When we receive the spirit upon conversion we take on the nature of Christ and that nature was summed up in His work on the cross. Jesus came to seek and save those that were lost and now we have that same spirit in us and we are commissioned to do the same. No amount of emotionalism or entertainment will fill a spiritual void, especially when we are trying to force it in the wrong place. The void that exists in every Christian is the desire to see lost souls saved. Most Christians do not recognize this desire because the teachings they receive are not centered around evangelism. In fact evangelism is on the back burner in the majority of churches today. Christ came to seek and save those that are lost, the disciples followed the same pattern, yet today it is virtually non existent. If we take on the nature of Christ then we must have a concern and compassion for the lost. It is my conviction that the reason that this concern and compassion is so lacking is its absence in our churches.

Church leaders are content in throwing their congregations a fish instead of teaching them how to fish. There is a saying that goes like this: "Give a man a fish and you feed him today, teach him to fish and you sustain him for life." Jesus commanded us to be fishers of men.

Matthew 4: 18-20

 To catch fish we must be where the fish are, I have never been much on fishing so I have little expertise on fishing. I do know though that common sense tells me if I want to catch fish I must pick a pond, river, or sea that contains fish. I must then use bait to catch them. The churches today sit back in their boat and are still waiting for the fish to jump in without ever casting the line. I used to preach that the world was not going to come and bust the doors down to get in, we have to go get them and bring them in. It is a sad thing when the church does not see what it is doing, or in this case not doing.

Every Christian caught up in this carousel churchism mentality owes the lost and dying an apology. They need to go to them wherever they are whether in bars or in the streets and apologize for sitting back and expecting that they would come to Christ all on their own. Christ gave us a mandate yet we have failed for 2,000 years to do it. The carousel mentality had overtaken the church and they are not aware that they are not going anywhere. They get on and the motion starts and because of the action and movement they actually believe that they are gaining ground. The sad truth is that the church for many years has been on the carousel route that is taking them no where except in circles. They are no more than a dog chasing its tail and accomplishing about the same.

On a personal level, when you get to heaven and Jesus asks "how many have you brought with you?" What will be your answer?

Luke 14:23

23: And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

Jesus said that we are to compel them to come in so that the house may be full. Webster’s defines this word "compel" in this way: "to urge irresistibly; force" and the Greek word has the same definition. It is clear that there was much importance emphasized regarding salvation by Jesus in this matter. How serious has the church taken this directive since the Constantine era? It is hard to compel someone to come to Christ when we have not been trained to witness to them. I heard and analogy that was so adequate as describing the church. It was a comparison to a football game in which the stands were full of spectators while the few professionals performed. That is a great description of how the churches are today, with few doing the work and the rest being spectators. What this has done is created a majority of undereducated and untrained soldiers that are supposed to be on the front lines of this battle.

Psalm 84:10 says,

"Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked."

Oh how good it would be if we could in all honesty say this in our hearts. The problem today is that most Christians believe that what they are currently experiencing in the church would qualify as a fulfillment of this verse. If the emotionalism and entertainment that exists in the churches today is the extent of being in the presence of our Lord, then the Bible and David are liars. The experiences that David describes in the Psalms should be the battle cry of the churches today. David was one that knew what it really meant to experience the presence of God and he needed no help from the garbage we see in the churches today. David would want nothing to do with the activities in our churches today and I am sure that the Prophets would have a field day exposing the errors, not to mention Paul.

Psalm 139:23

How many churches cause you to cry this out daily to God? How many ministers today proclaim this same message? I truly believe that if this plead was sincerely made starting with the leadership in our churches that we would see a much different picture than what we have.

I know people and churches that teach, preach, and believe that they are going to go through the Tribulation Period and fight against all the evils of the anti-christ and reject the mark and all the other evils. They are fooling themselves because they cannot stand up now and get rid of all the garbage in the churches when there is no cost to them physically. They will never stand as they proclaim because they cannot rid the church of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Halloween, and all the other worldly influences that have become common place in these churches. "Come out from among them and be ye separate," says the Lord. When is that going to happen with Christians today? I hate to be the bearer of bad news but we do not have that much time left. If you are ever going to get serious about God you better start now.

You may wonder why the majority of this work is directed at the evangelical/Pentecostal environment. The main line denominations are always going to remain the same because they are restricted by so much bureaucracy and politics that they have no choice. They will always remain dry and the people are conditioned to accept that without question. They are led to believe that any type of spiritual emotion or work is of the devil. If these people would just place their faith in the Word and truly read it with open eyes the truth would be revealed to them. Unfortunately the ever increasing garbage that is evidenced in the so called "spirit filled" churches only lends credibility to their accusations. As I mentioned previously there are many that are coming out of the mainline denominations because there is a moving in them that is looking for more, and they are realizing that it is not where they are at. Even though the evangelical/pentecostal churches are under some denominational guidelines also, there is room in them for anything deemed to be spiritual to enter. That is the reason for the things we see today.