Why there are so many ruined churches everywhere in the world?

     

Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace and feel His presence. Exhale your worries.

Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.   Sing a song to praise God (you are welcome to use "Father, I adore you" which I have been singing every morning for the past 20 years or your own choice to praise God)

          Father, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You.

          Jesus, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You.

          Spirit, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You.

      

Confession and Repentance (Subjective Shifting Devotion Method https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to shine on you that you are able to discover your sins and be willing to repent:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God and having Jesus as my Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sins to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

3.  John Stott's daily prayer of Christlikeness (Christopher J.H. Wright, Cultivating the fruit of the Spirit. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017, 13)

(Please click this link to see how God used John Stott to change my life:https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/

           "Heavenly Father, I pray that this day I may live in your presence and please you more and more.

             Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.

             Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

    

    The link to today's Time with Abba passages:   http://api.pastoralcareschool.org/twa/

    Time with Abba passages: (Psalm 21:1-7, Exodus 23:14-25:40; Matthew 24:29-51; Proverbs 7:24-27)

    Today's key passage:

     24 Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. 25 Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you,

      Exodus 23:24-25

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage we have just read. Offer this time to Jesus as you listen to him. 

   

     My Listening

    The topic I received from Jesus is: Why there are so many ruined churches everywhere in the world?

     The past ten years I have been to many places and I found out there are many ruined churches everywhere in the world, some of the churches became restaurants and some become temple for other religion.

     Today's Exodus 23:24-25 reminds me a painting of a ruined church in a hotel room Michelle and I stayed in Berlin three year ago. It shows the serious consequence of not listening to Exodus 23:24-25: 

    

    24 Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. 25 Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you,

      

    

    The Holy Spirit reminded me of a very horrible situation of this painintg. As you can see from the photos I took from my hotel room and a picture I found online of a Russian Orthodox Church, the painting is actually a demolished sanctuary of a church. What is so horrible is that this modern culture and art put a desolated hall as a good painting in a hotel room and in fact that is a demolished church!

    Why could this happen? We can find the reasons from today's passages:

     1. Without the joy of the presence of God 

         Today's Psalm 21:6 tells us that King David had that kind of "the joy of your presence", and so because of this kind of intimate relationship David's trust to God had not been shaken for he was in God's unfailing love! 

         It is so sad that in this modern culture, being able to listen to the voice of God and to experience the joy of His presence is like imaginary stories for children!

          Many Christians do not have daily devotion, going to worship on Sunday is like a habitual action and to make offerings is like paying the bill!

         Without the joy of the presence of God makes many churches close down. In some statistics, there are around 6,000 to 10,000 churches in North American close down each year!

          If we do not work hard, not listening to today's Jesus warning to "keep watch", may be someday you would see your close down church's painting in a hotel room somewhere in Europe! Sad!

    2. Not willing to demolish those idols this world has been worshipping but instead to follow their practices

             We can see that many years later the Israelites lost their nation and God's Holy temple being demolished is because they were not willing to demolish those idols. Actually, similar situation is happening now all over the world! What can you do?

    3. Not willing to make offerings

        I aware that right after God's declared the Ten Commandments, the first thing He ordered the Israelites to do is:

        a. To build an altar and to make offerings

         

            Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you.          Exodus 20:24

  

        b. No one is to appear before God empty-handed

          Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

No one is to appear before me empty-handed.     
Exodus 23:15

     

     I deeply believe that to turn the right side up has to start with you! First you need to spend time with God, Time with Abba everyday! So that you can experience the joy of His daily presence. Then, you need to demolish all kinds of idols in your heart. Then, you need to make more and more offerings. And, because of your vision, mission and action, you can be used by God, renewed by the Holy Spirit to become Discipler, Evangelist, Mentor and Planter to help more people to experience the joy of God's presence, to demolish the idols in their hearts and to make offerings that your church can be built up and to plant more churches.

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help us to follow your command so that we can experience the joy of your presence daily and that we are willing to demolish all the idols in our hearts and to be willing to make offerings to you to build up your churches. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

      Reflect on these questions:

     1. What inspiration have you received from today's catch and what have you heard from Jesus now?

      

      2.  What is your next step to be more closer to Jesus?

    

      Family Corner:

     Find an opportunity to share with your family the importance of today's message. 

     

Please click this link for the video version of this blog: 

    

     To know, learn and practice the method of Time with Abba, please click this link: https://www.pastoralcareschool.org