Day 5 of Clean Heart July Solemn Assembly of Prayer

Welcome to Day 5 of Clean Heart July Solemn Assembly of Prayer 

Day 5 Devotion - THE CLEAN HEART - 

A CLEAN HEART & LOYALTY TO GOD'S PATTERN FOR HIS CHURCH

Theological  Violence - Teaching by Scott Kelso from last night.

To have a clean heart one must become a servant that becomes willing to work with and flow with the system of another, resisting the temptation to establish your own system, disloyal to God and the system or pattern He has given in the Mountain of Prayer.

To have a clean heart one must seek to serve rather than be served. One must seek the will of another rather than their own will. One must look to be committed in covenant relationships even when it seems not to be in your best interest.  In Psalms 51 David is praying a prayer of repentance and forgiveness to God to turn back to Him.

Our Hearts need to be cleansed from a secular humanists theolgy devoid of divine Power in the church.

The entire church world is too much like a campus or too "site oriented," having developed programs and functions to keep folks busy in six embedded areas of Protestant church life; worship, evangelism,  mission, discipleship, Sunday school, and pastoral care.

Believe it or not, these areas are far too "in house" in their orientation, leaving the streets empty of a real New Testament punch.  In North America particularly, the program emphasis of the local church abrogates a New Testament agenda (preaching, teaching, healing from the place prayer) and supplants it with a denominational  agenda of busy work.

For Example:

• The prevailing concept of church as a place associated with a particular set of activities- that is an it, not a who.
• A scorecard for success based largely on church activities led by church people for church people, primarily on church property.
• A pervasive consumer mentality whereby a church congregation is evaluated on the strength and quality of its programming. 
• A misguided sense of purpose - seeing "building the church" as God's primary mission in the world.
• A clergy (church leadership) trained to manage an institution (real estate, budgets, etc) and produce religious goods and services (sermons, programs, religious).
• A membership trained to "give to the church" their talents, time, and  treasure, and whose spirituality is assessed according to their participation in church activities, which is seen as "supporting the church."
• Church resources spent primarily on buildings, staff, and church-based programs, with much lower priority given to alleviating human need and suffering.
• Church members expectations or assumptions that it is "the church's job" to provide spiritual training  and nurture for their children.
• The inability of many Church people to have in-depth conversations about God, even with their spouses and children. Instead, they have conversations about church that largely reflect consumer issues: "How did you like the service?" "What did you think oc the pastor's sermon?" "Are you planning to attend the youth event this weekend?" These are participation-in-church-activities discussions, not Discipleship or spiritual growth conversations.
• The inability of many church people to have spiritual conversations with non-church people. Church people often know how to talk about church activity, but not about God or his kingdom priorities. People in our culture want to have God conversations,  not church conversations.
• A T-shirt and bumper sticker theology that says it all: "I love my church" Follow me to church:" This is my church;" A place where (fill in the blank).

The New Testament presents a much different picture....The clean heart heart repents of every unbiblical presentation of the church and draws near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkle clean from an evil conscience (Babylonian expression of the church) our bodies washed with pure water.

Zoom link for tonights evening devotion 

To purchase your copy of Theological Violence for $15.00 Click Here

To purchase your copy of the 12 Dimensions of the Heart of God Click Here

Blessings to you

Brondon Mathis 

www.brondonmathis.org