From Cathedrels to Third World missions.. Love will fall to the earth like a  crashing crashing wave…

PEOPLE THE CHURCH DOES NOT BELONG TO US!!!!!!

The church belongs to Christ!!!

This week I was having a conversation with some brothers in Christ about having a Christ Centered world view. It was centered around politics. We concluded some things are just not worth debating or arguing about, if they break down the bonds of Christ’s Church.

My comment was. We can’t even agree to Love each other as Christ commanded, how are we Going to Love God the way Christ commanded.  Christ is the unity we should maintain.

In Eph 4: 11-16 Paul writes for the Church of Emphasis what unity in the Church looks like.

Paul in chapter 4 is driving home a huge point. The Church is not for us.  We are to be part of the Church, but in no way does it belong to us.  For the Church to work as it should we must be united under Christ.

We all have a part to play as individuals.

11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,

But it is the people together that will perform great works.  It is the whole sum of the Churches parts working together that will bring about unity in the body. The whole body together completes Christ’s Church.

12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

This true unity, found in each of us working for Christ’s Church, builds us together in unbreakable bonds.  We experience life in this crazy world together, and have brothers and sisters to rely on. When trials and temptation come, the Church is there to stand with us, we no longer stand alone in this world.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

His truth, His word is our offense. The Church loving on each other, under the leadership of the one who Loves us deep and wide.   His love is what binds us together.

15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

Christ is the foundation, the glue, the magnet that holds the Church together.

16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

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This is the 10th week of the Blogged Bible Study. We are going chapter by chapter
through Paul’s letter to the Church of Ephasis. To read the other posts on chapter
4 of Ephesians check out the Blogged Bible Study page.
(The magnet analogy was taken from a comment to previous post from Brian Swan)

Originally posted  6/15/09

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We long and desire for what we can not have.  We look for ways to heal the hurts.  We hear over and over it is up to us to make this life better.  We must do our best to get what we so desire now.  Yet when we think we have it all together that is when our heart hurts the most.  All the effort we put in never fills the holes of our imperfect heart.  We come face to face with our imperfection when we sin.

II Tim 4:21 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Do your best? What? Are you kidding…. Oh wait that is right we are not perfect nor can we be. It is only by the Grace of God that we can come close anywhere close to perfection. Even when we work as hard as we can, even when you have been in a situation many times, even when you have to make a hard choice, and when in these situations the choices are clear, we fall to the desire and sin.  We find ourselves in a moment looking up going why?

We have choices every day that will lead us closer to Christ. Just know that there is a loving God there when we take your eyes off him to catch us when we fall.

“Come,” he said.   Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

God is reaching out for us to take his hand. Let Him lead you to perfection. Keep your eyes on Him.

It is in those moments that we are down looking up trying to figure out how you got there; we come face to face with our imperfection.  God wants you to look up. Look up to the perfection hanging on the Cross and know that without Him hanging there, without the power of his Spirit, we will not achieve the perfection we were meant for when Christ returns.

II Cor 5: 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Gal 5:16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

We must play, work, serve, and do for Him. We have to know and do everything with Christ’s perfection and sacrifice to mean something. We owe that to him for the sacrifice. God is our audience and we hope and pray that we will hear the words one day of “Well done good and faithful one”.

He is a word, uttered by a living voice, embodies a conception or idea of what someone has said
He is a word the sayings of God
He is decree, mandate or order
He is of the moral precepts given by God
He is Old Testament prophecy given by the prophets
He is what is declared, a thought, declaration, aphorism, a weighty saying, a dictum, a maxim
discourse
He is the act of speaking, speech
He is the faculty of speech, skill and practice in speaking a kind or style of speaking
He is a continuous speaking discourse – instruction
He is doctrine, teaching
He is anything reported in speech; a narration, narrative matter under discussion, thing spoken of, affair, a matter in dispute, case, suit at law
He is the thing spoken of or talked about; event, deed its use as respect to the MIND alone
He is relation reason, the mental faculty of thinking, meditating, reasoning, calculating
He is regard, consideration
He is  reckoning, score
He is answer or explanation in reference to judgment reason
He is relation, i.e. with whom as judge we stand in relation

He is Christ. He is God.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Can a man separate his religion/faith from his life? Nowhere is this issue more prevalent than in the debate of the 1st Amendment in the Constitution of the United States of America. However the 1st amendment is just an illustration of the problem with man mad ideals. The use of religion to mean faith is another.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The debate today though has changed dramatically.  The question in the world view is:  Can a man/woman hold a Government position and separate his/her faith from the process of governing?   Honestly no.

A person of true faith cannot separate his faith from anything.  Every decision will be filtered through that faith. For the follower/disciple of Christ choosing Christ’s path every moment is part of that faith.

Religion much like the Government is a man made system, however faith for the follower of Christ is of the  Holy Spirit and becomes part of who we are.

Thus I think the problem is that  we talk “RELIGION” and not Faith.  Religion is a set of practices that a person performs or belongs to based on a set of teachings that can lead to a stronger faith.

Faith is the belief in something unseen based on evidence of believing in the unseen. Heb 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Man has, in his ideals, mostly removed Faith from religious practices, and like wise is trying ,and many ways succeeding,  to remove the faith of leaders from their ability to govern.

The idea of the first amendment when it was written was that Government would not establish a Government backed denomination of religion. The founding fathers understood that the man made religion didn’t work(see what happened between the King of England and Rome and the establishment of the Church of England) and freedom to express Faith was what God wanted. There was never to be this understanding that Faith should never be mentioned, or that leaders should separate there Faith from decision making. There is nothing in the constitution about the separation of Church and State, only the non-establishment clause. It wasn’t until Jefferson in one of his letters(not even a legal document) mentioned Separation of Church and State did the free minded movement of the time start to tie it to the first amendment.

If I were to be voted into office I could no more set aside my Faith than I could set aside the skin on my body. My faith is a part of who I am. Even if I never said a word in office about my faith, my faith would still drive my decisions. Just the general public would not know that.

However as followers of Christ we are called to be bold and profess why we live and make the decisions we do because we can not separate Faith from life. We are not to conform the the patterns of the world and men, but to follow the will of God Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Men over time have greatly distorted the true meaning behind the Non-Establishment Clause to the point today,  (Which was originally intended to apply to Congress only, tell the supreme court ruled otherwise)  that if a leader in Government boldly mentions his faith drives his decisions he is ostracized as being narrow minded.  In fact he is on the narrow road to Christ.

Why do we continue to rely so much on man mad ideals, and not enough on the will of the God who put us on this earth. The precepts and teachings of Christ are not over baring, or hate induced. The precepts and teachings of Christ are based on the love His Father has for this world. To follow Christ’s precepts and teachings means to Love God, and Love others. We do that and the following of the 10 commandments(the leading debate in this whole thing) would take care of its self.

Man made religion has allowed man to distort the meaning of Faith. The King of England distorted Religion to his own beliefs because he wanted a divorce, so he started his own church. How convenient. The problem it was man made and he did not rely on his Faith to help him make the decision.  We as followers of Christ can no longer follow  the man made ideals of this world.  Especially religions that are set up based on the selfish ambition of man.   I believe the founding fathers recognized this and thus put the no-establishment clause in the 1st amendment.  They knew religion when developed by man would be distorted to the will of man, and not conform to the will of God the Creator from whom our rights of freedom come.

Religion and religious practices can and do lead people to Christ, when they are done to the standard and teaching of Christ not for the selfish ambition of man.  Man messed it up in the Garden when he stood speechless and didn’t speak up for what was right as the serpent wooed Eve into the biting of an apple.  Sad thing is man in his ideals have messed up religion that leads to faith, and even has messed up the Constitution set up to protect the freedom of that faith.

Over the next few weeks, I will be moving select posts from the Old Blog to the new.    You can now find a list of categories from the old blog in the right side bar here.

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The Bible is full of ordinary men who God used in extraordinary ways.  He used these Men many times to lead people closer and closer to Him.  Still to this day God through his extraordinary power is using men to lead.  The road we lead on is narrow, and the doorway to Him is small.  Relying on His power is not something as men we do naturally.

God’s power is unlimited, the Bible is a complete revelation of his creation plan and will, but we can not fully comprehend His power.

The path to God is narrow, and the path is open to EVERYONE. It is people who come out against the narrow path that limit the power of God’s sacrifice of his Son, and his willingness to love and forgive EVERYONE because of that sacrifice.

Mathew 7 :13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

When I think of the narrow door in Mathew 7 I also think about the eye off the needle.

Matthew 19:24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Most towns had some kind of city gate and in that gate was a small door sometimes called the eye of the needle.  The door was only wide enough that a man could pass through.  Thing is not even a camel could get through them.  Jesus was making reference to the rich merchants that would try to get into a town at night when the city gates were closed.  The camels with all their packs were much to wide to fit through the eye of the needle. The people in the city would only open the door not the gate for them. The rich men had to ether leave their packs behind to enter the safety of the city or stay outside in the danger of the night until the next morning.

Narrow road, pass through a needle…  Sound impossible to get to heaven?   Not if you believe in the saving power of Christ.   With Christ staying on the narrow road of righteousness is easy, and we will enter his presence and safety with nothing from this world.  With God’s power we can leave behind all that hinders us and holds us back, and not be left frightened until morning waiting for a new day.

Comprehending the Power of God is not easy for us as men.  Looking at the world seeing what he has made and the order to all things is just the half of it.  Men  to understand that power we must start with the fact that all things are possible with God.  Most men like to fix problems on their own, and we look at leading as fixing problems.    As men we must yield the power we think we hold, to his Power.  We must stop looking to fix everyone else’s problems and lead people down the narrow road to the small door that only the person can pass-through.

With God’s power anything is possible, so stop trying to fix everything.

Surprise… Guess what…Love is the topic of this post.  Thus the precursor post last night.  Love More Deeply

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When you arise with sleepy eyes my smiling face you see.

I always say, “Well, look who’s up.”  You laugh and say. “It’s Me!”

How I love your morning hug; You nestle in my touch.  You wait to hear me whisper low,  “I LOVE YOU THIS MUCH.”

I love you best.  I love you most. I love you high.  I love you low.  I love you deep.  I love you wide.  I LOVE YOU THIS MUCH!

Throughout the day we, hide and seek.  I love to see you smile.  I always say,  “I found you dear” But I had you all the while.

You run to me with open arms; I love to feel your touch.

We shout our loud for all to hear,  “I LOVE YOU THIS MUCH!”

I love you best.  I love you most. I love you high.  I love you low.  I love you deep.  I love you wide.  I LOVE YOU THIS MUCH!

I trust you know that God is so, by what I say and do. I tell you He is safe and sure.  And what he says is true.

He holds you in his loving arms; you fell his tender touch.

You hear the heavenly Father say,  “I love you this much!”

When day is done at setting sun, we bow our heads an pray. I trust you to God’s loving care.  You safely drift away.

I kiss you on your sleepy head with one last gentle touch.

The words still ringing in our ears.  “I LOVE YOU THIS MUCH!”

I love you best.  I love you most. I love you high.  I love you low.  I love you deep.  I love you wide. I love you, I love you,  I LOVE YOU THIS MUCH!

I love you this much!! By Lynn Hodges & Sue Buchanan

I love you this much,  is one of my all time favorite books.  It touches me deep every time I read it, and many times I have sat on my daughters bed reading it with tears of Joy in my eyes.  In a simple book for children, about a day between a father bear and his cub, we learn the simple but deep truth of God’s love.  He loves us best, He loves us most, He loves us high, He loves us low, He loves us deep, He loves us wide.   He loves us THIS MUCH!!!

Ephesians 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

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This is the 9th week of the Blogged Bible Study. We are going chapter by chapter through Paul’s letter to the Church of Ephasis. To read the other posts on chapter 3 of Ephesians check out the Blogged Bible Study page.

Loving another more deeply is harder than most people think, but it is what we are commanded to do by Christ.   Loving deeply is what he modeled for us through his ministry. The Truth of the greatest command is the Truth of God that drives the core of faith faith in Jesus Christ.  God’s Truth and only His Truth is best spread by finding the ways to love someone, and expecting no reaction or expecting nothing in return.  Just loving to love the.

Have you ever wondered if what you are doing is advancing the Kingdom of God?   Are you surrounding your self with only believers and then wonder if you are reaching anyone beyond believers.  Do you wonder if your words come across in the love, or your actions are loving the way that Christ commanded we love to everyone.

Are we living the Love that God commands of us?  And if we are, is the Love of God we live leading people to the open arms of Christ.

Mathew 22:36-40 ″Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

We can not say the words “I love you” flippantly, the word Love means way to much.  Love is everything that my God commands us to do.   To love means you understand the need of the other person, and filling the need.  When we love deeply we see that someone wants something in a certain way, and do everything possible to meet that need.

Loving means that when someone hurts us, we move beyond the hurt.  We move beyond this hurt by finding the need in the hurt, and filling it from a joyful heart.

Sometimes loving someone means finding a need and filling it.  Sometimes you will never even mention you are a follower of Christ.  Sometimes no scripture will be needed to spread the Truth of Love.   When we are acting in the love of Christ all that needs to be said is through our actions.

Sometimes loving someone can cause hurt when  belief in the Truth causes relationships to be strained.  When we stand up for the Truth of God, or point out an inconsistency with the Truth, we are loving those people.  We are trying to lead them to Christ, the ultimate example of love.   But more often than not(because they are blind to the truth) they see it as a rebuke, and do not see the love.   I wonder if they are blind to it because the approach was not in love but self righteousness?   Which is the opposite of loving.

In both situations, I will always answer if someone asks why I am Loving on them.  I will point them to my Christ.

We love on fellow believers, just as we find the ways to love on non believers.   We do so knowing that God and Christ are the model of love, and I love based on that example. Love because my faith in Christ commands me to. Love because Christ is Truth and Love. Love because He loves us.

Eph 2:4 -10 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Perfection is what we are meant for,  and we screw up that perfection regularly by trying to get back to it. We constantly think that if we do this better, or just stop doing that, we will get back to the perfection we are meant for.

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of the vicious cycle.

News flash. I am not perfect and I am so glad I don’t have to be perfect for God to use me as he sees fit.  There is a lot of comfort knowing that even though I am a flawed individual God has a plan for me in His Church.   I like many before me have been used for his purpose.  Lets face it none of us will ever be perfect this side of heaven, and there is just to much guilt associated with the process.

I don’t know about you, but I am giving up trying.

Why do we get caught up in thinking that we need to be perfect before God will accept us?  If you read through the bible there are countless imperfect people used for God’s plan.  Adam/Eve, Abraham, Moses, David, Rehab, Rebbeca, Ester, Jonah. The men Jesus choose were common men, none of them were perfect. And less we forget Paul a Pharesee of all Pharesees.

I don’t know about you I am tired of not achieving it.

Can you be comfortable knowing that your imperfection is ok?  Our way of life as a follower of Christ is not a check list of did I commit this or that sin today.   Our very nature should be transformed to be more like Christ every moment of every day.   If we do screw up we learn from the mistake, repent willingly to the God who knew we were going to commit the sin, and walk forward into His Grace.

I don’t know about you, I am moving forward without guilt.

We don’t have to achieve perfection for God to accept us.  He sees us for who we are.  All our imperfections are on full display for Him.  He knew and knows all the sin that we will commit in our lives.   He knew that by us believing in His Son, he would still use us for His glory.  He would use us the imperfect people to achieve His Perfect will.

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of not living in Grace

Grace is not a license to sin.  Far from it… It is God freely forgiving us for something that we deserve to be punished for.  It is God Loving us knowing that we can never obtain perfection without His Son.    By accepting that Grace we are free to live the life God planned for us.  Relying on him to satisfy the desires that lead to Sin.   Willingly putting all of our wants and needs into His hands.   Willingly walking in His will, stumbling sometimes, but moving forward towards the hope of His Son.

I don’t know about you, but I am willing.

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An illustration of walking in Grace (all though not perfect):

Imagine you are walking backwards on a park path, watching everything go by but not seeing what is ahead.  Now imagine a park bench is slid out behind you as you walk, and you fall straight backwards over it.   Which way are you looking?    Now imagine you get up but now you turn around and start walking forward…You can now see the things that make you stumble and fall.  Will you still hit some and bruise a knee? Sure.  But you will also become more aware of them quicker, and learn to deal with them sooner.    Some days you will leap over them with no effort,  other days you will struggle to craw over, still others you may not make it at all.   With God’s Grace you do not leap or struggle alone.  You walk with Christ,  He leaps with you. When you struggle, He craws over with you.  When you can’t craw He carried his Cross he will carry yours.

Mathew 5:9

⁹Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.

The best way to bring about peace is to find the common between the two parties at odds with each other.  Christ came and taught us that we will be blessed if we work for peace.  We will be the sons of God.

Eph 2:17-18
17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Peace is something that we often talk about, but never truely understand.  In many ways looking at the world one would understand why we aren’t at peace.  It is a crazy mixed up world, and in many ways God is absent from so many.

Let’s backup and look at what Paul says about peace in Christ,  and who Christ came to establish peace between.

Eph 2: 14-16

¹⁴For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

When Paul writes of peace he is talking about peace between the Jews and the Gentiles.  The Jews being God’s chosen, and the Gentiles those who lack God.

We learn that Christ did not come for just the Jews he came so that All could believe in Him. God wanted peace and therefore unity among all his creation.  He wanted all to be at peace with Christ.  And through Christ the barrier between the two groups was broken.  Remember in Galatians Paul writes about the division of legalism.

Most of the time what separates the people far from Christ from those close to Him are legalistic expectations of the believers in Christ.

In 15 Paul uses the word abolish to describe what Christ did to the law, in other words Christ freed those close to Him and far away from the burden of legalistic religion.  Wanting us to become one in Him by ALL being close to him.  Then as we see in 16 both will be Reconciled to God,  hostility will be broken, and peace achieved by Christ’s atoning death.

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This is the 8th week of the Blogged Bible Study. We are going chapter by chapter through Paul’s letter to the Church of Ephasis. To read the other posts on chapter 2 of Ephesians check out the Blogged Bible Study page.

There comes a point in a persons life, that you have to choose.

Is it all about me or something else? In other words. Is everything I pursue for selfish gain or do I believe there is something more powerful than I am? Still in other words. Is God real or not, and do I follow him or Not?

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

The “believe” implies that there is a choice to be made, and I just have to wonder when people are brought to that point in their lives what are they thinking about? What makes them choose one way or the other?

It seems to me that when a person makes that decision there would have to be some thought and study behind making that choice. It just doesn’t seem like a choice to be made lightly.

Even choosing to believe in Christ and follow him is not an easy choice. “Narrow is the path to salvation, wide is the path to destruction.” , “Take up your cross daily.” Both very weighty statements that seem to require a lot of thought and meditation. Christ does not want you to jump in half way, he wants your mind, your soul, he wants your heart. Can a child make that choice?

According to Einstein that choice to believe is Childish…

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080513122249.m3ds3b6j&show_article=1

What Einstein seems to fail to realize is that our faith in Christ is to be that of a child. Mark 10:15
I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Einstein is correct, our faith is that of a child. Cause even after all the study I have put in… Even after all the prayer, there are somethings I don’t understand. So I just have to trust my Father God, and that he knows. I have to be his child, and trust him to take care of me. Be his Child and fall into his loving arms trusting he will catch me. Be his Child and know that he loves me no matter what.

Articles like these affirm my faith more than anything. Oh how joyful it is to be Childish in God’s loving arms….