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A Warm Invitation to Church

This blog has been permanently relocated to https://www.removingbarriers.net Redirecting in seconds... Matthew 4:19 (And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.) “I do not care if you ever darken the doors of my church.” I would often say this to folks I am sharing the gospel with. My wife Jay did not like the tone of that statement and asked me to stop saying it. Tone aside, however, I mean it. I first said it to a person who accused me of evangelizing because I want more people to come to my church so offerings can increase. Our youth pastor lamented in a recent sermon, “We invite folks to a location rather than to the Person of Jesus Christ. That captures perfectly what I have felt all along. Too often, Bible believing Christians make it a habit to invite folks to a location. I decided years ago that I will never invite anyone to church without first tryin
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A Debtor to Mercy Alone

I wish I could say that a lot of prayer and thought went into the selection of the theme song that our kids now associate with the intro and outro of the Removing Barriers Podcast, but it was simply a battle to find something remotely acceptable and free. When I stumbled upon a site that offer free scared arrangements, I decided that we would choose something from there. It came down to two arrangements, and we settled on A Debtor to Mercy Alone because it fits Jay's voice best. I guess we realized that no arrangement would ever fit my voice.


This lovely hymn was written by Augustus Toplady, author of Rock of Ages, and it summarizes why Jay and I are motivated to spread the gospel and win the lost. After all, we are indeed debtors to His mercy alone.

The first stanza reads:

A debtor to mercy alone,
of covenant mercy I sing;
nor fear, with your righteousness on,
my person and off'ring to bring.
The terrors of law and of God
with me can have nothing to do;
my Savior's obedience and blood
hide all my transgressions from view.

Click here to read the rest of the lyrics.

If Christ's sacrificial death upon the cross does not motivate you to do your reasonable service for him (Romans 12:1) which includes your obedience to the great commission, and to be a light and salt in this dark world, then Christ's death has been of no effect in your life.

I know that with COVID, and by extension the current restrictions that are in place, have made it difficult to share your faith in ways we are used to, but I encourage you to find creative ways to obey our Lord and Savior's last command to "go" and tell others about the joys of repentant faith in Him. Just like our constitutional rights should not evaporate during a pandemic, our obedience to His commands should not evaporate during a pandemic either.

Thank you for listening. Our numbers have more than doubled in the past two weeks. If you are enjoying the podcast, I encourage you to leave a review on your favorite platform, whether it be Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, or YouTube.

Episodes you may have missed:

Episode 5 - Black Culture: a Monolith?

Episode 6 - Christians and Firearms with Bro. "MD"

Episode 7 - Why Did CHAZ-CHOP Fail? with "DW"

 

Upcoming episodes:

Episode 8 - Black Lives Matter -  The LGBTQIA+ Movement with Pastor Todd (Oct 3, 2020)

Episode 9 - The Sad State of Basic Theology (Part 1 of 3) (Oct 10, 2020)

 

Listen to the Removing Barriers Podcast here:


To leave us a voice message or support the podcast: https://anchor.fm/removingbarriers\

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