Fresh Wind Fresh Fire-Book Review

Some food for thought from the book:

1. The first church was birthed during a prayer meeting at Pentecost (Acts Chapter 2). I started thinking about how much time I pray during church...I will be honest, not much! Cymbala says, "I have seen God do more in people's lives during 10 minutes of REAL PRAYER than in ten of my sermons." God's house is suppose to be a house of prayer (Mark 11:17) not a house of preaching. So why do we spend SO LITTLE time in church praying to God?

2. Paul preached in Romans 10:13-15 the chain of the new testament salvation "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Cymbala says, "How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?...Sending leads to preaching. Preaching leads to Hearing. Hearing leads to Believing. Believing leads to Calling on the Name of the Lord."Notice believing is not the climax...There is one more step for demonstrating a REAL AND LIVING FAITH, and that is calling out to God with all of one's heart and soul. (Read that again...let it really sink in...WOW!!!)

3. Why is that Christians "vigorously defend" what it says in Ephesians 4 about "one faith" and "one God" but we baulk when we talk about "one body"? You hear the whispers amongst Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, and Church of Christ about their denomination being the only way. I thought Jesus was "THE WAY"!!! Jesus didn't call for denominations and over-organization of our religion...He called for ONE BODY! What would happen if we all joined up to share the Gospel the way the early church did?

4. Cymbala says the way to judge a successful church is not by attendance, but with the standards of Acts 4:29, "Enable your servants to speak your Word with GREAT BOLDNESS!!!" When people leave my church, your church, is the Word of God on their lips???

5. Cymbala says we have to make room for the Spirit of God in Church. The Brooklyn Tabernacle usually meets for 2-2 1/2 hours each Sunday, but they don't have a set ending time.

(GASP!!! What happens if they miss the buffet at Pizza Hut??? ;)

Ahem, are you seeing where Cymbala is going with this...

Cymbala says you can't fit God into a bulletin. We can't rush God into a 1-hour church service.

6. Do we invite the Spirit of God into our worship services??? Cymbala says

"If you only have the Word you dry up. If you only have the Spirit, you blow up. But if you have both, you grow up."

William Lay said, "In the same apostasy that characterized the Jewish nation...The Jews refused Him who was the substance and fulfilling of all that was taught in their Law and Prophets. The Christian church is in a fallen state for the SAME REJECTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT." Does my church invite the Spirit during services? Do I yield when I know the Spirit of God is moving? Are we rejecting the Holy Spirit???

7. Cymbala says "We are always either drawing nearer to God or falling away. There is no holding pattern."

There is NO CONDEMNATION FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS; I want to hear what YOU are thinking! It's your turn!