What does it mean to present your whole self to the Lord?
Our nation is filled with church buildings. Some are so small that you don't hardly notice them, and some so large you are forced to marvel at the vision of whomever created such a large ministry.
There are not only church buildings, but there are para-church ministries. These are groups that have a stated foundation of Jesus Christ and His teachings, but model it through things such as small groups for athletes, prayer meetings for prisoners or food and clothing ministries.
No one in America can justly say that a church is not available to them, for they come in all shapes, sizes and philosophies.
Unfortunately, church attendances and baptisms are decreasing in these churches. For whatever reason, the church is not growing as we would all like to see. Her influence on society is waning in North America and if things don't change, you will see many flounder and fail.
So what do we do? Get a new pastor or leader? Move to another part of town and build a church there? Do we just have house-churches and continue the disintegration of what has become known as church in modern American society.
I believe the answer is quite simple to all the questions above. It all starts, large churches, small churches, large denominations or no denominations...all of it, starts with someone who is "totally" committed to God. A commitment, that even if at the threat of death is vibrant, alive and filed with hope.
It starts with living Romans 12:1-2 in our daily lives. As we continue to seek in these 21 days, we must begin to pray for a Holy Fire from heaven to fall upon the altar we have placed ourselves on, and we must begin to deny all of the things in our lives that would prevents so an event from taking place.
We must lay aside thoughts, opinions and attitudes and submit to God. After all, the only problem with a living sacrifice is that it continually wants to crawl off the altar. Therefore on this day, Day Nine...we pray for the Fire of God's cleansing to fall upon the altar we've built, and upon our own lives.
Our nation is filled with church buildings. Some are so small that you don't hardly notice them, and some so large you are forced to marvel at the vision of whomever created such a large ministry.
There are not only church buildings, but there are para-church ministries. These are groups that have a stated foundation of Jesus Christ and His teachings, but model it through things such as small groups for athletes, prayer meetings for prisoners or food and clothing ministries.
No one in America can justly say that a church is not available to them, for they come in all shapes, sizes and philosophies.
Unfortunately, church attendances and baptisms are decreasing in these churches. For whatever reason, the church is not growing as we would all like to see. Her influence on society is waning in North America and if things don't change, you will see many flounder and fail.
So what do we do? Get a new pastor or leader? Move to another part of town and build a church there? Do we just have house-churches and continue the disintegration of what has become known as church in modern American society.
I believe the answer is quite simple to all the questions above. It all starts, large churches, small churches, large denominations or no denominations...all of it, starts with someone who is "totally" committed to God. A commitment, that even if at the threat of death is vibrant, alive and filed with hope.
It starts with living Romans 12:1-2 in our daily lives. As we continue to seek in these 21 days, we must begin to pray for a Holy Fire from heaven to fall upon the altar we have placed ourselves on, and we must begin to deny all of the things in our lives that would prevents so an event from taking place.
We must lay aside thoughts, opinions and attitudes and submit to God. After all, the only problem with a living sacrifice is that it continually wants to crawl off the altar. Therefore on this day, Day Nine...we pray for the Fire of God's cleansing to fall upon the altar we've built, and upon our own lives.
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