Toe Stomping

Have you ever been in a church service and felt like your toes were being stomped on? You feel like crawling under the seat and hiding because the Preacher is preaching about you. If not then we must assume one of three things.1.You are perfect, 2.You don't pay attention, or 3.You're in the wrong church.
    When God is giving someone a message to deliver it's not always nice and pretty. A Pastor is given messages that will help the people grow spiritually and socially. The Pastor will be given sermons that uplift and encourage as well as corrective sermons. God holds the Pastor responsible for his flock, therefore there must be hard (Hellfire and brimstone) sermons to shake up the people so they will not fall by the wayside.
    An Evangelist may not get the same kind of messages that a pastor or asst. Pastor does. For some good examples of this read some of Paul's writings to the different churches.
    Too many preachers candy coat their sermons so no one gets offended or made to feel bad. Too many people go to church to have a good time and socialize. We are supposed to go to church to worship God and commune with him. All through the bible when people heard from God he told them what they were doing wrong as well as what they were doing right. A Preacher is supposed to be relaying a message that God has given to them so why would the messages be any softer today than they ever were?
    I don't know if it's the same where you live, but here in Bristol, the bigger churches are the ones where the preacher candy coats all his messages. Many of these even go as far as buying sermons or sermon outlines from a local bible book store, which has a huge section of these items.
    The Churches where it's preached that you must be sanctified and live every day trying your best to be like Christ, are the ones that don't have many members. We have a lot of church people here but not many Christians (Christ like).
    Until people get a real desire to serve God with all their Heart, mind, and soul they will not be open to the Hell Fire and Brimstone preaching that brings about the desire to draw closer to God. If someone makes you mad or hurts your feelings with something that comes from the Bible, the best thing you can do to avoid this from happening again, is not to find a church where the sermons always uplift ,but to fall on your face before Jesus and ask for his mercy, and change the way you are living.

Blessings to all
Apostle Charlie Hale