Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Time 2 Change Churches!: Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

Time 2 Change Churches!: Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

4 comments:

Danielle said...

I found your blog searching for Joel Osteen critics. Why do you say you were not truly saved when preaching? Are you really saved now? How do you know?

pastorbrianculver said...

Hi Danielle, this is one of the hardest and easiest comments for me to comment on. Hardest in the sense that I failed God and His people on so many occasions. I was a pastor that was not truly saved. Let me explain.

It is very very possible for someone to preach God's Word and be totally lost. God can and does use such people for His glory. What does the basics of the faith teach us?

1. You must believe in Jesus Christ.
2. You must repent of your sins.

I believed (to some degree) in Jesus Christ. I believed in Him but not in His Word. I believed He was who he said He was. But when His Word says you MUST repent or you will likewise perish, that was the one thing I was not doing. I was living in my sin and in fact, I was making provisions to sin. I knew God would forgive me but God's Word says that we are NOT to make provisions to sin.

When I FINALLY saw myself as being a sinner in NEED of a Savior, I finally came to the point of repentance. My preaching is much bolder now because now I can preach on the need for repentance and know that I MYSELF am repenting. I bear much fruit now that was lacking before, God has given me spiritual discernment that was missing before, my eyes are opened now to the truth of God's Word. I praise God for His saving Grace!

Danielle said...

So you are saying that you never repented? I'm just curious because in my old church (A Baptist church I went to before Lakewood) they would try to convince you to believe you didn't really repent and just thought you did. In your case was it that you didn't repent? Or did you repent in the past but it wasn't real repenting? (Sorry if that's confusing)

pastorbrianculver said...

not confusing at all. I did not repent of my sins. It was completely missing in my life. Be careful to assume all Baptist Churches would pressure you the same way. And be careful to assume that it was bad in any way either. We are told to examine ourselves to see that we are in the faith. We should always be looking into the mirror to see that we are truly living for God. That is where the healthy fear of the Lord comes in! It is trule love that will tell you to check yourselves. I would rather have someone challenge me on my faith because they see something missing than to have someone say all is well when it is not. Many times a pastor knows what is going on in his congregation and his sermon might be trying to get a certain person to come to that point of true repentance and the Holy Spirit can convict you and the pastor never knew you had a problem. Always go somewhere that will challenge you, convict you and bring about daily repentance. The Osteen's of the world do more harm than good.