Our Churches Must Become Christocentric

I remember the day I knelt in the altar of the Highland Park Baptist Church of Kilgore, Texas and a group of ordained men, both preachers and deacons (see photo at left), ordained my by the laying on of hands to the Gospel Ministry.  Prior to that moment which was the climax of the experience, I sat through a friendly but serious and rigorous questioning period by these same men. I was asked about my salvation and my call to preach. I was asked about my view of the church and other doctrines.

Dr. Edwin Mays, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Kilgore, served as the chairman of the ordination council that did this candidate evaluation. I got a lot of tough questions and a few softballs as well. Advice and admonitions were freely and lovingly given. It was an exhilarating time.

As Ed brought the council’s examination to a close having given each man opportunity to speak and ask whatever questions they desired he closed out by saying to me that I should adopt the Apostle Paul’s attitude toward sharing the Gospel and then quoted First Corinthians 2:1-5: “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I decided to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith would not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”

That was probably the most important piece of advice ever given to me by another preacher. My job as God’s preacher is not to be the congregations therapist, economic advisor, political activist. My job is to make Jesus known to all people through the proclamation of the Gospel.  In short he was telling me to make all my preaching Christocentric. I have endeavored to do just that. Now that was not the first time I had heard this advice.  My home church pastor told me the same thing when I “surrenderd” to preach. More importantly may pastors over the years practiced Christocentric preaching and as a result I witnessed the power of such preaching to meet the spiritual needs in people’s lives.  In fact, to this day there are others who would attest to these life changing experiences of which I speak.

Unfortunately we live in a day when this kind of focused preaching is an anomaly.  Now as I travel about and visit churches or listen to services broadcast on television I have to search hard to find the Christ anywhere in the message of the day. I usually learn a lot of psych-theology about raising my children; having a good relationship with my wife; about how to build a relationship with my neighbors and get along with society in general. If I do all that I can do that is what I get but if I let the Holy Spirit do all He can do I get what God can do. I think I prefer God's working rather than mine. Before we started stumbling all over ourselves to demonstrate to a secular world that we were legitimate and had a message that addressed their perceived needs we relied on the Holy Spirit to change lives.

Changed lives bring changed communities and changed communities produce a changed society and a changed society brings a changed world. But here is the catch only the life that is changed by the Holy Spirit of God can set in motion such a series of changes. I believe the church needs a  fresh touch by the Lord. We must never forget as we endeavor to reach the world for Christ that it is never about our effort but buy how God uses our witness.

We need to abandon this fruitless and powerless psycho-theology that is nothing but a pseudo

Christian 12 step plan. These may very well explain the process of change but they do not have the power to change. I watch a lot of “Christian” people jumping up and down singing and shouting but I see no miraculous changes. Those who witnessed the miraculous changes in peoples lives know of what I speak. Alcoholics (we called them drunkards) were saved and sobered in an instant; Abusive men were turned to kindness in a momentary experience during some service; . . . .  We saw lives changed as people in repentance and by faith were confronted with Jesus Christ and said in some fashion “Jesus is Lord.”  By the way, in nearly every instance the first thing the wanted to do was go to their family and/or friends at tell them what they had experienced.

Most “Christians” are not telling the Gospel story because they have not actually experienced the Gospel. I believe that if preachers were to return to Christocentric preaching they’d see half of their members come to true faith. The kind of faith that can stand when the praise band is entertaining them; the kind of faith that can look Isis in the eye and say, “Jesus is Lord.”

The truth is that this testimony is linchpin on which true faith and feigned faith hang. In the first century not one single “Christian” would have died if they had been willing to reject Christ by simply declaring “Ο Καίσαρας είναι Κύριος” (Caesar is Lord). Instead they said, “ο Ιησούς είναι Κύριος” (Jesus is Lord) and went to their death.  They were willing to give up what they could not keep to gain that which they could not loose . . . . eternal life. If one really want to feel the impact of Christocentric preaching one merely needs to view the motion picture Paul: Apostle of Christ.

We are living in a day like no other and yet is increasingly beginning to reflect the first century. Preachers should preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We should spend more time preaching against Sin and less time pointing out people’s sins. We need be declaring the universal truth that all of us are sinners and that all of us are repeatedly coming short of God’s expectations and what is more there I nothing that we can do other than to acknowledge our sin and receive God’s forgiveness by receiving Jesus Christ as Lord. We need to get back to basics . . . our world needs us to get back to basics so that those who do come to faith will be able to say “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness, so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

My concern is that we are so busy building religious kingdoms that we have forgotten the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.”  History tells us one thing for certain and that is everything done by man will return to the earth from which it came only that which is done for Christ will last. And just what do we do for Christ. Well, as one who has done so, I can tell you it is not beautiful houses of worship. It is living and telling what the Lord has done for you.

That’s why I stress the importance of Christocentric preaching. People need to know the Lord in a life changing way. If the core and focus of your life has not been changed then you need Jesus. Everyone who trust Jesus Christ as Lord is changed fundamentally. They become a new creature. Paul is so right when he says in Ephesians that he takes both the pagan and the Jew and makes of both of them a new kind of man (ἵνα τοὺς δύο κτίσῃ ἐν αὑτ  εἰς ἕνα καινὸν ἄνθρωπον ποιων εἰρήνην,). The kind of man who will knowingly stand and facing certain death declare “Jesus is Lord.” 

Another aspect of this is that he will not deny Jesus by his manner of living. You see, as much faith as it takes to not deny Jesus in the face of physical death it requires and equal faith to not deny him in our daily living. Our prayer should be “Lord help me to live in such a self forgetful way that others they face may see.”

As a Christian you have two ways of sharing the gospel. First, by telling what the Lord has done for you. Share your experience with the Lord.  Like the blind man you simply tell what you do know. “ I can’t answer all my own questions let alone yours but this one thing I do know, once I was blind but now I can see.”  Remember, your story is authentic. It is what you experienced.  As you make your way through life the Holy Spirit will open ways for you to share His story by sharing your story. Jesus told the healed demoniac to "’Return home and tell how much God has done for you.’ So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.” 

I can guarantee you that when you become a Christian and your life starts reflecting that fact people will take notice and you will have ample opportunity to tell them what the Lord has done for you and share the truth that He can do it for them as well.

The second is the manner of life you live.  Our lives are to reflect the life of Jesus. We used to sing, “Things are different now something happened to me when I gave my life to Jesus.”  Trust me, when Jesus saves you you’ll know it. The external signs may be minimal or they may be dramatic but the internal changes are always dramatic. “I once was lost but now I’m found was blind but now I see.” When we receive Christ as Lord He becomes our Savior by not just forgiving our sin but creating of us a καινὸν ἄνθρωπον (new kind of man) called Christian.

This is the creative work of the Holy Spirit and it enables the Christian to life on a higher plane morally and ethically. We express this theologically as “Christ in us the hope of glory.”  This also explains the miraculous stories in the Bible and in my home church. I want us to once again experience in our churches the powerful life changing work of the Holy Spirit.

There is a little chorus called “Let Others See Jesus In You” that sums this up pretty well . . . . . “While passing thro' this world of sin, and others your life shall view, Be clean and pure without, within; Let others see Jesus in you. Your life's a book before their eyes, They're reading it thro' and thro' Say, does it point them to the skis, Do others see Jesus in you? Then live for Christ both day and night, Be faithful, be brave and true, and lead the lost to life and Christ. Let others see Jesus in you.”

Paul’s name is one that is remembered from those early days of the Faith but there were hundreds of thousands of others whose names are lost to history who faithfully lived their lives day by day expressing the gifts of the Spirit to their community. It was this that drew their neighbors to faith. They may have seen and heard Paul preach once or twice but their neighbors they saw each day. The love and compassion they shared and the strength of their faith in the face of ridicule, persecution and death cause people to stand up and take notice and they soon discovered for themselves that what He did for other He also will do for them.

Hebrews 12 introduces us to what I call God’s Hall of Fame by pointing out that all the believers before us are as it were a great cloud of witnesses encouraging us to complete our race. In light of what many of those between the day that these words were penned and our day many have actually died for the faith and have been added to this collection of faithful saints whose names have been entered into God’s Hall of Fame.  “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

I learned the following poem from my Grandmother and it has been important to my Christian life since then. It helps me keep things in perspective. Maybe, it will speak to your heart as well.

Your name may not appear down here
In this world’s Hall of Fame.
In fact, you may be so unknown
That no one knows your name;
The headlines here may pass you by,
The neon lights of blue,
But if you love and serve the Lord,
Then I have news for you.

This Hall of Fame is only good
As long as time shall be;
But keep in mind, God’s Hall of Fame
Is for eternity.
This crowd on earth they soon forget
The heroes of the past.
They cheer like mad until you fail
and that’s how long you last.
But in God’s Hall of Fame
By just believing on His Son
Inscribed you’ll find your name.

I tell you, friend, I wouldn’t trade
My name, however small,
That’s written there beyond the stars
In that Celestial Hall,
For any famous name on earth,
Or glory that it shares;
I’d rather be an unknown here
And have my name up there.

The Church: We Need To Go Back To Where We Started!

I begin with the prayer of Habakkuk the prophet.  "Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy." (Habakkuk 3:1-2) and a challenge:  "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; (Isaiah 51:1).

Most of us recognize that Christianity, especially evangelical Christianity, is losing ground in our culture. Christian’s seem to want to hide the fact that they are Christians from their non-Christian friends; Our institutions no longer even pay “lip-service” to our world view and ethical standards; we are certainly not being public with our faith. When we are public about our faith it is usually in a negative way; and it seems that we are prouder of what we stand against than what we stand for. We also find with each passing day a new attack on some aspect of the public expressions of our faith in our businesses and government. The Gospel seems to be an "inconvenient Truth" to our evolving culture that must be marginalized, dismissed or just plain done away with..

I heard today that while 80% of the people in America claim to Christian’s only about 20% actually attend worship services. I also learned that of that 20% who do attend worship services regularly only 65% will have actually opened and read their Bibles over a one year period of time.  I suspect that many of those who do read the Bible do not accept it as God's word. We have the largest churches in the world just down the road from where we live. These churches broadcast their services on television and through live streaming on the Internet. Their pastors and musicians have national followings and have written books on virtually every subject imaginable and still despite all this the influence of Christianity is declining with each passing day.

One writer recently said that Christianity is going to loose the “battle” with Islam because most

people who claim to be Christians do not have real life changing and courage generating faith in Jesus Christ. He went on to say, “They will capitulate and convert to save their lives. There are none in America, he said, who will stand in the face of having their heads removed from their bodies that will declare “Jesus is Lord.”’

I recall my wife’s uncle, then pastor of a large Mississippi church during what I call the pre-mega church era saying essentially the same thing. He said, “I have a church full of people who as Christians are a 100 miles wide and only a few inches deep. The slightest trouble or trial that comes into their life destroys them.”  They are desperately in need of a closer walk with the Lord.

As I listened to this I thought to myself, “These things ought not to be.” If they are true and I suspect they are, what is the reason and what is the answer.” I also thought, “If I am to find an explanation and an answer where do I turn?”

My first thought was that I need to go back in time to a time and place when Christianity was turning the world upside down. The persistent witness of the church was penetrating the Roman world and its myriad of cultures and changing them. If we are going to recapture the ability to impact the world in which we live with the Gospel we are going to have to discover what it was about those early believers that shook the world.

The first thing I think of when I think of those early believers is the testimony of the man who was born blind and Jesus healed his blindness. He couldn’t answer all the questions that the religious leaders plied him with. Instead, all he would says was, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"

All he could do was tell what he had experienced. But then that is the secret, he had experienced something and was willing to talk about what he knew. So, in my mind we must make sure that we have actually had a genuine life changing experience with Jesus Christ. That’s the beginning. Until one has had a life changing experience with Jesus Christ you cannot go another step.

That life changing experience comes when we by faith accept Jesus Christ as our Lord. Paul said it so simply when he stated, “Whosoever declares that Jesus is Lord shall be saved.” Charles Austin Miles penned it so well in his song But This I Know . . . .

I do not know the depths of Jesus' love,
That brought Him down to earth from heaven above,
Nor why He bore the cross up Calvary
And shed His precious blood so willingly.

I do not know what pain He suffered there,
The burden of my sin and shame to bear.
It may be well to hide it all from me,
Lest my own heart should break in sympathy.

I do not know what I can do, or say,
My debt of gratitude to Him to pay;
But I at least may cry,"O Christ divine!
Had I a thousand lives they should be Thine."

But this one thing I know: That when the crimson flow
Dropped to the earth below,  It fell on me.
My eyes were opened wide, I saw Him crucified,
And knew for me he died.

This is the foundation of the Christian faith.  People do not become Christians through teaching about better homes, marriages, finances etc. They will not become Christians by works of righteousness or giving of alms. People become a Christian by faith in Jesus Christ as their living Lord.  This is the kind of faith that transforms a life. In point of fact you become a new creation in Christ Jesus.  There are not many ways to be righteous before God. There is but one way and Jesus himself stated it plainly when he said, I am the truth, the way and the life and no one comes to the Father but by me.”  Christianity is inclusive in that salvation is offered to all and it is exclusive in that it only given to those who put the whole weight of their faith in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

I am here to tell you the power of the early church and the power of the church in which I was raised were one and the same thing. The power of God to change lives was witnessed on a regular basis. We have turned everything in that incipient church’s experience into metaphors when they were is that day actual historical events. Lives were really being changed. A thief is saved and he steals no more; a murderous man is saved and he kills no more; an overbearing husband and father is saved and he ceases to be overbearing. Real lives were really changed and that impacted the community.

They community saw these changes that could not be attributed to anything but the working of the Holy Spirit and because they lived in the community and knew the former way of life of their neighbors and understood the magnitude of the changes the Gospel made in their lives. If the world is going to be impacted by the gospel as it was in the days of Peter, James and John then lives are going to need to be changed the same way of Paul, the blind man and the jailer of Philippi.

When I was a young preacher our community had an abundance of people like myself who felt the call of God on our lives to preach the Gospel. Our churches had pastors who understood that calling because they themselves had the self-same call. Consequently they opened their pulpits to us as you preachers and we began at an early age. I think I was 17 when I preached my first sermon before a Sunday night packed house. I mention this to give context to what I want to say about our merry band of young preachers.

First, we had little education in theology. The depth of your theological thinking was what we got in having grown up in Sunday School. That meant we weren't doing any "in-depth" preaching. It was short and to the point and always included the fact that people are sinners, Jesus died for their sin, by faith Jesus would come into their life, forgive their sin and give them eternal life. We then offered an invitation (altar call) to receive Christ and more often than not people were saved. Before these meetings where we preached we spent hours during the preceding week praying that God would honor His word and lives would be changed. You see we knew our inadequacy and so we heavily depended upon the Holy Spirit to use what we offered. We always saw the lives changed not as a result of our ability to preach but as the product of the Holy Spirit's power to convict and convert. "To God be the Glory great things He has done." I am saying we need to see God do these kinds of great things in our presence so we have a real reason to sing "Great is the Lord."

It was on the power of these personal stories of faith stories and hundreds more like them that got the cultures attention. So much so that one city official declared that “These people who are literally turning our world on its head have come here also.”  The first church which had nothing but their faith and the Holy Spirit were penetrating their world by nothing more complex than the stories of their own transformed lives. It was simple: They said “He lives.” The world says, “How do you know?” They replied, “Because He lives within my heart and you can see the evidence of that in what I say and do.”  They would then add, “And what He has done for me He has done for you and will effect in your life if you have faith in Him.”  In many ways it was the observation of a changed life that gave opportunity for the believer to say, "Well, let me tell you about the greatest thing that has ever happened in my life" and then followed that by telling what the Lord had done for them. Nothing has changed in this regard.

Now keep in mind, and I know this will be hard to do, that these people did not have the Internet, cell phones, or any of the other electronic devices. They did not have marketing gurus to promote their branding and the did not have sales specialists to teach them how to convince people how to accept their message. They did it through the belief that the Spirit of God through the power of the redemptive story of Jesus Christ and its impact on their individual lives. They simply believed there was power in His story and all they had to do was tell His story and live like him.

They did not target sins but they did target Sin. The modern church does one of two things. We either focuses on individual sins and therefore we join marches, protest, boycotts and engage in shouting matches and condemnation of whole groups of people. We find ourselves in the condemnation business instead of the business of delivering the good news of God’s loved and grace.

Other Christians opt to just ignore sinful behavior in favor of the universal love of God for people. They focus on the nature of God. After all does the Bible not say that “God is love?” Indeed it does but it nowhere elevates love to God. The result of this is that people enter the church bringing all their , shall I use the word, “pagan” ways with them. Neither of these occurred to the early church.

The church, if it is to impact the culture in which we live is going to have to get back to basics. The pulpit needs to consistently and continually proclaim the kerygma (the essentials of the Apostles doctrine) and Christians in general need to live consistent lives that demonstrate to an unbelieving world the power of the Gospel to change lives. To emulate Peter and John who said, Silver and Gold we have none but what we do have give we unto you.”   To copy the example of Jesus who said, “The son of man came not to be ministered to but to minister.”

I am not saying this cannot happen with the mega churches but I am not hopeful. I feel strongly that we need to abandon the corporate model for doing church and revive the family model. We were more influential in our communities when our churches were smaller. More lives were powerfully changed than we see today. We developed a Christian culture that while scattered among a dozen church groups infected the whole community. Personally I am not even sure that God ever intended for the church to become institutionalized. There are even companies that specialize in Church Branding, Church Marketing plans and programs, Fund raising companies specializing in churches, architects and builders who do nothing but churches. In short, there are whole industries dependent upon the growth of the mega-church movement.

However, I am pretty sure the modern mega-church is not what He had in mind for His people. The New Testament seems to suggest that the church should meet in small groups (“from house to house” is the phrase) where relationships could be established with depth and where the “least of these my brethren” will not be overlooked.

This return to the family model will be hard because it will have an impact of the religious business industry that has risen around the mega-church. Sermons and books by prominent pastors are copyrighted though produced during their pastoral tenure. Christian musicians now police their music so that small church have to purchase a use license from copyright companies to even sing the songs and God forbid you record one during your service and put it on Youtube. It is a whole new approach to “My house is a house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves.” The spiritual gifting of God is for the edification of the church not the financial enrichment of the believer.

Unfortunately, the corporate model all but eliminated our being the arms and feet of Jesus to “our” world. We want grand concerts with superstar musicians powerfully singing wonderful “new” songs. We have worship teams that are little more than our own full time gospel singers who entertain us with their abilities. There is no place for the weaker brothers and sisters, or the less talented. Many wonder how can they compete with the virtuosos on the platform? Truth be told, I would never heard my mother sing "Face to Face" in church on a Sunday morning in today's worship services.

We are to be a family of believers who come to the same table to dine and go into the same community to live out our faith. What would happen if our communities started seeing people once again dramatically saved. I know I can recite from my own youth many cases where it was clear to all present that what was happening was the Lord’s doing and not anything we had done. Were we surprised? No, we expected God to work. The surprise came when it didn’t happen.

What I am getting at is that the church is the Lord’s body. It is His hands, feet, ears, mouth etc. in the world today. Our churches, though small by today’s standards, would have large groups meeting to pray that they become as the disciples at Pentecost . . . in one place and one accord; To confess sin and receive forgiveness; To experience encouragement and share burdens; And, to acknowledge that it was not by might nor by power but by the Spirit of God that people came to faith and were healed.

In short tell His story by telling your story and validate your changed life through the actions you take and the attitudes you express.

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.

In Christ there is no East or West,
No North or South;
Only one great love
Inside and out.

True hearts everywhere
Some deaf and some blind
Singin' one melody
Lost souls cannot find.

Join hands and have faith,
Whatever your race may be!
Who serves my Father as a son
Is surely kin to me.

In Christ now meet both East and West,
There is no black or white
Only one great love
Hatred cannot divide

Join hands and have faith,
Whatever your race may be!
Who serves my Father as a son
Is surely kin to me.

Join hands and have faith,
Forgive your enemy
Surely we're all a part
Of one big family.

The Bible: God's Message to Humanity

There has been a lot of talk about Billy Graham in the wake of his home going. There is much talk about the simplicity of his preaching, the focus of his message the integrity of his living, and the humility of his character. News media has spoken of his being “Pastor to the nation” and confidant of Presidents and other world leaders. We have revisited his roll in the civil rights movement and the tearing down of the Iron Curtain. Make no mistake about it . . . .this humble man from North Carolina was a mighty man of God during our day.  Millions can testify to hearing him preach, multitudes will tell you were saved because he came to their town. A handful of people can claim to have walked close by his side and a few of us brushed the hem of his garment.

He was a gift of God to a lost and dying world reminding us that God still loves us and though we have sinned and come short of God’s expectations He sent his own Son to give His life for our sin so that whosever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  But by his own testimony he said he could not go one step further in ministry until he settled the matter of whether or not he could trust the Bible. After much trivial and searching of soul he finally came to say that he didn’t understand it all but that by faith he believed it all and the rest is history.

Folks the Bible, the Word of God and I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ it declares: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”

When I was a young preacher having only preached in my home church I had a chance meeting with Dr. Billy Graham at the Houston Baptist College. If was brief as he was leaving the property but for reasons I shall never know this side of heaven as he left shaking hands with those lined along his path he took my hand, looked directly into my eyes as though he were looking at my soul and ask what my plans were for my life. I replied, that God had only recently called me to preach. He then said, "That's good . . . .preach the Bible." With that he moved on but I have never forgotten that handshake, those focused eyes and that advice to "preach the Bible."

He may have said that a thousand times before to other but that day it was to me and it stuck. In turn over my 50 plus years of preaching I have given that same advice to a lot of preachers. It is something that I have endeavored to do myself and it is my advice to all who would seek to be a preacher.  Billy Graham has been, and rightly so, lauded for staying on message. He literally purposed in his heart an d through his preaching to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified. His message could be summed up in a few basic Scriptural truths.

 1 .God loves us.
 2. All have sinned
 3. Sin separates us from God.
 4. We cannot overcome the consequences of our sin.
 5. God knowing this sent Jesus, His Son, to die on the cross to pay the price of our sin.
 6. God raised Jesus from the dead
 7. Those who by faith accept Jesus as Savior and Lord have their sin forgiven.

To me these seven ideas formed the core of the Gospel and the summation of everything that Scripture declared. If you do not believe these I do not see how you can call yourself a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the Gospel and there is no other. Jesus said emphatically that he “is the way the truth and the life and that no one, absolutely no one comes to the Father but through Him.

“Preach the Bible” . . . . . . . those words ring in my are to this day. Through four years at what I believe to be one of the nations preeminent conservative Christian Colleges and three years at the world’s largest theological seminary I would be exposed to a wide range of theological theories and positions. But when I walked of off the campus of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for the last time as a student I did so with the same rock solid faith in the Bible as God’s word.  To this day I cannot understand how anyone can reject the Bible as God’s Word and call themselves a Minister of the Gospel.

After all, was it not on accepting the authority of God’s word that I came to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. If I could not trust the veracity of the Scripture how could I trust its promise that God loved me.  Early in my life I adopted the motto of the Apostle Paul, “Who be unto me if I preach not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

We are living in a society that has largely relegated the Bible to some dusty shelf or cabinet drawer. It is rarely taken out and read. When it is it is usually to debate some arcane doctrine or esoteric point of view.  Billy Graham tells of his having doubts about the Bible and having to have a dramatic confrontation with God in the woods to settle in his heart the roll of the Bible. I have no such story. In fact, it was not un til I crossed paths with people who rejected the Bible and the loving God it spoke about that I even knew not accepting the Bible as God’s word was an option.

So let me say clearly that today I cannot say with the late B.H. Carroll that “there are only a few things in the Bible I don’t understand but I reckon its because I have not studied it enough.”  Well, there are a lot of things I still don’t understand but there is not a single passage that I do not believe to be God’s word.  I must tell you that in all my years I have never seen or heard of a preacher who doubted the Bible . . . . . never in my life, never in my life, never ever.

I heard the following story from Dr. Criswell when he preached the dedication sermon for the First Baptist Church of Longview.  Here is a little description of it.  Seems “there were two mischievous boys who got a hold of the preacher’s Bible and glued some of the pages together.  And the preacher stood up to deliver his sermon, and he read his text, ‘And in those days, Noah took unto himself a wife.’  And he turned what he thought was one page and continued to read, ‘And she was . . . fifteen cubits broad, thirty-five cubits long, made out of gopher wood, and daubed on the inside with pitch.’ He held up the Book and said, ‘My brothers and sisters, that’s the first time I’ve ever read that in the Word of God, but if the Word of God says it, I believe it!’  Amen, amen, amen.  ‘Just goes to show,’ he said, ‘we am wonderfully and fearfully made.’" 

So I grew up believing every word of this Book is inspired, inerrant, and infallible and brings us the good news of God’s love.  I wish that could be said for all my colleagues in ministry. Some began questioning the Scripture as a result of theological studies, some because of harsh life experiences and others for reason only they know. When God called me He called me to preach. He did not call me to be a pastor but to be a preacher. Being a pastor was a means to a platform from which to preach. I used to tell Pastor Search Committees that they were not paying me to be a preacher. As a preacher I did not work for them. I was called of God and took my lead from  God in the matter of preaching. Preacher was what I was.  What they paid for was that other part, the platform, i.e., being their pastor. I was God’s preacher and their pastor.

I also felt that when it came to the worship service my job was to preach the Bible. I was not called to be their psychotherapist though I understand psychotherapy and I was not there to teach them how to become healthy, wealth, and wise although if they were to abide by the word of God these needs may very well be met. My job was to preach the Gospel and then step aside and allow the Holy Spirit to do His work.  Every wonder why Billy Graham was so successful with his services. Well, I’ll tell you anyway. Dr. Graham preached the Gospel, told them people what they needed to do and the stepped aside and let the Holy Spirit do what only He can do, i.e., quicken the spiritually dead.

I fear the is the element that is missing in today’s Mega-Church era. I suspect if Billy Graham were living today and were to preach in any of our Mega-churches you might find half the congregation come to salvation. What do suppose would happen if every pastor went to their pulpit this Sunday and preached a Billy Graham content sermon. Now I did not say style but content. Style of preaching changes from person to person and age to age but the content should not. I believe it is time that we as church leaders we must return to our core beliefs and move away from the psychologically inspired gospel because in truth it is not gospel at all.  God said in His word, “I change not” and we should give care that the changeless God’s eternal message is not changed through our modern psycho-religious preaching.

Let me give you some really good advice for regarding the Bible. First, by faith accept the Bible as God’s word and second as I have suggested to every congregation in churches I served as a pastor and to a multitude of individuals face-to-face, that you read one chapter of Proverbs a day and three chapters of Psalms each day in addition to any other Bible reading that you do.  Do this faithfully for one year and it will change your life.

I once announced from the pulpit that when I die and my mortal remains are laid to rest that I want them to take my Bible and put it on my chest so when people pass by to see where I used to live for the last time, I want them to see me with a Bible in my hand.  Now I am announcing to my children that same thing.