We Are Called

Today’s message at the church was a topical one as we get ready for doing outreaches this week. We looked at our calling in Christ’s Kingdom to share the gospel (from Acts 26) and at what is the gospel message we are called to share (from 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). That message audio is here for your listening, in English and Romanian.
Acts 26 We are Called

Palm Sunday Video Greeting

My video below, filmed this week for Dallas Sunday at Five and for American churches supporting our ministry, is a brief Palm Sunday devotional and ministry update on what we’re doing as a church in Cluj this holiday week.

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Preaching the gospel, use words “when necessary”?

Today’s “Rightly dividing the Word” – A popular (for some reason) yet entirely misguided quote that circulates in Christian circles tells us to “preach the gospel everywhere you go” and “when necessary, use words.”
Just when it could be unnecessary to use words to proclaim the good news the quote fails to tell us, though. The gospel is the message that Christ died for our sins and rose again, so that all who put their trust in Him alone can be saved. As Christians who proclaim this truth, we should seek to live in such a way that our actions dress that message in an attractive outfit whenever possible, but we could never be so holy in our actions that it would excuse us of our responsibility to proclaim the gospel with words. We can give to the poor, but they cannot be saved by our generosity, so our giving cannot be called preaching the gospel. We can be kind, patient, loving, smiling, forgiving people; but no one under any circumstances could be saved by watching our actions. An answer explaining the reason for our hope will always have to accompany our actions if we will preach the gospel. With the gospel, it is show AND tell. So, as one pastor rightly put it, one could no more preach the gospel without words than he could give you his phone number without digits.
The Bible does not tell us that faith can come by seeing our good behavior, but only by hearing the word of God. God’s word asks how can anyone believe without hearing the word? The answer—they can’t. “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”
While righteous acts are necessary, please don’t comfort yourself if you remain silent about Christ and the need of others around you to be saved by telling yourself, “I’m preaching the gospel by my actions, and if they want what I’ve got, they will approach me.” It is show AND tell, not one or the other.
So let’s start passing around a new quote: “To preach the gospel everywhere, remember that it is always, every time, without exception, necessary that you open your mouth and use words.” And then, more importantly, a quote from the Bible: “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.”

New Easter Tract

Here is the English-language text of a new gospel tract we’re producing in Romanian for Easter outreaches this year. It is designed to share the gospel with those coming from an eastern-orthodox religious background. Pray for the Lord to use it to open eyes in our outreaches on the streets of Cluj, in orphanages, homeless shelters, and parks, where we go to do music, testimonies, preaching, and distribution of these tracts to hundreds of people in the coming week.

(Cover with resurrection picture) Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
…But why did Jesus die in the first place?

(Inside text with Cross “For you” picture)
Why did Jesus die on the cross?
If we want to go to heaven, the answer to that question is as important as Christ’s resurrection.
In 1 Timothy 2:5-6a the Bible gives us God’s answer: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all.”
There is only one God. The one God who made us is the one God who will judge us and send us to our eternal home. This one God who will judge us is the One we are offending whenever we sin. And we’ve all sinned against Him. For all our lives, when we were tempted to lie, or steal, or mistreat others, we have done so. We all deserve punishment from God. So we all need some way to make Him happy with us. A way to be forgiven for all the things we’ve done to anger Him. Only then can we hope to escape hell, and make it to heaven.
But how can we get God to forgive us? The verse tells us there is only one way. Christ Jesus is the only mediator available between us and God. Christ is the only one who can bring us to God and set us free from His righteous anger at our sins. So we can’t put our hope in prayers to saints or confessions to priests. God has told us there is only one voice He will listen to, speaking on our behalf. The one mediator between God and men—Christ Jesus.
That brings us to the verse’s good news about why Christ died on the cross. He gave Himself as a ransom for us. When He died, Jesus was paying the price we owe God for our sins against Him, so that we could be set free from that debt. Christ was punished in your place for every sin you’ve committed against God. By dying in your place and absorbing God’s punishment for your sins, He paid the ransom debt for you to escape God’s wrath.
After Christ died, He came back to life, proving that He had paid completely for your sins, and that God had accepted His sacrifice on your behalf, as your mediator to God. Now, you can be saved and granted eternal life, by believing this message and personally trusting Christ for salvation. Speak to Jesus now from the heart, believing He died for you and rose again. Confess your sin to Him. Ask Him for, and receive, the forgiveness He has promised. He will make you a child of God. And at the end of this life when God judges you, He will give you resurrection and heaven, just as Christ was raised from the dead. —- “Experimentându-L pe Dumnezeu” http://harul.freetzi.com/

Will the devil leave you alone if you stop serving Christ?

Today’s “Rightly dividing the Word” — Sometimes I have heard teachings like this– “If you are serving the Lord, it is like putting a target on your back, calling you to Satan’s attention, and making you someone he wants to attack; so watch out!” Or, I’ve heard some say, “The devil doesn’t waste his energy bothering someone who isn’t a threat to him.”
Might sound logical to us at first, like so much of what passes for theological talk in a bumper-sticker-slogans-on-the-church-sign age. But it leads people facing struggles in serving the Lord to believe that if they stop serving Christ in a public way, then maybe the devil will leave them alone, and their lives will get easier and more peaceful, if not more fruitful.
But does the word of God say, “Resist God’s calling. Submit to the devil’s desire that you waste your life, and he will leave you alone?” Of course not. In fact, the true biblical formula for getting Satan off your back is exactly the opposite: “Submit yourselves therefore to God,” James says. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” –James 4:7-8a
Keep serving the Lord and obeying Him, even when times are tough, and even when the devil is opposing you. When Satan opposes you, oppose him back by obeying the Lord. Then yours, not Satan’s, will be the victory in the end.

You can’t be a “luke warm” individual

Today’s “rightly dividing the Word” — “Luke warm” is NOT a biblical term to describe a Christian individual who isn’t on fire for God. It’s a term for describing a Christless apostate church with Jesus stuck on the outside–knocking, hoping an individual within will hear Him, open the door, and have one-on-one fellowship with Him, despite the church as a whole being lost.

The term comes from Christ’s words in Revelation 3:
14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

The Rise of the Antichrist

You’ve seen the Hollywood movies about him. The beast, the man represented by 666, and other things. What the Bible says about this man called Antichrist is actually more interesting than the movie renditions, though. Tonight’s study was of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, looking at the rise of the Antichrist. You can hear the audio of the study here, in English and Romanian.

What should I be doing with my life?

Today’s message at the church from 1 Corinthians 3:4-15 looked at what we should build our lives on, and what we should build them with, if we want to be prepared for Christ’s evaluation of us at the Judgment. The message can be heard here, in English and Romanian. It is important to live your life for what will last, for what is valuable, and for what your Judge wants.

Why Satan Wants You To Think Hell’s Not Real

A little over a year ago, we visited the US, and to show people in my hometown church in KY the importance of preaching hell like Jesus did, I asked for a show of hands. “How many of you would say a fear of hell was at least a very significant part of the reason you initially trusted Christ as your Savior?” I don’t remember seeing any believers not raising their hands across the room. And I could count on the fingers of my left foot how many effective evangelists I’ve met in my life who were in the “don’t talk about hell” camp of Christianity. It is by God’s design, not man’s, that those who come to Him come to Him because they are convicted of their sin and the wrath they will receive at His hand if they are not saved from it by His grace. This is just as true of 21st century converts as it was of those a thousand years ago.
But the practicality of the gospel being preached more effectively when it is complete with the message of God’s wrath isn’t the main reason we should accept it and preach it. The main and simple reason we must believe in hell and preach it is because it is the truth of God’s word, and could not be wished away even if humanity were unanimous in our disbelief.