a treat? We know what Christ Himself said about seeking after a sign.

But I experienced this, that when focused on Christ and His person and His oneness with God,
and everything that the Bible tells about Him I was frightened. And that's when it became pure, and the confidence in prayer didn't stem from the prayer itself or the emotion I worked up.

The confidence didn't come out of me, it came from God's I AM, from that unavoidable notion that's planted in every human heart, that He is, and always will be. And the fact that I'm on this One's side.

And then being part of His will, doesn't become a question before bedtime anymore. We'll talk about it later.

This quote from a booklet "Which Church Should I Join?" is noteworthy:

"Church discipline is an important criteria in looking for a church to join. Most churches today do not care how its members live and behave either in public or private or with one another. Financial and sexual scandals, plus other personal atrocities, abound in many churches and very little, if anything, is done about them. But a true church of Jesus Christ will pursue genuine holiness among it's members and seek to correct and help those who stray. Join only a church where discipline is practiced in accordance with [the Scriptures]."

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