Renew dedication to the message

To the editor:
I’m really trying to behave myself. But there is a fire burning in my soul that I hope will never go out.
ISIS surely is a threat to our country and all the world. But honestly, they are just believing in their prophet and his religion with all their heart. They take many phrases of the Quran to extreme and ultimately they are known as “radicals.”
ISIS is only taking Muhammed and his militant goals to their heart.
This may shock you, but what angers me more than ISIS is what we call “the church,” in that, if people by the millions would take their “Prophet” to heart and do what He said, enemies like this group would never dream of even trying to take over our country.
How can we sit in our comfortable pews, follow our church bulletins that dictate what will take place, sing praise and worship songs and look like our pet dog just died.
The word “church” in the Bible never is used to speak of a building. Instead, it is those persons who have been “called out of the world” to be a witness for our Lord Jesus.
Our Lord never intended for His message of love and salvation to be kept within the four walls of a building. Matter of fact, our Lord never used a pulpit.
The day of Pentecost was the beginning of what we call the church age. But read Acts 2 and see how many similarities there are in your “church.” First of all, they were all filled with the Spirit and received the fire of God upon their soul. This was Jesus now living in them. Did they sit around all sober and religious and listen to a “6-foot icicle” read from Weekly World News? Was their message as they ran out into the streets of Jerusalem about their denomination and did they stop their worship service with the “announcements?”
What did the 120 on the day of Pentecost do after they had received the Holy Spirit with fire? Did they all go out to eat after the Sunday morning service? No. They all went out into the streets of the city witnessing to the thousands of people present for the Jewish feast of Firstfruits. What was the message? Jesus is alive. He is Lord. He is risen from the dead and he is Lord.
Jesus was a radical and a revolutionary. If we go to “church” and say we are a follower of Jesus Christ, then we have got to change. I may call myself a Christian, but do I keep His commandments?
We believe in God but have no commitment to reach the lost souls in our own city.
A worship service is not what we do on Sunday morning. God forbid. No. Worship is the lifestyle I live every day.
I just don’t “go to church,” I am the church.
Why don’t you pastors get stirred up and become real “Protestants” again? Train your believers to be disciples. Take back our city and nation by setting an example of holy living and love for one another. Stop trying to have a respectable attendance at your “church” and go back to the cross and regain the real message. We have lost our zeal, our witness, our commitment and we have lost His presence.
Pentecost was not organized religion. It had no pulpit, no church bulletin to take the place of the Spirit. It had no multi-million dollar building with steeples to the sky.
Oh, but they had the fire burning in their soul. They had a message of a risen Lord that no one could deny. They shook Jerusalem. It was Jesus continuing His ministry through them.
If the so-called “church” today would humbly go back to Mount Calvary and repent for being so cold and dead our military would not have to be called out.
If the “church” would wake up, our nation would be saved. But what we do at “church” every Sunday isn’t working. We need revival.
Meet at your altar and stay there until you weep for our nation.
Hurry. Time is running out.
Phill Jellison
Portland