Announcements

THANKSGIVING--We will have a special Thanksgiving Service this Wednesday (11/21) at 7PM. Please come prepared to give thanks to the Lord and share at least one thing for which you are especially thankful this year.

CHRISTMAS--New Beginnings' first Christmas Banquet will be held on Sunday evening, December 16, at Cumberland Mountain State Park. More information will be forthcoming, but please mark your calendar for this event.

What do people see?

Of 18 to 30 year olds in this country who have quit church, a whopping 26% say their reason for leaving was that the church is simply too judgmental, this according to a LifeWay Research report printed in Leadership Journal (Fall 2007).

It would be very easy for churches to assume that this generation simply doesn’t want to hear the truth, but the fact is that they do want to hear the truth but they also need to see some realities of true Christianity!

In reading from the gospel according to John, something jumped out at me recently. Jesus had returned to Bethany six days before the Passover and He had dinner with Lazarus, Mary and Martha. His disciples were apparently there too, but then John records this:

“Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead” (John 12:9).

As I pondered this passage it occurred to me that these people of the Jews who came to see Lazarus were needing to verify that this Jesus was truly who He was declared to be. They needed to see that Lazarus was, in fact, risen from the dead. They needed to see that there was, in fact, a change! Indeed, it was because they saw Lazarus alive again that many of them believed on Jesus (John 12:11).

It is a theological truth that sin separates us from God. Our sin is an offense to Him and prohibits us from enjoying fellowship with Him. It was Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden that broke the perfect fellowship between him and God. That same sin, because it is so repulsive to Holy God, resulted in judgment.

“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).

This does not, however, diminish God’s love for us! The Scripture is very clear on this subject. Paul said, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, emphasis mine). John attested to this when he wrote, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

Could it be that one of the reasons so many people have decided that they don’t need church is because they see so few examples of true change in the lives of those who call themselves disciples of Christ? Could it be that we Christians are sometimes too judgmental and legalistic—harshly sharing truths of Scripture without the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ?

I am convinced that the key to evangelism today is not so much in the words we say, but in the authentic love we share!