REDISCOVERING THE MESSAGE* (III)

*DAILY DEW 10TH/JUNE/2021*

*REDISCOVERING THE MESSAGE* (III) 

_Key Bible Text:_

*"Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee."* (1 Timothy 4:15-16 (KJV))

_Bible Insight:_

When we began weekly accountability in my local church, which I consider to be a sound church, it revealed how many people really need to develop a daily habit of feeding on the word and praying. I'd check people's study notes for the week and find out why they couldn't commit. For some the excuses were so flimsy, while others seemed to have legitimate excuses. And then I was able to counsel and encourage people. That brought some change.

Why did I start doing this? Because I know from the bible that discipleship is not merely about coming to teach every Sunday. We are going to give an account of people's lives! It's important to keep people accountable; in fact, we have moved to daily accountability. We can be preaching hot and fiery sermons every Sunday yet people will not grow because they don't commit to the word through the week! I mean, here's a church where we labour hours in the word yet there were those who had no personal commitment to their growth outside the gathering. It was a wake up call for me.

I was telling someone yesterday that the entertainment driven worship culture is giving us very poor feedbacks as a church. So, you have people who never study the word and pray all week attend church, and because of the powerful musical performances, the whole church is fired up, jumping and shouting and screaming, so much energy in the sessions! Then suddenly, you hear that the leader of the music team becomes an atheist or one of the pastors is having sexual affairs with members, and you wonder, 'with all the powerful services?' Truth is, it's a concern when very committed folks in church have such experiences. But another truth is that they were only committed to the activities in church meetings without a personal day to day commitment to God's word and prayer.

See, without proper discipleship, we are just running a religious club. Good music will always stir people's emotions whether it's in a social or spiritual gathering. People who are so out of touch with God's word and prayer can suddenly become so ecstatic in a meeting where the atmosphere or ambience just seems right. It's a psychological thing. It's the reason why people are so excited in the meeting but then it all fizzles out after the service or next day. The only thing that brings stability and real growth is a daily feeding on the word and prayer!

*MEDITATION:*

*It's good you are setting up good sound and lights - they are cool for the media. But without solid discipleship, these are the very things that would deceive us to think the church is growing when what's really happening in the meetings is a pump of adrenaline - an impact that's shortlived.*

*#Adebowale_Ibukun_Tosin*

*#Thursday_wisdomforliving*

*#Becoming_More_Like_Jesus*

*#Generational_Impact*

*#GuestMessage*

*#Hello_June* ❤