I woke up this morning to the sounds of an old hymn of the church playing in my mind and spirit. My mind was playing a scene of a typical church service I attended as a child. Back then we didn’t know it was praise and worship; we called it “the song service.” The melody was pre-1950’s and the words were these:
“I believe that Jesus saves and his blood washes whiter than snow. (repeated twice)
I lay in bed quietly so as not to disturb my wife, but in my mind I was having old time church as over and over again my mind played that song. It was more than a nostalgic moment. I was being taken back in time to “old church.” We called it “churchin” back then. All day Sunday was dedicated to churchin’.
We started with Sunday school followed by morning service. We’d have dinner most of the time at the church in the basement. Come up from dinner for afternoon Missionary service, take a break after Missionary service and conclude the day with night service.
Our night services we called evangelistic services. They were hot! “Testimony service” was the main feature of those meetings. It was a time when believers new and old got up and gave their reports, called “testimonies,” of what God had done for them. Usually, a powerful leader named Mother Mary Flowers conducted the testimony service. Her husband played the piano and could wear it out.
She’s an old mother in Zion now and still anointed, but in her day Mother Flowers could lead that service like no other. She didn’t allow anyone to “break the flow of the Spirit.” If someone got up and started rambling on about something other than the goodness of God, Mother Flowers would gently but effectively sit them down. If they resisted her she’d sing them down.
She was so good at keeping the service hopping. Sometimes a person would start a song that “the Spirit” got into. From that point on Mother Flowers would use that song only. After each person gave his or her testimony, Mother started the song back up. The atmosphere was electrified. People brought their own tambourines and shakers to add a rhythmic flavor to the moment. When night service was over, we’d all go home satisfied knowing that we’d had “church!”
The next day we would call each other up to review the happenings of the night before. We would tell the people on the job about the services thinking that we were making them jealous for not having come themselves.
Testimony service had a specific and fundamental purpose in the overall vision of the church ministry. It was a training ground for believers to improve their skills at articulating their faith. The thought was that if one could tell of the goodness of God in the service, they would be better able to do the same thing out in the world. This idea was rooted in the understanding that believers had an obligation and responsibility to witness for Jesus.
An equally important purpose of Testimony service was its responsibility to reiterate, reaffirm and reestablish the doctrines of the church. Our songs and statements revealed the tenets of our confession. Anyone sitting in our services would already have an inkling of what we believed long before the preacher preached. This brings me back to my waking up experience today.
I realized this morning how much I miss those days. In fact my wife said to me not too long ago, with a note of sadness in her voice, that church just isn’t like it used to be. We weren’t sophisticated back then; we didn’t have the elegance of style, the dazzling special effects of technology nor the massive exposure that media provides, but we did have power! Our power was given to us I believe as God’s response to our passion. We loved God, and we loved the mission of the church.
God was much more to us than a meal ticket and a blessings factory. Jesus meant everything to us. We lived a life of sacrifice and devotion. We were on a mission. No, we weren’t perfect, but we were accountable. It was generally understood back then that our purpose was to win the lost to Jesus. Salvation was our battle cry, and we took our assignment seriously. We had the message of Salvation drilled into us. We knew clearly that there were dire consequences to a life of sin. We were not confused about the fact that Satan was our enemy and Jesus was our deliverer.
The church leadership taught us over and over again that Jesus was coming soon. We were taught that our responsibility was to work hard to make sure that our friends, relatives, neighbors even our enemies knew that without Christ they were doomed to experience the lake of fire.
We didn’t ask people did they go to church. We asked people “Are you saved?” Witnessing it was called in those days was a regular part of our lives almost daily. Our church services were a kind of rendezvous place for us after a week of living and witnessing for Jesus. Church was the place where we came to be recharged. But it was also the place where we’d bring the people to whom we had witnessed.
Our conviction was that if we did our part and witnessed to people followed by bringing them to our church the Lord would do the rest using the whole service as the final component needed to get people saved. We actually believed that the “song and testimony” services served as a preparation of the atmosphere that made preaching easy and effective. It was this mindset that caused us to sing songs that divulged our confession of faith.
The lyrics “I believe that Jesus saves and his blood washes whiter than snow” communicated unambiguously our theology. Not all of our songs were thumping either. In that same testimony service we’d sing a kind of altar call song too. There were times when people didn’t wait for the preaching to come to the Lord, they would run to the altar during testimony service as we sang: “Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid? Your all doth the Spirit control oh o’ oh oh oh oll? You can only be blessed and have peace and sweet rest, as you yield Him your body and soul.”
In the Bible, the prophet Haggai comes to a people enjoying a rich legacy of having had the oracles of God entrusted to them for centuries. The prophet stands in front of the temple I imagine and asks the questions: “Is there any among you that remembers this temple in its first glory? How do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison as of nothing? I wonder would you let me imitate Haggai now?
I mean no disrespect. I freely acknowledge that we have great churches whose ranks are swelled with people. But are they all saved? I did a review of the songs we now sing and the sermons now preached. I can’t avoid noting that the messages they convey seem to center around us. We’re going to our next level. We are blessed; our money is coming in abundance; and their ain’t no stoppin’ us now!
Absent from our contemporary lyrics and sermon content, in many cases, are any allusions to the soon coming of the Lord, rebuke for sinful lifestyles, conviction for wrong doing, accountability for actions nor affirmation of holiness being the life that pleases God. We can still hear about Jesus, but he is relegated to being our “life coach” not our soul saver! I wonder if we picked people at random from our congregations and asked them to tell us both what they believed and what their church’s doctrines were could they do a credible job?
Recently the Pew Research Corporation did a survey and discovered that atheists and agnostics answered more questions correctly about the Christian faith and the Bible than did those professing to be believers. I don’t doubt the accuracy of their findings.
I am not asking us to return to using outdated melodies. I am asking us to return to the Cross of Christ as the principal motivation for our actions and lifestyle. The apostle Paul was onto something when he affirmed that he was determined to know nothing among his contemporaries than Jesus Christ and him crucified. I pray for us all, including myself, that we not preach for income, popularity or as a vehicle for getting more people to become members. I pray that we stop writing songs with a view to our place on the music charts or with visions of us standing on the stage receiving music awards.
Join me in reaffirming the fact that we are sold out to Jesus and want our entire existences to reflect his glory and present his message of salvation. I still believe that Jesus saves and his blood washes whiter than snow. Let me then close with the great doxology of the scriptures: Psalms 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. God bless you “The TechnoRev.”
Author Note: In a previous post I began detailing the subject of the Tonex Concept – If you have not read that post please do so before reading this post-
Tonex’s promise to scour the scriptures to discover the real teaching of the Bible concerning the practice of homosexuality and whether there are eternal punishment consequences associated with that practice is nothing more than an attempt to find a nuanced alternative meaning and therefore justification for that sin – though we are certain that none exists. It is as ludicrous a pursuit as being suspicious that the real meaning of an octagon sign painted red with a white border displaying four big and bold letters emblazoned in its face stating with simple elegance “STOP” is in fact a command to cease your vehicle’s forward motion.
Debating with the sign that “Stop,” must mean something other than discontinue my forward motion because you don’t feel like moving your foot while you’re barreling down the road towards it and the intersection on which it is posted will not keep you from a horrible accident. Your rebellion against its unemotional and totally fair presentation designed to manage the traffic at that intersection is foolish.
My point is that the stop sign will be a witness to your destruction having great confidence that its message was clear. In like manner the Bible that cannot be manipulated by the decision of presumptuous people to redefine for them its plain message will be the condemning witness at the judgment. Many people throughout time have made similar attempts to modify, discredit or destroy the Bible’s message. Indeed one ancient king thought to liberate himself from the Word of God’s condemnation of his actions by cutting up the pages upon which God’s message was displayed and casting the pieces into a consuming fire. Much to his surprise and I’m sure dismay he learned that the Word of God is alive. The scrolls, parchments or India paper are but displays of that living Word. The Word itself cannot be changed or its message nullified.
Tonex, along with a host of others, assumes that his platform that affords him access to masses of people also allows him to shape opinions and therefore amass a predominance of opinion to his position. He, as do others, falsely assumes that the predominance of opinion held by people must somehow influence the decisions of God because they are so successful in manipulating the opinions of men.
Doesn’t the Bible however demonstrate that God is not so inclined? Isn’t there a scriptural declaration acknowledging that God is perfectly willing to “let every man be a liar and God be true? I think so. Tonex would do well to remember that the actual immutable word of God is forever settled (and I might add warehoused) in heaven. Puny man whose person cannot be perceived by another man a mere 5 miles up in the sky certainly does not have access to the heavenly abode of God’s word and therefore has no chance of having an effect on its content or existence.
Let me conclude by strongly affirming that I hold no malice to Tonex the person. I see this discussion as being a rebuttal of Tonex the concept. Specifically, I believe that the retort that all those who oppose the idea that the Bible can be made to support alternative sexual lifestyles or practices are nothing more than haters or phobic must be challenged.
The evangelists of the sexual alternative lifestyle seek to convert the minds of people (especially believers) in an effort to make their practices accepted and embraced. They are bold and blatant in their crusade. They attempt to mute other voices by claiming that their opposition is not showing love. I strongly disagree.
I believe that helping to rescue a person whose life is in danger because they are on a collision course with an eighteen-wheeler truck weighing 8 tons and traveling towards them at 70 miles per hour is a wonderful expression of human compassion and love. I believe that anyone who tries to make the Bible say something other than what it plainly says has put themselves on that collision course with the eighteen-wheeler truck of God’s judgment.
But this is not just a discussion about lifestyle choices. It is also a defense against the whimsical practice of abusing scriptures for the purposes of legitimizing human practices that the Bible in its natural state does not condone. If human beings are ever really successful in making the Bible say whatever they want it to say, whenever they need it to say it, we are all doomed. Let God be true and every man a liar. I need God to be true because my future depends upon his Word meaning what it states. I have invested my life on it being so. I recommend that you do the same.
Author’s Note: This is the first of a 2 part article. As the original article was too long for a blog post it will be published in 2 sections. Part 2 can be found here.
I’ve never been a champion of the theory that the Seven Churches of Asia presentation in Revelation is a prophetic outline or schematic of a linear timeline of the Christian Church. That is I don’t subscribe to the idea that the Ephesian church and her reputation (faults and triumphs) indicated the predominant attitude and practice of the church right after Jesus’ ascension. I do not believe that because the Church at Laodicea is the last church discussed in that passage, it must represent the state of the church that would exist in the last days or the days adjacent to the second coming of Jesus.
However, if we could surmise a proper exegesis of scripture on the basis of the practices of people, our time would present an attractive argument in persuading me to change my mind. For indeed, what we see now is a well-defined system where the pew (or people in general) are being allowed by the pulpit or church leadership to formulate theology and preach it to each other. Their theology is formed on the basis of their own “whimsical” convoluted logic ladened personal ideas. Their tacit allusion to scripture, in an effort to validate their positions, is both intellectually irresponsible and spiritually criminal. They neither know the scriptures nor are authorized to speak on their behalf. It is what the Bible calls teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Actually, that is not even accurate because they are teaching their own ‘off the cuff’ ideas and opinions as if they were well thought out Bible alternatives or what the Bible calls Man’s Commandments.
An example of their cavalier manipulation of scripture can easily be displayed in the self-serving ranting of a disillusioned and deceived Tonex in his interview with Lexi. You can watch the interview below. He claims that his relationship with God is intact and that his access to the eternal joys of Heaven is secure because he told the truth about his sexual orientation and “sexual experiments.” He uses as his proof text the presentation in John 8 where the Bible states that “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” He, like so many others, surmise from their casual observation of the scriptures that the text teaches that knowing and embracing factually accurate statements [truths] will and do set you free (where the presumption is free is synonymous with saved). Such nonsense would be laughable if it weren’t for the fact that this “wresting of the scriptures” endangers the eternal destinies of people.
There are a whole host of factually accurate truths that will not and do not set you free. Admitting that you robbed the bank in the presence of a judge having authority to decide your future may indeed indicate that you “know” the truth. But far from setting you free, such an admission will most surely result in your incarceration.
Let’s cut to the chase for a moment and understand the actual lesson the ‘set free’ passage in John 8 presents. In John 8:32 Jesus addresses the Jews who believed on him after his defense of whom he was. (30 As he spake these words, many believed on him. 31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (Joh 8:30-32 KJV))
He encourages these believing Jews to continue in his words and then states “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. The truth here represents two aspects of Jesus: His word and his person. For if we confer with verse 36 we will have a clear indication that the truth is in fact Jesus and not a generic factually accurate statement. “If the son, therefore, shall make you free you are free indeed.” In verse 32 ‘truth’ is the agent making someone free. In verse 36 ‘truth’ is the son (i.e. Jesus) that is making someone free.
Therefore, this passage only allows us to correctly understand its meaning when we associate freeing truth with Jesus. All attempts to make the passage legitimize the idea that stating, presenting or espousing independent sets of factually accurate statements are freeing as in salvific and enjoy a Biblical endorsement is a gross abuse of scripture. Consequently, any confidence in the belief that having embraced said liberating facts has secured a place in peaceful heaven is nothing more than a false and dangerous hope.
Last year, while in Australia, I preached a message entitled “Permission to Proceed!” I believed that it was my assignment to share that word with God’s people. Little did I know at the time that just beyond the horizon was brewing an economic storm of enormous proportion?
Recently, I received an email from one of the saints in Australia who reminded me about the sermon I delivered. They shared that while they received that message as a personal message just for them, since that time they have been experiencing tremendous money challenges. I wrote them back to address their concerns. The more I wrote the more I realized that my response was addressing a situation that so many people were facing.
With that in mind, I’m going to share with you portions of what I wrote. May God help us all to trust him more even in these times. Here now is my edited response to the bewildering question, how do I proceed in such a negative economic climate?
I so much want to come back (Australia) that I may (as Paul said) impart some spiritual gift unto you, to the end that you may be established. (Romans 1:11) In the meantime, remember that your God inspired dream is not dependent upon your surrounding circumstances. Don’t waste time in your present cluttering up the vision of your tomorrow with the problems and circumstances of yesterday. It is apparent that you survived yesterday’s challenges because you are here today. Read the rest of this entry »
Bishop Clifford and Co- Pastor Pamela Frazier
Allow me to welcome you to the Bishop Clifford L. Frazier blog. My wife, CoPastor Pamela Frazier, has for years encouraged me to write my thoughts, revelations and insights into God’s word for others to consider. Years passed between the first time she made the suggestion and now. A couple of years ago, my daughters and son-in-law arrested me at the dinner table one evening asking questions about the Bible. It was a good exchange, and I was impressed by the quality of their questions.
When the exchange was about over, my children strongly urged me to write and share with others what we discussed. Once again, I listened but didn’t act. Finally, my good friend, Richard Byrd, the designer of this blog layout, said to me you must write; and a great vehicle for doing so is the blog. Like the proverbial straw that disabled the Camel’s back, I took his words along with the promptings of my family and friends and decided to launch this blog.
Those that know me know that I am the “TechnoRev.” I love technology in all forms. Indeed, I was one of the first preachers in the world to present the preached word from my computer back when the Radio Shack TRS-80 was the rage. With that in mind, I am exploring using my video cameras to add a video thought for the week to my blog. I’m sure you’ll let me know what you think about it. Read the rest of this entry »
