“There is a sense in which God’s promises are unconditional, in that our disobedience will not thwart God’s intention to be gracious, but there is also a sense in which those promises will be released only through the obedience of God’s people” (Paul Carter).

The Bible is clear that God blesses His people. But it’s also clear that some blessings have conditions: “If you do this, I will do that.” Sadly, motivational preachers, teachers, and pastors only focus on the blessings of God without showing the other side of the coin. “I have to keep my members happy and encouraged,” they say. Yes, we should encourage, but we also must convict and confront if we are to be faithful ministers of the gospel.

Many come to church praising God but not prevailing with Him, worshiping but not walking in His promises, and praying but not seeing His power because of unrepentant sin: “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). As it’s been said, “It is possible to have a saved soul but a lost life.”

We actually do a disservice to people if we fail to preach on the wonderful truth of repentance. I believe God will heal our land if we repent and turn to Him. I believe He will supply every need for those who, from a pure heart, honor Him with their resources. I believe God will bless you with a ministry if you are obedient in the small things. I believe God can honor a person with a spouse if they stop partying and seek His will rather than their own. And on and on it goes — where it stops only God knows.

Sin Fascinates Before It Assassinates

Scriptural truths must be balanced, but what does it mean to be balanced? When we speak of the attributes of God, we must remember that no one attribute is greater than another and no single truth of Scripture is truer than another. To genuinely help people, we must avoid the temptation to cherry-pick. We must preach the difficult truths as well as the joyful ones — the cross and the new life, hell and heaven, damnation and salvation, sin and grace, wrath and love, judgment and mercy, and obedience and forgiveness. We must preach that God is love but not forget He is also just. It is the love of God that compels us to share all His truth.

Jeremiah 5:25 is powerful and heart-wrenching: “Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withheld good from you.” He goes on to say in verses 30 and 31: “An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; And My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?” False teachers are often a judgment on false converts and on those who love to have their ears tickled but not their hearts changed. (Here is one sure sign of a false prophet.)

When people follow their own plans, they walk backward and not forward. Disobeying God is a recurring theme from Genesis to Revelation and from the church in Acts to the church today. We must be relentless in our pursuit of God, ruthless in rooting out and dealing with our own sin, and quick to repent and seek the restoration of our fellowship with God when we fail.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Shane Idleman

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Three Texas churches that believe a local ordinance unjustly charges them excessive water fees have taken their case before a state appeals court.

Magnolia Bible Church, Magnolia’s First Baptist Church and Believers Fellowship had their complaint against the city of Magnolia heard before the Texas Third Court of Appeals in Austin on Wednesday.

First Liberty Institute, along with attorneys with the Baker Botts law firm, argued the case on behalf of the churches, stating that the city’s recent fee increase violated the “due process” rights of the congregations.

“Cities in Texas at least have to give due process to churches before imposing their water fee scheme,” said Aaron Streett, First Liberty network attorney with Baker Botts, in a statement released Wednesday.

“Due process, and basic fairness, prevent cities like Magnolia from excluding churches they know object to their water fee scheme from participating in legal proceedings attempting to validate that scheme.”

Last May, the three churches filed suit against Magnolia, accusing the city of taking “unprecedented action to recoup property tax revenue from churches.”

At issue was a local ordinance for tax-exempt entities adopted in March 2018 that increased the fees for water use by changing their status from “commercial” to “institutional.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski

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For Pastor Tony Evans, the past year has been riddled with tremendous loss, uncertainty and grief. 

“It’s been a tough year,” Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, told The Christian Post during a sit-down interview in Nashville, Tennessee.

“I lost my brother, lost my sister, lost my sister’s husband, lost my niece of a sudden heart attack at 39,” he said. “I lost my father, and I lost my wife. My daughter Priscilla had lung surgery due to some growth irregularities that needed to be removed. My oldest daughter Chrystal has a growth in her leg that’s suspect. We’ve had a lot of challenges this year.”

Yet through it all, Pastor Evans stressed, he can confidently say: “God is faithful, even when He’s confusing.”

“We’re trusting in Him day by day, in spite of the challenges and the loss,” he shared. “Sometimes you have to learn to trust God in the dark when there is not clarity, when He becomes inscrutable. You have to have enough foundation before that happens to weather the storm when that happens.”

Trusting God when it doesn’t make sense, Evans said, is a “decision of the will.”

“It’s often not supported by the emotions, because you’re not feeling what you’re trusting,” he explained. “It’s a decision to act like God is telling the truth, to act like God knows what He is doing. That’s what we choose to do and continue to choose to do day by day.”

“It’s important to not give up on God when life appears to have given up on you. It’s easy to trust God when everything is right, blessings are flowing, prayers are being answered, needs are being met. That’s the fun part of the faith. But sometimes, you have to trust God when you don’t see the benefits, the blessings, and all the frills of the faith.”

Lois Evans, Pastor Evans’ wife of five decades and founder of Pastors’ Wives Ministry, passed away on Dec. 30, 2019, after battling biliary cancer.

She was honored with the Heroine of the Faith award at the NRB 2020 Christian Media Convention in Nashville on Feb. 28, recognizing her for “loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and for loving others as yourself.”

Reflecting on his wife’s legacy, Evans emphasized, “There’s no part of my life and ministry where her footprints aren’t felt.”

“Lois committed her life to Christ when she was 9. At 15, she told the Lord that she would serve Him in whatever capacity He called her to, so she kind of dedicated her life to service. We met at 18, and I saw her heart for the Lord and for ministry and we kind of connected around that.”

In addition to “helping me through school, mothering our four children, and leading them to the Lord,” Evans said Lois assisted him both in starting their church and The Urban Alternative, a media ministry whose radio broadcasts are today heard by millions each week on more than 1,400 radio outlets across 130 countries.

“She was there, every step of the way, to foster the Word of God and the name of Christ, whether it was counseling women, leading music, or growing our ministry,” he shared.

“There’s no part of my life and ministry where her footprints aren’t felt. Her absence leaves a big hole in our lives in our family and in our ministry.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

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A Democratic political strategist has warned that all too often Christians end up worshiping “lesser gods” when they’re involved in politics.

Justin Giboney, an attorney who’s also president of the AND Campaign, spoke at the Just Gospel 2020 conference at Del Ray Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, last week.

Giboney said that when it comes to politics, while “Christians should be shining like the North Star in the dead of night,” too many “sound like generic Republicans or generic Democrats.”

“Our faith is not evident in our tactics, in our posture, or in our rhetorical devices,” said Giboney. “Let’s be serious, our politics isn’t winning over any converts.”

He said that many American Christians involved in politics have shown that they have “become converts to lesser gods and lesser institutions,” with Christians “discipling backwards.”

“We have evangelicals using terms like ‘patriotism’ to silence pleas for injustice. Even worse, we have some folks using the Gospel as a reason not to do justice,” continued Giboney.

“Then we have some Christians who rightly concern themselves with justice, but aren’t bold enough to speak on the necessity of obedience and personal transformation along with liberation.”

Giboney felt that “many Christians have placed their trust in methods and ideologies that are built on a foundation that’s certain to collapse.”

“We’ve placed our faith in the tenets of conservatism or the forecast of progressivism,” he added. “We’ve outsourced our public witness to secular commentators and think-tanks that now do the thinking for us.”

“Christians have separated our faith from our politics and we’ve allowed our political affiliations to become religious in nature, liturgical in display.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski

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For over four decades Ron Hutchcraft Ministries has been sharing the Gospel and Biblical insights through the radio ministry “A Word with You.” Now that unique story-telling format is able to reach even more people.

Ron Hutchcraft, President of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says that because “A Word With You” is short it’s able to target a person’s heart while keeping them engaged for a whole 4.5 minute segment. This is important to the ministry as they seek to intentionally share Christ through “rescue radio.”

Hutchcraft says, “And that simply means that the message that rescues us from our lostness our brokenness and an eternity without God, the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, will be clearly, non-religiously, creatively, and regularly what our program is about.”

Creativity is important to the team. They want to show listeners that following Christ is not boring or a waste of time. The Gospel truly applies to every area of life. That’s why Ron Hutchcraft Ministries wraps the message of the Gospel in relatable stories.

And now Trans World Radio is helping take this dynamic rescue radio to new listeners.

Ron says, “We were approached by Trans World Radio, our wonderful partners. And they suggested that the story format that we use would be very effective in other cultures, because we live in a storytelling world. So, we started with the most spoken language in the world, which is Mandarin.”

From there the discussion snowballed. Currently “A Word With You” is being translated into Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi and Arabic from English. Additionally, the ministry is looking at beginning translation work into Japanese.

The goal is to reach highly populous languages as well as languages from regions without many Christians, such as Japan.

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Anna Deckert

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Most Protestant pastors and churchgoers believe those with disabilities feel included and welcome at their church, yet fewer actually have a plan in place to accommodate those with special needs, a new study has found. 

A survey from Nashville-based LifeWay Research of 1,000 Protestant pastors and 1,002 American Protestant churchgoers found that nearly every pastor (99%) and churchgoer (97%) says someone with a disability would feel welcomed and included at their church.

Almost all pastors (99%) say local churches should make necessary facility modifications to become more accessible to people with physical disabilities even when it is not required by law

Additionally, three-quarters of Protestant pastors (76%) say local churches have a responsibility to provide financial resources and support to individuals with disabilities and their families.

When it comes to action, almost every pastor (95%) says their church is involved in at least one of five different ways to care for those with disabilities and their families, and 75% say their church encourages volunteering in community events for people with disabilities.

Most say they provide financially for families with ongoing needs (70%) or provide respite for family caregivers to give them a break (60%).

However, just half of churches (50%) provide an additional teacher to aid a person with special needs in a class, and only 29% say their church provides classes or events specifically for people with disabilities.

LifeWay also found that larger churches are more likely than others to say they help in many of these specific ways.

While three quarters (75%) of churches with worship attendance topping 250 say they provide such programs, 54% of churches with 100 to 249, 46% of churches with 50 to 99, and 35% of churches with less than 50 say they do the same.

Tim Lucas, the pastor of Liquid Church in Parsippany, New Jersey, told The Christian Post that in general, the “Church is 30 years behind culture when it comes to special needs.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

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