Church Series day 3

Belonging To A Body

Church Series day 3

Paul’s life demonstrated a man who was completely changed and placed on a path set forth by God. He grew up as a Pharisee, a Jewish man who persecuted the gentiles. Until one day, unbeknownst to him, he came along the Lord our God while on the road to Damascus. It was at that moment that his desires changed, his passions became those of Christ’s.

This total transformation is something we all should hope to experience. Paul’s life became completely focused on spreading the love of Jesus Christ to the gentiles, to giving the Word of the Lord to the world. Paul’s entire ministry focused on this change and his writings are some of the most profound writings of the New Testament {I believe}.

Paul sketches what a church body should look like in Ephesians 4:11-16. He gives account of the members, their gifts, and their place among by body.

We {BELIEVERS} are the body of Christ.

Our aim in life should be modeling Christ. In our personal lives, our business lives and in our church life; we should conform to His image in every sense of His life. Our bodies need to be edified. We need to be faithful, conforming to His image.

Christians are what make up the body of Christ. We are the members of that body {us} in our sinful state. With that being said; we are fallen, imperfect creatures who should always submit to the authority of Christ. It is not a pastor that we model, it is not the deacons or elders, AND it is not the woman who seems to have it all together on Sunday mornings.

It is Christ.

We have to be careful not to place these humans in the church into a supernatural position that they cannot hold up to. If we give them authority they do not have, when they fall, it will shatter our world and will inevitably shake our faith in the true God.

When He is in authority, when it is He we are modeling our life after, we see an image of pure perfection.

He is not the problem, we are.

We should strive to love each other, edify each other, encourage one another, uplift one another, fellowship together, all while bringing glory to the great I Am.

We need to strengthen one another. He will be there with us, loving us and giving us the means to love our brother or sister. When we fall short, it will be His strength that is sufficient.

Christ was obedient to the cross because He loved His Father enough to obey with His whole heart. Are we pressing forward with the same love? Are we encouraged to love our brothers and sisters with this same love?

As I’ve stated many times throughout the last two posts, the church is a body of believers. If you are a believer, then you are part of His body. Once we accept that Jesus died for our sins, we are placed together and given certain gifts—gifts that we should WANT to use to show His love to this dying and unruly world.

It’s not about the “structure” that you worship in; it’s about whether you are worshipping. It’s not about the “people” you are worshipping with; it’s about whether you are being an encouragement to someone because you want to give the love of Christ to someone. And it’s not about whether you “make” yourself go to church; it’s about whether you want to fellowship with other members of His body.

The most important thing we can do is truly a simple one: love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our minds.

Deut. 6:5, Matt. 22:37

We need to fall forward at the throne, gaining strength from He who gives strength.

Blessings

Church Series day 2

Commitment

What does going to church mean to you? Is it a place that you go on Sunday mornings because you feel like you “should”?

Do you feel led to go on Sunday’s or are you the person that thinks, “I have my own personal relationship with God, I don’t need to go to church to know Him”?

I pray that your hearts will change and that your idea of church will be one of gladness and excitement.

Having a personal relationship with God and His Son is the first step, but it doesn’t stop there. When we as sinners truly experience the overwhelming love of God, change is inevitable. Not only does His Spirit enter us, convicting us on our past life, but we see our life as truly bad and WANT to change! We see Him for all of His glory and strive for the life of Christ. The church is key to helping us make these monumental changes that must occur.

We need to keep our focus on heaven and completely take it off of this world. When we have our eyes forward, this world had no hold on us.

When a farmer is pushing his plow through the field, he knows he cannot move his head or else he will veer his animal off course.

Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

The same is true for us. When we take our eyes off of God’s kingdom, we veer off of the intended course for our life and will stumble and fall. But, when our focus is on God, we will walk upright and model the life that He died to give us.

We need to be faithful to God, sanctified with Him, faithfully loving Him always.

“Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.”

1 Corinthians 4:2

Do you want to be found faithful? Does your love for Him outweigh your love of this world? Of your friends? Of your own family?

If there is a football game on, will you miss it to enter His house and worship with the other members that are committed to Him? If your Mom wants to go shopping, will you politely tell her that you need to wait until after church because God comes first? Or will your love for these earthly things come before your love for the Almighty?

It’s hard, very hard as sinners to put God first. If it was the “norm” or “easy”, everyone would do it without question. But it’s not. There is difficulty that comes from standing strong in the Word of God and that is where the love and brethren of the church is vital.

Church is the totality of believers in Jesus; an assembly of believers organized to carry out the responsibilities set forth by God.

It brings men, women and children together to study and learn about the only living God. It is not simply a building with a foundation set in the ground. It is a body; people.

Christians are to band together to carry out the responsibilities of the church.

“Paul called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, … to the church of God which is at Corinth.”

1 Corinthians 1:1,2

When we became Christians we immediately became a member of the universal church, which is the body of Christ. Each member has a function, as each of our body parts aids us in living our lives.

Without our eyes, we cannot see where we are going. Without our hands, we cannot reach out and touch things. Without our legs, we cannot walk and go places.

Don’t you see? Without me, without you, the church is missing a piece of its body and cannot function properly. We make up the body that is the local church.

The greatest struggle the church has today is the heart of its members. The heart is drawn to this world and turns away from the calling of God and gifts that He bestows upon us.

Our commitment needs to be to Christ, first and foremost. And within that commitment we long to fellowship with each other, glorifying Him.

“as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

1 Peter 1:3,4

 Our commitment needs to be to the One who faithfully committed Himself to death for us. He endured a life of rejection, persecution and death so that we could live an eternity in His glorious kingdom. Is it so much to ask that we spend time worshipping Him with the other members that make up His body?

I don’t think so! It is such a tiny repayment of the debt we can never truly repay. But it is something I want to do; not because I feel I will be rewarded for my “deed” but because I am so in love with His redeeming love that there is nothing I don’t want to do for Him. I pray the same is true for each of you!

This sums up day 2 of my series on church. I invite you back tomorrow to read more about what God has revealed to me about the church.

Blessings

What is the church?

Church Series …

I’ve spent the last 4 days submerged in my church’s annual “special meetings”. Each year we have a special time to come together as a church body and spend 3 evenings together worshipping and fellowshipping with a special speaker.

This year we were blessed to have 3 different speakers, all of which brought light to my life and spoke serious truths from His living Word.

I spent a great deal of time in church growing up. We went nearly every Sunday, and I enjoyed it most of the time. Through my teen years we attended a church in which the pastor was on fire for Christ, passionate about His Word. Or so we all believed, until one day he left the church and his family to be with a parishioner woman. This was a serious jolt to the congregation and to me personally who had spent my formative years looking up to this man who had encouraged me to stay true to God in the darkest point of my life. I was away at college when this occurred, but when I heard about it, I was devastated; totally rocked my world. I didn’t step foot into a church again for 5 years; at which time I came completely on bended knee.

It was this incident that turned my heart cold, and it is incident’s like this that turn people away from church every day all across the world. We hold Christian’s to such a high standard that when they fall it rocks our world completely, forgetting that we are ALL sinners and WILL all sin. Even the pastor that we respect and look up to is a sinner and will fall at times.

In today’s society, how often do we hear someone say, “Oh they shouldn’t be doing that, they’re Christians?” Or even, “I didn’t think you could do that, you’re a Christian aren’t you?” As if to say that somehow being a Christian means we are perfect and will never again fall victim to our flesh.

Are you kidding me people?

There are none that are righteous, no not one.

Romans 3:10

We cannot let the fallen sinner shape the righteous God. But this mindset stops so many from walking through the open doors of church. I’ve had friends and family leave a church because there was one person who they didn’t like, or did something that they perceived as “unforgiveable”. I admit that I’ve contemplated leaving a church because there was one person who continuously hurt me, degraded me and made me feel like less of a person.

But, I found myself asking, “What is the reason for church?”

We should all be asking ourselves this.

 What is church?

What was the institution created for?

It was ordained by God, created in the book of Acts by primarily Peter.

Peter was used by God to establish the church which was God’s next major plan for man after Jesus ascended into heaven. Acts 1-12

We should love church because God loved the church. The church is the bride of Christ, He died for her. It’s not a place that we “put in our time”. It’s needed to refuel us, recharge our batteries. We can expect to just be able to sit at home, watching our evangelists on the TV and get the same encouragement that our bodies need.

We NEED church for so many reasons. It’s a place to be encouraged, to fellowship with other believers. When we are persecuted each and every day, when the world is so fallen and ugly, it’s a place to go and be reminded that there are like minds desiring the same Holy God. We can’t exercise the gifts God gives us if we’re not ministering to other people.

There’s so much more I want to write. There’s so much that was revealed to me through these men who love the Lord our God with all their hearts and all their strength and all their minds.

I am going to write a segment for the next 3 days on my thankfulness on the church. I encourage you to all come and fellowship with me and hear what God has laid on my heart.

Blessings