“ Teaching Christian Millennials To
Avoid Shinny Things”
I have a great deal of concern for many
of the next generation coming up here in America. Often times, they
refer to themselves as “Millennials” and I suppose there are other
terms or names that others may call them, but in any event, I am
greatly concerned for them and especially their spiritual walk with
Jesus of the Bible. Generally, Millennials have been left a legacy of a
Jesus other than who is in the Bible and have allowed themselves
also to be greatly distracted by culture. Please allow me to explain
why....
Gadgets are distracting,
Everywhere
you look, practically
every Millennials have something plugged in their ears, their eyes fixated on a
computer, phone, tablet or other type of electronic
device.
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with technology. In fact
technology is wonderful thing
when
used at the proper time and place. Unfortunately though,
many Millennials treat their gadgets as if they were married to the
dern things ! I'm not kidding. Personal and interpersonal
relationships suffer greatly when anyone focuses so much of their
time and attention on objects rather than on
people
such
as what many Millennials do.
In the church, I see many, not just Millennials using their Android
phones and tablets to read Bible Scripture when the pastor or someone
in the pulpit is preaching and or teaching. There is nothing wrong
with that. I personally choose to be old fashioned I guess, and use a
Bible in paper form, however
one wants to read the Bible, that's on them. Again however,
electronic gadgets can be misused.
Don't
tell me Millennials(and some older folks as well) don't get tired,
bored and distracted and slip in and out of their Facebook Accounts
during church
services
Let's be honest here, it's probably a good idea to leave those
gadgets home rather than bringing them to church services.
Is that a worship team, or is
that a rock band ?,
In
the last twenty
years
or so, I have visited, preached at and or
shared
at many churches across America. I can't always say I was blessed to
be in every
church
for one reason or another. What
disturbs my spirit in the
churches I was invited to or visited were
the church
buildings
with
ceilings and or walls painted
black.
And
when the “worship team” was
doing their thing, on came
all sorts of bright
flashing
lights, colorful lasers zooming
all
about
and
noises from those singing on the church building platform(or should I
say stage?). I was taught and have seen the great Biblical fruit of
worshiping Jesus without those lights, lasers and words
that have no meaning (like “whoa”, “La La”, etc...). I
usually see these sort of “shinny things”
in the
so
called “Hipster Churches” such as those associated with Hillsong,
some
in the
Assemblies
of God and other Pentecostal “denominations.” OK,
so by
now,
you may be saying by that I'm getting a bit legalistic here, but
how do you account for thousands of Chinese, Vietnamese and other
Christians outside the USA who during
their
church services choose not to have such types
of distracting entertainment
in their churches, but instead , because of their true love for Jesus,
not entertainment, during their
worship
time you find them prostrated on their knees, weeping and crying out
to Jesus and are absolutely able to be
blessed with the awesome presence of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of
their
true worship results
in
their
live
for Jesus as seen in their
daily walk
with Him, not just on Sundays. These real Christians although
are threatened with arrest and or torture by their governments, live
without fear or oppression and in fact, joy in the presence of danger
and
see real miracles such as Jesus
raising the
dead in
their presence.
Rarely will you find that kind of church service and faith-walk with Jesus among Americans. In America, many Millennials have grown up to
believe that church is all about being entertained, not about total
submission to Jesus
and the cross as believers outside the USA do(Luke 9:23) and
rarely ever get beyond emotionalism.
Revival without repentance,
This unbiblical belief has swept many Churches across America. One
could easily blame the Baby Boomer Generation for starting that
ungodly practice. Whatever
generation is at fault, the
problem we have now is that the
unbiblical belief that “revival
without repentance” has bled into the Millennial Generation now.
America and indeed the world is now filled with false teachers and so
called “prophets” who go about espousing
that they have “the anointing of the Holy Spirit” and tell
church folks that they can be “filled also.” There's no mention
from
them of
Jesus, no mention of the Cross of Christ and
following(only) Him,
and no mention either of the Biblical need to repent of one's sins.
I'm going to say something very strong here, and I certainly mean
every word I say...what
I am stating is not meant to harm anyone but I would tell all of you,
do not let these so called “Holy Spirit Revivalists” ever
touch
you, or pray over you. If they do not mention
in their words, sermons or preaching
that people
are
sinner's
and need to repent to receive Jesus, or to that “repentance”
is not part of anything they “preach”, avoid them like the
plaque. These people are nothing but money hungry charlatans.
Hearing preachers and “spitting
out the bones”, My
beautiful wife and I recently had several meetings with a local
pastor near where we live. In all appearances he loves people, he
wants to believe the best for all
and
indications
are, that he loves Jesus with a deep compassion. Those
are all
great and wonderful, Biblical characteristics
to have. He said one thing to my wife and I though
regarding
another world wide known preacher/evangelist he knows, he mentioned
to us that at one point in first knowing that evangelist, he
“had doubts” about her “but got to personally know her” and
“now chews the meat and spits out the bones” when
he hears her preach and teach.
I have heard that phrase(a
metaphor
regarding spitting out bad or deeply erred Bible teaching) for years
now. In fact, I
vaguely
remember sitting down with my good friend Jim years ago and asking
him about such matters. Jim knew I was a baby in the Lord at the time
and was very patient
with my
questions,
but towards the end of our discussion regarding those who state they
“eat the meat and spit out the bones”, Jim
agreed with me that interpreting and receiving God's Word that way is
a very damaging way to get “fed” because the believer in Christ
can get easily confused and even end up in a religious cult if they
are not seriously
grounded
in the Word of God. My fear for Millennials is that there are so many
“bones” being preached and taught in churches today, that Millennials will only end-up
bringing
up their own
children
to believe in matters that are even more sacrilegious
and unbiblical than
what we currently see
now.
There's
plenty of blame to go around for the
“shinny things”
Christian Millennials do, speak and act. The
time of blame is over and the need for true Biblical teachings and
values is past due.
Rev. Paul P. Waldmiller~Black Robe Regiment Pastor
Do You Know Jesus As Lord And Saviour ?
Find Out Here....
http://blackroberegimentpastor.blogspot.com/2014/09/do-you-know-jesus-christ-of-bible-as.html
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