Posts by Jim Elliff (Page 17)
Another Concerning Report About SBC Churches
If you were a pastor of a church of 80 members, with 23-24 people attending on average each Sunday, would you say the church is healthy (or 800 members with 230-240 attending)? If 4 or so of those 23-24 were not members, but children or guests, how would that affect your view of the health of the church? What if more than a third of those 23-24 didn’t attend any small group? I’ve just described the SBC churches (and some…
A Merciful Awakening, Please Lord
Though one can in some ways understand the desire to be inclusive (without expecting repentance) in the name of love as espoused in most mainline churches, it is a sad pattern that has emerged by that conviction —- the more inclusive they have become, the more they disintegrate. This pattern has been almost painful to watch, as literally millions have left these churches while they press on to disregard the true exclusivity of the gospel, that is, the good news…
Don’t Let God Rob You
The music was quietly playing before the offertory when my brother Tom stepped up solemnly to the podium and uttered these words: “Don’t let God rob you.” There was a pause. Clearly he was in a hard place. He had misspoken, but he wasn’t one who liked to admit such blunders at such moments in those days. He had said it very deliberately. I know, you would have said, “Whoops! I meant, ‘Don’t rob God.” Not Tom. His strengths were…
Reading Scripture Rightly
When reading a section of Scripture, we will find that a passage almost always comes across weighted on one side of an issue or another. I mean this: a passage is written intended to drive a certain point home, aimed at a particular audience, for a specific reason by an author who knew what was needed. He drives his nail to the heart. That passage should stare at us, disturb us and call us to action and faith. We should…
The Change of Mind
The young man was dying—without Christ. “I have a habit,” he said, as he looked up from the bed that had been moved into the living room for his last few weeks on earth. “I know that it is sin and that God does not permit it. I want to continue my habit, however, and I honestly don’t intend to stop it. On the other hand, I desperately want to go to heaven. May I become a Christian?” How would…
God’s Purpose Isn’t Ruined by Unbelief: Don’t Be Discouraged
It isn’t “The Parable of the SOILS” in Mt 13:1-23, but The Parable of the SOWER, as Jesus himself called it (v18). The importance of this title is to show that it was CHRIST’S word, or the gospel, that is sown and that it is HIS intention to sow seed on the soil (people) who will NOT believe, as well as on those who would. Jesus is not ambiguous. He clarifies that the gospel is able to be understood by…
Fiscal Hilarity
It would be difficult to imagine any giver doing so often or generously without joy in doing it. I began to be curious about giving early on. In fact, I can still picture the book on giving that my mother read to me, one of only two children’s books I remember. Later in college, my first book on George Muller, the man who fed and clothed over 10,000 orphans, made the deepest impression. I was drawn into a lifestyle that…
A Severe Darkness: A Letter From Jim
Dear CCW family, All people without Christ walk in darkness, but few perceive it. Some do however. To them, the story below will seem abstract yet real. Here is that person’s testimony: I went to the subway as I had been told. I rode to the far east of the city, to the last stop. I got out. The train left, and I felt along the moist wall until I found the opening I had been told about. I stepped…
A Dangerous Religious Presumption
There is a religious assumption that each of us is worthy of God’s love, even though some of us tragically think so little of ourselves that we struggle to have any morsel of self-worth. But this view is more therapeutic than true. No, we are not worthy of God’s favor. The self-respecting Pharisee thanked God he was not like others, even that compromised, broken tax collector praying close by who couldn’t lift his head up to God. He had no…
Fifty-five Years: A Letter From Jim
Dear CCW family, It was 55 years ago that I first read the book, George Muller of Bristol, by A. T. Pierson. I remember where I sat to read it. It was my sophomore year at Ouachita Baptist University. I had borrowed the book from my father’s library and was sitting in the sun outside of my apartment. As I read the words and imagined the actions of Muller, I was moved deeply. Muller had fed and clothed over 10,000…
A More Spontaneous and Genuine Evangelism
It was not Jesus’ intent to say that the individual Christian must change locations in order to evangelize. But it is most certainly the whole church’s responsibility to see to it that we make disciples where we are, now. Evangelism is not to be done later when the move takes place, or when the trip is taken to another far off country, or when the special evangelistic project commences, though it is certainly inclusive of these. Yet, nothing is more…
Don’t Be Like the Ant
Don’t be like the ant who thought that it was his strong legs that pushed the log down the river. He overestimated. No pastor, teacher, or serious Christian could possibly know accurately what God does through our words and work. Not really. Evaluation of effects is futile and frustratingly unpredictable. It may be years before gospel seed germinates. How can you know if or when or how He does that? And your most effective moment may come and go without…
Deacons in the New Testament: Questions and Answers from the Elders of Christ Fellowship of Kansas City
The office of deacon has been subject to a wide variety of practices and interpretations, even among biblically minded Christians. Much of this variance stems from the fact that few New Testament passages mention the office, let alone explain its function. Yet the biblical information we do have indicates that deacons are a vital aspect of “how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the…
Lofty Grosart: A Letter From Jim
Dear CCW family, Like many of you, we are aware of the battle for the mind. We are especially concerned that those who profess to know Christ do indeed know him. As we write and speak, we are always aware of deception. “These things I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you,” John said in the epistle of 1 John. Paul told Timothy about those who were deceiving and being deceived (2 Tim 3:13). This…
Revival May Not Bring What You Expect
Christianity survived and grew in totalitarian regimes in its first centuries and has done so many times since. We need revival desperately, but it does not necessarily create a political/cultural reversal except in individuals and churches. It more likely will increase polarization and bring on added misunderstanding and persecution as it did in the earliest days recorded in Acts. Revival is even strongly associated with splintering among denominations because of the inability of revived people to continue in their old…
Something Like Hell
I once saw a horrible sight at the coffee shop while discussing the Bible with a friend. A man, obviously in an advanced stage of dementia, gnashed his teeth, shook violently in anger, and cringed with fear for several agonizing minutes. I’m often moved by the plight of mental anguish. My mother died of Alzheimer’s. We cannot always tell which direction dementia will take. Will it turn a person angry or will he be docile? So, with respect, and with…