Is that a Mustard seed I see????

     First let me start off by saying it is good to back in the saddle again. I say that because it seems like it has been forever since I have written a new blog. First it was a week down with the Flu and then it was a total writers block due to having so many thoughts and ideas running through my mind and every time I sat down to write my blog i could not even get started. I would write something and then delete it or erase it. Hopefully that block is gone, as I feel I know the message God has for me to share and so we'll see how it goes, but this I know,as long as God is leading I am gonna write it and not worry about how it goes.
    I was sitting around the other day at work, and we all got to talking about how we can increase business and wondering why things were slow, and it got me to thinking and wondering about the Church. Not just the local church but about the church as a whole.Why is it we are not stronger than we are? Why is it that as a body we pray for the lost but we go long periods of time without seeing new believers come into the fold? Why is it we pray for the sick , but it's been forever since we saw a a person come forward to be prayed over for their sickness and walk away healed of their infirmity? Why is it that we can get excited about a football game, a musical concert but when we step into the Church, we act like we are at a funeral?
      I believe the answer to these questions lies in Matthew 17:14-20 And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a [certain] man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.  Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
     A little back story to this verse is that Jesus has just come down from the mountain where he went through the transfiguration, or the revealing of his true Glory to Peter, James and John. They were on the mountain with him , they witnessed him talking with Elias and Moses,and they heard God speak telling them that Jesus was his son and in him was he "Well pleased", causing them to fall on their faces on the ground and when they finally looked up there was no one there but Jesus. After telling them to get up and they started down the mountain he told them A) not to tell anyone about what they had seen until the son of man had risen from the deal and B) that Elias had already come, he was talking about John the Baptist. and upon reaching the multitudes who were waiting below to see what this Jesus was about or what he was going to do next, this man approaches him. When you look at the scriptures we see that this moan greatly loved his son and was willing to go to the ends of the Earth to get him the help he needed to get better. He took the boy to the disciples, and now here were men of God, who walked daily side by side the Son of Man, and yet they themselves were unable to heal this man. How do you think this made the disciples feel. I imagine a strong feeling of failure and confusion probably. I mean here we are walking with the Christ ,we pray with him daily and we are called by him yet we couldn't heal this man. Why?After Jesus tells the man to bring him the boy and he heals him they ask Jesus this very question and he tells them "Because of your unbelief, and your lack of faith. Now this is a strong statement to these men. I can only imagine there was a look of disbelief on their faces as if to say "what you talking about Jesus".
       I believe that Jesus is YELLING this same message to the Church today. Why are we not seeing more people come to Christ, Why are we not seeing people healed in major ways, Why are we seeing the Kingdom of God shrink daily while the false religions are growing at record pace?Because of our unbelief and our lack of faith. We sit in our pews on Sunday Morning and we sing a few songs and we let the Preacher say a few prayers, we sing a few hymns, give a couple of dollars and then we head out to enjoy a good meal  at a local restaurant and maybe a few minutes of fellowship with fellow other members and then home to sit back and enjoy the rest of the day. Then Monday comes along and bam we jump back into our weekly ROUTINE's and we forget that those sick people we prayed for their healing , or the lost we prayed for on Sunday, are still sick and they are still lost, but that's OK because we'll pray again on Wednesday night and if that don't work we'll pray again on Sunday.And besides the Pastor will be praying for them all week. Well what we are actually saying is "I just don't believe that I am called to pray for them or why should I pray , I am just one person and my prayer isn't going to make a difference, and besides, I have prayed before and nothing happened so no reason to pray cause it will go nowhere."Well I have to say if that's what you think and actually believe, you need to get down on your knees and pray more than you know, but not for anyone else, you need to pray for yourself because your relationship with Christ has went so far South of Heaven that I believe you are probably feeling some heat on your feet, and that heat isn't coming from the warm front that moved in overnight, it's coming from the flames of hell which you are very close to in my opinion. When we do not have a daily relationship with God, then yes it becomes easy to let our faith lack. But if we meet our God on a daily basis, read his word and put it to practice, our faith will abound and when our faith begins to grow, there is nothing that can keep us down, for "Faith as a grain of a mustard seed", we can move mountains. Now do you realize a mustard seed is about 1/20th of an inch in size. that's tiny, but if you had enough faith to fill the spot the size of 1/20th of an inch you could move Mount Everest.
           If we want to see the lost come to Christ, if we want to see people come in needing a healing and have them leave the service healed and renewed physically as well as spiritually, then WE, as a body of BELIEVERS, are going to have to start practicing Faith. We are going to have to shut up and put up as they say in some circles. We are going to have quit giving lip service and start pulling knee service. We are going to have to step out of our comfort zones and open ourselves up to the uncomfortable. I imagine that it was a very uncomfortable position Christ was in when God the Father said to him one day, you are going to leave all of this one day soon and you are going to go to Earth, be born of a virgin, preach the word I have set forth and then you will be beaten, broken, and crucified. After all this pain and suffering you will ascend into hell and snatch the keys of death and hell out of Satan's hand since he won't turn them into us on his own, and then after three days you will rise again to be seen of the faithful few and then 40 days later you will return to me here in Heaven and take your position at my right hand, alright. But uncomfortable or not he did it, he willingly became the sacrifice for your and my sins, so that we would not have to worry about our eternal soul, but that we would be comfortable in Heaven for eternity. How much more "uncomfortable" should we be willing to be. Is it really such an imposition for us to give him the respect and service he needs. No it's not. We should have a faith that not only moves mountains out of our way in reaching people, but we should have a faith so strong that when we walk in a room and speak the word of God, people listen and open their hearts and lives to Christ by the prodding of the Holy Spirit. Brothers and Sisters, I don't know about you but from this day forward I will give God his respect and my whole hearted commitment to meeting him daily for a little talk and my first prayer is Lord renew and strengthen my faith, so that when I come up on those mountains that interfere with my spiritual walk with you , I can see them moved by the speaking of a few words and the movement of the Holy Spirit.
      God Bless you all and thank you for hanging in with me over the last 2 weeks. I pray that your week ahead is full of the blessing of Christ and  may your witness for Christ grow daily as you meet the Lord for your private time.
  

In Christ;s Love,
   Bill