Is your church a Welcome Center?

Driving on the Interstate, as we enter  each new state, we usually find a welcome center.  

A rest stop.

Usually a pleasent building, light, airy, comfortable.  A place we stop to find relief, maybe a snack, a map, directions.

Where we find out where we are at that moment.

To me that sounds what the church should be.

Full of light, the breath of the Holy Spirit,  comforting the broken hearted,  healing the sick, opening the Spititual eyes of those blind.

A place to find a snack, not a meal, we need to feed ourselves daily, the Sunday Snack should be Sunday Special.

A desert, something that makes us desire MORE.  More Jesus, more light, more grace, peace.

We need to see the map.  Are we moving closer to God?

That is what I believe the Church should be.

Is your Church a Welcome Center?   Should it be? 

Any ideas how to make it so?

Thanks for visiting. Come back soon.
Know you are loved.
theunfetteredpreacher.com

I am “Forgiven“. 

The day I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, I repented of my sin, and was covered by the blood of Jesus.

I had been “Justified“.

It is Just As If I Never Sinned.  My sin is as far from me as the East is from the West.

Am I sin free? 

No, I wish I was, but I need to continue to recognize, and repent of my failure to reach, the mark of His high calling.

Forgiven isn’t the end of it though.

Jesus promises to “Sanctify us wholly“.

1 Thessalonians 5:22-24
King James Version (KJV)
“Abstain from all appearance of evil.   And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”

We need to be wholly “Sanctified“. 

Set apart, unto God for His service.  We determine our direction and God will do the work in our hearts.

We will be “Blameless” in Gods sight.

Again we determine our direction, always walking toward the Lord, seeking His face continually.  Obedience to His will.

It is not us, but Jesus who presents us “Blameless“, to the Father.

“Reconciled“:

What a blessing, now, we are like Adam, the Lord would walk with us in the cool of the day.  We are able to enter into the Holy of Holies, to find grace and mercy in our times of need.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21
King James Version (KJV)
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.  

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

We are the “Righteousness” of God in Him.

Jesus is the all in all.  He has done it all.  Our job is to reconcile those we meet to Him.

He came not to condemn, but to save the world.  Our lives should be an invitation to those we come into contact with. 

A welcome center, providing information, direction, comfort.

Unfortunately, some us take the verses about foolish and peculiar to heart and scare away, rather than welcome to the Kingdom.

Allow Jesus to shine through.  Be a light in the darkness, peace in the storm, joy unspeakable and full of Glory.

Thanks for visiting. Come back soon.
Know you are loved.
theunfetteredpreacher.com

Acts 17
“For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean.”

A Church on every corner.  Baptist, Primitive Baptist, Free Will Baptist, Original Free Will Primitive Baptist.   (?lol?)

UMC, AME, PHC, UPC,….Episcopal, Community, Catholic…..whatever…

Democrat, Libertarian, Republican……

Than there are differences of race, creed, colors, left handed, right handed, blue eyed, brown eyed, pink eyed….

     (People are different, but all the  same.)

WHO CARES?  (Can’t we just get along)?

“God that made the world and all things therein”

With  all the ways we seek to devide ourselves.   It seems a strange thing today, to realize we are all:  “made of one blood, all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:”   Acts 17:26a,27

ONE BLOOD, ALL NATIONS, TO DWELL ON THE EARTH TO SEEK THE LORD.

So as we segregate ourselves in Worship, Politics and every other way we can imagine, God commands us to love one another.  

Why can’t we get along?   Genisis 11.

“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.”

Genesis 11:5-8
King James Version (KJV)
“And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.”

The Lord scattered us.  It is natural.  We can’t do things as one, because we don’t understand each other.

So, we need to quit trying to be one, and agree to love as one.  Live in harmonious differences.

We should be able to agree to disagree.  We are one in the blood of Christ.  That is enough unity.

Now go out and share Jesus, not your church, not the preacher, not our programs, or personalities ….  it is all about Jesus and His blood, that is what we share.

That is what makes us one.

Thanks for visiting. Come back soon.
Know you are loved.
theunfetteredpreacher.com

“whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

Who is he?  Do you know him?  Is he you?

Some people appear to sail through life, like Midas, everything they put their hand to, turns to gold.

They are full of the joy of the Lord, they are givers, they love life, and everyone they meet, loves them, they are content, kind, and forgiving.

(The rest of us, hate them.   lol)

These people seem to thrive, as the rest of the world struggles.

Could I be more like them?  Is there a secret only they know?  Are they special in the Lords sight?  Is there a way to join them?

Is it possible that I could be he? 

Is there a way that:  “whatsoever I doeth shall prosper?”  If you believe the word, YES.  We must first take control of where we sit, stand and walk.

Psalm 1
King James Version (KJV)
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

Walking in the counsel of the ungodly.
The worldly view of what to do.  It is ok to…?   You don’t take medical advice from your tax guy.  Don’t rely on the world for Spiritual counsel, (walk in worldly wisdom).

Don’t hang, (stand), around with sinners.
Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners.  Yes, He did.  He did not join them in their sin, He led them in the  way of repentance.

Don’t Sit in the seat  of the Scornful. 
Do not think you are better, smarter, more qualified than those doing the work.  You aren’t.  We must judge Godly judgement.

“But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”

Delighting in the law of the Lord.
Love the Lord, love thy neighbour,  pray, sing, rest, believe, act on the Word in love.

“And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

You will be like a tree, nourished, fruitful, evergreen, prosperous.
God will supply all your needs, you will do His work, souls will be saved, you will overcome the wicked one.

“The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.  Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.”

The destination of the non-believers.
The ungodly and sinners, will not stand in the judgement, or with the righteous in fellowship.

“For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

Will, “whatsoever you do prosper”?   It is up to you.  Love, believe, trust in and act on the Word.

Thanks for visiting. Come back soon.
Know you are loved.
theunfetteredpreacher.com