Martin Luther said:
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. He who goes on his way thinking that he has faith and has completely mastered its meaning is in a more dangerous condition than he who knows nothing whatever about it. Why? Because he who knows nothing whatever about it may come to his senses and say: ‘You have never heard this doctrine nor known anything about it. my friend, listen to it and see what it really is’ . . . Then it may happen that he understands it well. The former, however, is hindered by his conceit. He imagines he has already grasped the matter and thoroughly knows it. And so he goes on his way, considers himself well informed, and pays little attention to the subject.”7
There are many Christians who have a “little knowledge.” They have received the inoculation or the vaccine if you will of real faith. Many times this keeps some one from truly getting “Jesus.”
A. W. Tozer says, “What we think about God is the most important thing in our lives.”
To be “in-formed” is not the same as being “re-formed.” Information about God is not enough. Only as we come into association with others who are walking with Him can there be a true “transformation.”
Jesus called His disciples to “follow me.” It was in that association with and that imitation of that they were changed; re-formed into His image and likeness; which is our original state of being.
1Cor. 4:16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me.
1Cor. 11:1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
Heb. 6:12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Paul was continually calling others to “imitate” him as he did Christ. The pattern of discipleship is not difficult …. but it is time consuming. A disciple is not an “instant” event or decision. No it is a way of living. Living a life after Jesus.
The “church” that Jesus founded followed this pattern. Seeker, Hearer, Kneeler and Faithful…. People were “transformed” or “re-formed” by coming into “fellowship” with others we knew Christ and could assist them in “becoming” like Christ.
The church of the last several hundred years has so “individualized” Christianity that it has forgotten that God called us into a “family.” He sent the “spirit of adoption” into our hearts. And it is through the “family” that we come to understand and know who “He” truly is and who “we”truly are.
Evangelism – conversion is so much more than gaining a “little information” about Jesus; it is coming into the living reality of being changed so that “as He is so are we in this world,” (1 John 4:17).
“Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ” (Detrick Bonhoeffer).
Authentic Christianity demands that we “make disciples.” For far too long we have thought that “decisions” to believe were enough. That line of thinking has left us with an anemic church. A church that has spiritual amnesia and who has settled to be far less than she truly was designed to be.
Dallas Willard says, “So far as the visible Christian institutions of our day are concerned, discipleship clearly is optional… Churches are therefore filled with “undiscipled disciples. Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have not yet decided to follow Christ.”
I am dedicated to raising up people who are fully dedicated to “following” Jesus! This requires our ability to critically analyze the processes and the perceptions that we have followed in our own journeys to Jesus and to recover “truths” that have been lost.
I began this posting by quoting Martin Luther; “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. He who goes on his way thinking that he has faith and has completely mastered its meaning is in a more dangerous condition than he who knows nothing whatever about it.”
I will finish this posting by quoting Paul, “Phil. 3:12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (NLB)
We should never make the mistake of thinking that “we have arrived” or that “we have achieved” something. We are all still on a “journey to Jesus.” Dr. Webbers book is a very good tool to help us understand the pattern that Jesus and His first disciples used to make the “journey.”
Discipleship is a journey! A journey of becoming like Jesus!
Enjoy the journey!
Bishop Quintin
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
THAT THEY MAY BE ONE
At the last supper, Jesus told his apostles about the one characteristic that would distinguish his believers in the world: "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). Above everything else, Jesus wanted his people to be known for their agape love--a love that conquers hatred and bigotry, a love that overcomes division and judgments. This is a love that unites, a love that brings people together in a union of trust, respect, and affection (see Acts 2:44-45: Galatians 3:26-28).
A Legacy of Separation!
Yet, as we look at the sweep of history, it seems that Christians have given a far different witness than the one Jesus asked for -- particularly in this past millennium. In 1054, the Eastern Church of Constantinople and the Western Church of Rome had become so estranged that these two fountains of faith and blessing separated themselves from each other. As time progressed, this spirit of division spread, ultimately manifesting itself in numerous sub-divisions that resulted from the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. While doctrinal and moral issues played a significant role in these separations, they seem to have been fueled just as much by political agendas, ethnic prejudices, and personal hatred. It was not uncommon, in fact, to see these sparks of bitterness explode into violence and bloodshed.
We may not recognize it too often, but we have all inherited the legacy of centuries of separation and rancor. This is especially true for those of us who grew up in the last half of the twentieth century. Many Roman catholics were taught that protestants could not be saved, and protestants grew up believing that catholics were guilty of idolatry and apostasy. However, the greatest enemy of Christian unity today may be apathy in a time of extraordinary grace and favor from the Lord. All through out this last number of years, God has been pouring out powerful gifts of healing and reconciliation. In the past fifty years in particular, Christians from every background have come together in unprecedented numbers to pray, worship the Lord, seek each others' forgiveness, and work together for the spread of the gospel.
As we encounter God's presence through prayer and worship, we can take comfort in the knowledge that we all have the same heavenly Father. We can rejoice that we are forgiven by the same blood of Christ, shed for all people. As we join our separated brothers and sisters in worship of our Lord Jesus, we will recognize the great deposit of faith that binds us together. Prayer....enables us always to discover anew the evangelical truth of the words: "You have one Father" (Matthew 23:9), the Father, Abba, invoked by Christ himself the Only-begotten...Son. And again: "You have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters" (Matthew 23:8).
Let us all take advantage of the marvelous grace that God is pouring out on his church in our day. He is working powerfully to heal all the divisions and animosity that the past one thousand years have brought. Let us all seek deeper conversion to his gospel--a closer relationship with Jesus, through prayer and worship, and a greater love for all our brothers and sisters. Let us answer the call to pray, to repent and to forgive.
A Legacy of Separation!
Yet, as we look at the sweep of history, it seems that Christians have given a far different witness than the one Jesus asked for -- particularly in this past millennium. In 1054, the Eastern Church of Constantinople and the Western Church of Rome had become so estranged that these two fountains of faith and blessing separated themselves from each other. As time progressed, this spirit of division spread, ultimately manifesting itself in numerous sub-divisions that resulted from the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. While doctrinal and moral issues played a significant role in these separations, they seem to have been fueled just as much by political agendas, ethnic prejudices, and personal hatred. It was not uncommon, in fact, to see these sparks of bitterness explode into violence and bloodshed.
We may not recognize it too often, but we have all inherited the legacy of centuries of separation and rancor. This is especially true for those of us who grew up in the last half of the twentieth century. Many Roman catholics were taught that protestants could not be saved, and protestants grew up believing that catholics were guilty of idolatry and apostasy. However, the greatest enemy of Christian unity today may be apathy in a time of extraordinary grace and favor from the Lord. All through out this last number of years, God has been pouring out powerful gifts of healing and reconciliation. In the past fifty years in particular, Christians from every background have come together in unprecedented numbers to pray, worship the Lord, seek each others' forgiveness, and work together for the spread of the gospel.
As we encounter God's presence through prayer and worship, we can take comfort in the knowledge that we all have the same heavenly Father. We can rejoice that we are forgiven by the same blood of Christ, shed for all people. As we join our separated brothers and sisters in worship of our Lord Jesus, we will recognize the great deposit of faith that binds us together. Prayer....enables us always to discover anew the evangelical truth of the words: "You have one Father" (Matthew 23:9), the Father, Abba, invoked by Christ himself the Only-begotten...Son. And again: "You have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters" (Matthew 23:8).
Let us all take advantage of the marvelous grace that God is pouring out on his church in our day. He is working powerfully to heal all the divisions and animosity that the past one thousand years have brought. Let us all seek deeper conversion to his gospel--a closer relationship with Jesus, through prayer and worship, and a greater love for all our brothers and sisters. Let us answer the call to pray, to repent and to forgive.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
IT IS TIME FOR FREEDOM
I have been watching the events of the last few months with great interest. Several years ago a good friend of mine, Vivian Hibbert, encouraged me to pay attention to what God was doing outside the church, particularly in the arts. And maybe with artists, so lets take notice of a few things.
First, Whitney Houston has stepped forward telling how God delivered her from a long abusive situation. Second, I am intrigued with McKenzie Phillips new book telling about her long-time abusive relationship. And finally, Kaycee Dungard, is found after 18 years of being held captive in an abusive situation.
I remember how the Lord spoke to me over a year ago these words:
Breakthrough - May 11, 2008
“My perception is that spiritual authority is going to increase in the next 6-12 weeks. The thing that I am seeing is that you are going to be given the power and authority to break and destroy the limitations and strongholds that you have been dealing with in your lives for years. You are going to go free from those limitations in areas of your life that you have been merely coping with because you couldn’t get rid of it. There is going be such an experience of freedom in the lives of individuals and families that strongholds will be broken off of people’s lives. Listen to me, it is happening to you. You need to exercise it. The authority is coming up into your life, but you need to be the one who exercises it and says, “I am going free of that.” And when you go free of it, you’ve got to hate that thing. Those things that were strongholds in my life before, I hate them now. You cannot go back and play with them…. If you have strongholds, thought patterns, limitations, habits, particularly low self-esteem; particularly you don’t think you are worthy, you’re insecure…that is going to be destroyed, because low self-esteem is the Enemy robbing you of the potential in your life. If the Enemy can keep you thinking you don’t matter, you don’t count, nobody loves you or likes you, if He can keep you there he can keep your gifts from coming out. Those strongholds are coming down, that is coming off, and you’re going to come out of that thing and go, yes go into the freedom that He has purchased for you.”
I truly believe that God is releasing people from strongholds that have been extreme. Now is the time for the Church to arise and to set people free. Jesus defeated the enemy and He has entrusted the Church with the authority to set people free in His name. Unfortunately the church has been lulled asleep. It is time for her to wake up and to operate in the authority that she has been given.
It is time for many to realize that they can go free right now. A few days ago I ran across this: "We remain captives within a mental framework that has actually been broken. We are like prisoners who could walk out of a prison because all that would enclose us has been burst open, but we remain inside because we are asleep...it is time to wake up.
First, Whitney Houston has stepped forward telling how God delivered her from a long abusive situation. Second, I am intrigued with McKenzie Phillips new book telling about her long-time abusive relationship. And finally, Kaycee Dungard, is found after 18 years of being held captive in an abusive situation.
I remember how the Lord spoke to me over a year ago these words:
Breakthrough - May 11, 2008
“My perception is that spiritual authority is going to increase in the next 6-12 weeks. The thing that I am seeing is that you are going to be given the power and authority to break and destroy the limitations and strongholds that you have been dealing with in your lives for years. You are going to go free from those limitations in areas of your life that you have been merely coping with because you couldn’t get rid of it. There is going be such an experience of freedom in the lives of individuals and families that strongholds will be broken off of people’s lives. Listen to me, it is happening to you. You need to exercise it. The authority is coming up into your life, but you need to be the one who exercises it and says, “I am going free of that.” And when you go free of it, you’ve got to hate that thing. Those things that were strongholds in my life before, I hate them now. You cannot go back and play with them…. If you have strongholds, thought patterns, limitations, habits, particularly low self-esteem; particularly you don’t think you are worthy, you’re insecure…that is going to be destroyed, because low self-esteem is the Enemy robbing you of the potential in your life. If the Enemy can keep you thinking you don’t matter, you don’t count, nobody loves you or likes you, if He can keep you there he can keep your gifts from coming out. Those strongholds are coming down, that is coming off, and you’re going to come out of that thing and go, yes go into the freedom that He has purchased for you.”
I truly believe that God is releasing people from strongholds that have been extreme. Now is the time for the Church to arise and to set people free. Jesus defeated the enemy and He has entrusted the Church with the authority to set people free in His name. Unfortunately the church has been lulled asleep. It is time for her to wake up and to operate in the authority that she has been given.
It is time for many to realize that they can go free right now. A few days ago I ran across this: "We remain captives within a mental framework that has actually been broken. We are like prisoners who could walk out of a prison because all that would enclose us has been burst open, but we remain inside because we are asleep...it is time to wake up.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
RE-VISION THE CHURCH
Failing to understand the nature of the church can lead to a number of problems. Defining the church functionally -- in terms of what it does -- can shift our perspective away from understanding the church as a unique community of God's people. In place of this, the church tends to become a series of ministry functions such as worship, education, service, children, youth, etc. Defining the church organizationally -- in terms of its structures -- shifts our mind away from the spiritual reality of the church as a community, a family, the body of the Christ, the very presence of God on earth.
In most cases the church has become something to be structured and managed. Thus ministry is to be administrated and managed to maintain effectiveness, in order to accomplish certain goals. This seduces leaders into placing too much confidence in their managerial skills or in their us of organizational techniques. Thus church leaders are always looking for the "next" key to success.
It is my conviction that we need to move beyond trying to find the "next" church "thing" that will help us be successful one more time. We truly need to rediscover what is more basic about what it means to be the "church." It is critical that we recover the nature of the church before we understand what the church is do be doing.
We must face the very way we think about "Church." The critical question is what is the church?
The church is more than what meets the eye. It is more than a set of well-managed ministry functions. It is more than another human organization! The church lives in the world as a human enterprise, but it is also the called and redeemed people of God. It the people of God who are created by the Holy Spirit to live as a missionary community here on the earth.
The church is God's personal presence in the world through the Spirit! This makes the church a unique spiritual community. The very family of God who by it's presence give witness to the origin and future of God's people.
The Church's true character is its embodiment of Christ’s mission by its very existence in the world, it witnesses to the mission of God, to overthrow evil and to the ultimate reign of God over the entire created order. This is the eschatological nature of the church. It is the presence of a Good God now revealed, it is the very future of God’s Kingdom; in a world hostile to its message and values.
The early Christians saw themselves as participants in a grand drama, …..those gathered from all nations to testify to the resurrected Lord. Without the church the world literally had no HOPE OF SALVATION since the church is necessary for the world to know it is part of a story that it cannot know without the Church.
The Church is the adopted people bought by His blood, united to Him and to each other …. Whose lives have been changed and communities that have been transformed by God’s presence among them.
The church is an inviting and compelling community of people who attract unchurched because they embody a new life under the reign of Christ and informed by their eschatological (prophetic) vision.
Our personal journey into Christ therefore is nourished by the community called “church” which God has been sent and set as a divine presence to proclaim the unltimate destiny of the world…
Without the church the world would have no idea of it’s destiny!
To come to Christ and His Church is to come into a new way of seeing!
The church is the nurturing and caring community of the Father: “when we encounter the church we move into spiritual territory that occupies earthly terrain. We encounter the living God in the midst of our humanity. We encounter the Spirit of God dwelling in the midst of a people who are created and formed into a unique community. In and through this community the converting person is nurtured, discipled, and equipped.
In most cases the church has become something to be structured and managed. Thus ministry is to be administrated and managed to maintain effectiveness, in order to accomplish certain goals. This seduces leaders into placing too much confidence in their managerial skills or in their us of organizational techniques. Thus church leaders are always looking for the "next" key to success.
It is my conviction that we need to move beyond trying to find the "next" church "thing" that will help us be successful one more time. We truly need to rediscover what is more basic about what it means to be the "church." It is critical that we recover the nature of the church before we understand what the church is do be doing.
We must face the very way we think about "Church." The critical question is what is the church?
The church is more than what meets the eye. It is more than a set of well-managed ministry functions. It is more than another human organization! The church lives in the world as a human enterprise, but it is also the called and redeemed people of God. It the people of God who are created by the Holy Spirit to live as a missionary community here on the earth.
The church is God's personal presence in the world through the Spirit! This makes the church a unique spiritual community. The very family of God who by it's presence give witness to the origin and future of God's people.
The Church's true character is its embodiment of Christ’s mission by its very existence in the world, it witnesses to the mission of God, to overthrow evil and to the ultimate reign of God over the entire created order. This is the eschatological nature of the church. It is the presence of a Good God now revealed, it is the very future of God’s Kingdom; in a world hostile to its message and values.
The early Christians saw themselves as participants in a grand drama, …..those gathered from all nations to testify to the resurrected Lord. Without the church the world literally had no HOPE OF SALVATION since the church is necessary for the world to know it is part of a story that it cannot know without the Church.
The Church is the adopted people bought by His blood, united to Him and to each other …. Whose lives have been changed and communities that have been transformed by God’s presence among them.
The church is an inviting and compelling community of people who attract unchurched because they embody a new life under the reign of Christ and informed by their eschatological (prophetic) vision.
Our personal journey into Christ therefore is nourished by the community called “church” which God has been sent and set as a divine presence to proclaim the unltimate destiny of the world…
Without the church the world would have no idea of it’s destiny!
To come to Christ and His Church is to come into a new way of seeing!
The church is the nurturing and caring community of the Father: “when we encounter the church we move into spiritual territory that occupies earthly terrain. We encounter the living God in the midst of our humanity. We encounter the Spirit of God dwelling in the midst of a people who are created and formed into a unique community. In and through this community the converting person is nurtured, discipled, and equipped.
Monday, August 31, 2009
BE STRONG IN THE LORD!
Paul says to the Ephesians, In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides]. (Eph 6:10).
As he closes his letter to the brethren he admonishes them to be "strong in the Lord." Most people want God to make them strong, but Jesus did not come to make us strong in ourselves but rather He came to become for us our strength. It is our "UNION" with Him that provides us strength. It is our relationship with Him that ultimately produces the strength (the very JOY) that is needed to live this earth bound life. We are to draw our strength from His Love.
In the face of the battle of life "what are we to do?" BE STRONG IN THE LORD! Rely upon our union our, oneness with the ONE who has "chosen us before the foundation of the world," who "made us alive," who "has seated us together with Him."
Our strength comes from Love. A love that the world had never known before. A love that was furiously focused on restoring His union with us. Into the midst of our weakness He came and rescued us with His Divine Embrace. Within that Embrace all Embarrassment disappears. All our weaknesses and fears are destroyed and we are empowered to receive all that He is and has.
Be Strong! Be Courageous! Put on the whole armor of God. The very Presence of the One who has come not only once as the son of Mary but also He has come to live within our hearts. Yes the Holy Spirit longs to make His home within us. We must allow the ONE who walked the shores and the waves of Galilee to live within us.
To be filled with the Spirit of the Lord is the very hope of every individual and the essence of the church. We are a people who are in need of the very Presence of the Lord who is a "Spirit" and who desires to fill us with Himself.
Eph 3:14-16
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
NKJV
The Church is in need of a Spiritual Strengthening. A reconditioning of long forgotten muscles. A recovering of abilities that were given to us in the new birth. We need to "RE-THINK" what it means to be the church. The Church is the body of the Christ. We are his family, we are the continuation of His ministry. A ministry that was full of the power of the Holy Spirit. I am truly convinced that we have allowed the rationality of our times to rob us of the potential and possibility of the manifestation of the supernatural realities of the Holy Spirit.
This is a cry! This is a shout to the Church! BE STRONG IN THE LORD. Rather thaN chasing to find or build strength in ourselves we must rely upon the Holy Spirit. It is He who was sent to empower us to be the sons and daughters of the Most High.
So today... Put on the armor of the Lord. and Pray ... Pray in the Spirit ... ALWAYS!!!!!
As he closes his letter to the brethren he admonishes them to be "strong in the Lord." Most people want God to make them strong, but Jesus did not come to make us strong in ourselves but rather He came to become for us our strength. It is our "UNION" with Him that provides us strength. It is our relationship with Him that ultimately produces the strength (the very JOY) that is needed to live this earth bound life. We are to draw our strength from His Love.
In the face of the battle of life "what are we to do?" BE STRONG IN THE LORD! Rely upon our union our, oneness with the ONE who has "chosen us before the foundation of the world," who "made us alive," who "has seated us together with Him."
Our strength comes from Love. A love that the world had never known before. A love that was furiously focused on restoring His union with us. Into the midst of our weakness He came and rescued us with His Divine Embrace. Within that Embrace all Embarrassment disappears. All our weaknesses and fears are destroyed and we are empowered to receive all that He is and has.
Be Strong! Be Courageous! Put on the whole armor of God. The very Presence of the One who has come not only once as the son of Mary but also He has come to live within our hearts. Yes the Holy Spirit longs to make His home within us. We must allow the ONE who walked the shores and the waves of Galilee to live within us.
To be filled with the Spirit of the Lord is the very hope of every individual and the essence of the church. We are a people who are in need of the very Presence of the Lord who is a "Spirit" and who desires to fill us with Himself.
Eph 3:14-16
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
NKJV
The Church is in need of a Spiritual Strengthening. A reconditioning of long forgotten muscles. A recovering of abilities that were given to us in the new birth. We need to "RE-THINK" what it means to be the church. The Church is the body of the Christ. We are his family, we are the continuation of His ministry. A ministry that was full of the power of the Holy Spirit. I am truly convinced that we have allowed the rationality of our times to rob us of the potential and possibility of the manifestation of the supernatural realities of the Holy Spirit.
This is a cry! This is a shout to the Church! BE STRONG IN THE LORD. Rather thaN chasing to find or build strength in ourselves we must rely upon the Holy Spirit. It is He who was sent to empower us to be the sons and daughters of the Most High.
So today... Put on the armor of the Lord. and Pray ... Pray in the Spirit ... ALWAYS!!!!!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
ReThink Church
The early Christians discovered that telling the story of Jesus carried a power which they continually associated with the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts makes these references often: "Filled with the Holy Spirit, they spoke God's word with boldness." "The Word of God continued to spread." "The word of God continued to advance and gain adherents." The Word of God grew mightily and prevailed" (Acts 4:31; 6:7; 12:24: 19:20).
Paul said it like this, "When you received the word of God from us, you accepted it not as human word, but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you beleivers." "The word of truth, the gospel which has come to you....bearing fruit and growing in the whole world" (1 Thessalonians 2:13; Colossians 1:5-6).
They were using old language with a new intent. "Bearing fruit and growing," is a direct connection to the language of the first creation, of Genesis chapter one. "By the word of YHWH were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth," (Psalm 33:6).
The early Christians were now saying the very same word is now at work in you through the good news, the "gospel," the message that declares Jesus as the risen Lord.
"The Word is near you, on your lips and in your heart: because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:8-9).
In other words, when you announce the good news that the risen Jesus is Lord, that very word is the word of God, (who created the first creation), is now the carrier or agent of God's Spirit, the means by which, (as Isaiah had prophesied), new life (everlasting, abundant life), from God's dimension comes to bring new creation with in our life (Isaiah 40:8; 55:10-13).
That is how the church is to carry forward the work of Jesus! Luke said, “all that Jesus began to do and teach.” The implication is clear: that the story of the church, led and energized by the power of the Holy Spirit, is the story of Jesus continuing to do and teach — through His Spirit-led people. That is why we pray “Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
Together as we are filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit we are the hands, the feet, the very continuation of the ministry of Jesus. Empowered by His Spirit we can love each other and the world around us in such a way that the very Presence of the Lord is revealed to all. We must “Re-Think” what it means to be the church.
We are so much more than an institution, an organization or a building. We are so much more than a group of people gathered around some sort of common vision or a set of values. The Church is spiritually and literally the "body of the Christ." We are the "house of the Lord." We are the "dwelling place, the temple of the Holy Spirit."
When we "unite" together in love for the Lord and in love with each other we become the very "living organism" of the Christ. He Himself lives in us! (Col. 1:27). The reality of His Presence is to be found and encountered in the very midst of our loving God and each other.
Our unity, our worship, our relationship with each other is absolutely essential for the ministry of Christ to continue on the earth. We must Re-think ..... what it means to be the church.
Paul said it like this, "When you received the word of God from us, you accepted it not as human word, but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you beleivers." "The word of truth, the gospel which has come to you....bearing fruit and growing in the whole world" (1 Thessalonians 2:13; Colossians 1:5-6).
They were using old language with a new intent. "Bearing fruit and growing," is a direct connection to the language of the first creation, of Genesis chapter one. "By the word of YHWH were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth," (Psalm 33:6).
The early Christians were now saying the very same word is now at work in you through the good news, the "gospel," the message that declares Jesus as the risen Lord.
"The Word is near you, on your lips and in your heart: because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:8-9).
In other words, when you announce the good news that the risen Jesus is Lord, that very word is the word of God, (who created the first creation), is now the carrier or agent of God's Spirit, the means by which, (as Isaiah had prophesied), new life (everlasting, abundant life), from God's dimension comes to bring new creation with in our life (Isaiah 40:8; 55:10-13).
That is how the church is to carry forward the work of Jesus! Luke said, “all that Jesus began to do and teach.” The implication is clear: that the story of the church, led and energized by the power of the Holy Spirit, is the story of Jesus continuing to do and teach — through His Spirit-led people. That is why we pray “Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
Together as we are filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit we are the hands, the feet, the very continuation of the ministry of Jesus. Empowered by His Spirit we can love each other and the world around us in such a way that the very Presence of the Lord is revealed to all. We must “Re-Think” what it means to be the church.
We are so much more than an institution, an organization or a building. We are so much more than a group of people gathered around some sort of common vision or a set of values. The Church is spiritually and literally the "body of the Christ." We are the "house of the Lord." We are the "dwelling place, the temple of the Holy Spirit."
When we "unite" together in love for the Lord and in love with each other we become the very "living organism" of the Christ. He Himself lives in us! (Col. 1:27). The reality of His Presence is to be found and encountered in the very midst of our loving God and each other.
Our unity, our worship, our relationship with each other is absolutely essential for the ministry of Christ to continue on the earth. We must Re-think ..... what it means to be the church.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
HOLY HEARTBURN
There is one huge barrier that keeps most of us from hearing the voice of God, it is what Henry King called, “the seeming unreality of the spiritual life” or we could say “the overwhelming presence of the visible world.”
The visible world daily bombards us with its things, and its events. These circumstances of life push and pull (and sometimes hammer and beat) away at our lives. Very few people wake up as thirsty for God as they are for Starbucks.
The spiritual voice of God does not shout, but rather He whispers at us. He appears on the edges of the events of our lives. God is hovering always, longing for our attention. God’s little intrusions into our human lives are so gentle that they are far too easily dismissed or explained away. We are obsessed and ruled by the visible decay and death around us that we cannot seem to grasp the life of the spirit (Roman 8:6).
Hence, we are hindered from hearing because we too quickly and easily explain away the very movements of God towards us. God wants to be wanted! He wants to be wanted enough that we are ready, predisposed, to find him present with us.
Unfortunately we live in a culture that has, for centuries now, cultivated the idea that the skeptical person is always smarter than one who believes. Only a very hardy individualist or social rebel – or one desperate for another life – therefore stands the chance of discovering the substantive reality of the spiritual life of God, and hear His voice. Hence, very few people develop competent prayer lives. This is chiefly because they are prepared to explain away as coincidences the answers that come to the prayers that they do make.
If we are to “hear God” we must chose to be a spiritual person and to live a spiritual life. We will be required to “bet our life” that the visible world, while real, is not reality itself. Today we live in a culture that overwhelmingly gives primary, if not exclusive, importance to the visible. We cannot make spirituality “work” without having a significant degree of confidence in and commitment to the truth that the visible world is always under the hand of the unseen God.
This is the challenge that I face every day when I wake up. It walks with me through the events of each day. Will I, like Moses, “endure as seeing him who is invisible?” Will I listen for God then obey? Right now where I am, moment to moment, I sweat it out with my brother Paul: “My visible self may be perishing, but inwardly I am renewed day by day… it is working for me, to produce in me His glory, thus I refuse to look at the visible, but rather focus on the unseen.” (2 Cor. 4:16-18 paraphrase)
God has always used and invaded the visible. He has always provided visible points of contact for His people. Consider all the visible elements that He instructed Moses to build. Those elaborate provisions provided a visible means through which Moses might be able to hear God’s voice. The tabernacle, the sacrificial equipment, the rituals and so forth provided a point for constant interaction in the visible world with the invisible God. They were called to worship morning and evening, at the very door of the tent of meeting, “I will meet with you, to speak with you there” (Ex. 29:42). Here they, “heard the sounds of the words, but saw no form…”(Deut. 4:10-14). Here they stood, only one step away from the visible to unseen reality of God’s Kingdom.
The Voice of heaven becomes visible in and through the life of Jesus Christ. After His resurrection He appears to his disciples in visible form a few times in order to allow them to grow accustom to hearing him without seeing him. Thus it was “through the Holy Spirit” that he gave instructions to his apostles (Acts 1:2). He made Himself visible to them just enough to give them confidence that it was he who was speaking in their hearts. This prepared them to continue listening and conversing with him after he no longer appeared to them visibly.
Remember for a moment those two heartbroken students who were on the road to Emmaus. He caught up with them in a visible form that they did not recognize. He spoke with them from the Scriptures and explained what had happened to their Jesus. Then when they sat at supper with him, suddenly “their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight” (Luke 24:31). They asked one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).
They realized that his words had always affected their hearts, their inward life, in a very peculiar way. No one else spoke the words or the way that He did. They realized that they should have recognized Him by the affect that His words had on their hearts. This was not the first time that they had discussed “holy heartburn” that was produced by Jesus’ words.
We are called to live on the road, on a journey, with intermittent moments of “HOLY HEARTBURN.”
Our healing, our health is directly related if not proportionate to our hearing of God’s word. If we are to walk in health, it begins with our hearts being warmed by the very VOICE of the One who came to “heal the broken-hearted.”
Today, be listening, be expecting to hear the voice that will warm your heart, and make you whole!!!
The visible world daily bombards us with its things, and its events. These circumstances of life push and pull (and sometimes hammer and beat) away at our lives. Very few people wake up as thirsty for God as they are for Starbucks.
The spiritual voice of God does not shout, but rather He whispers at us. He appears on the edges of the events of our lives. God is hovering always, longing for our attention. God’s little intrusions into our human lives are so gentle that they are far too easily dismissed or explained away. We are obsessed and ruled by the visible decay and death around us that we cannot seem to grasp the life of the spirit (Roman 8:6).
Hence, we are hindered from hearing because we too quickly and easily explain away the very movements of God towards us. God wants to be wanted! He wants to be wanted enough that we are ready, predisposed, to find him present with us.
Unfortunately we live in a culture that has, for centuries now, cultivated the idea that the skeptical person is always smarter than one who believes. Only a very hardy individualist or social rebel – or one desperate for another life – therefore stands the chance of discovering the substantive reality of the spiritual life of God, and hear His voice. Hence, very few people develop competent prayer lives. This is chiefly because they are prepared to explain away as coincidences the answers that come to the prayers that they do make.
If we are to “hear God” we must chose to be a spiritual person and to live a spiritual life. We will be required to “bet our life” that the visible world, while real, is not reality itself. Today we live in a culture that overwhelmingly gives primary, if not exclusive, importance to the visible. We cannot make spirituality “work” without having a significant degree of confidence in and commitment to the truth that the visible world is always under the hand of the unseen God.
This is the challenge that I face every day when I wake up. It walks with me through the events of each day. Will I, like Moses, “endure as seeing him who is invisible?” Will I listen for God then obey? Right now where I am, moment to moment, I sweat it out with my brother Paul: “My visible self may be perishing, but inwardly I am renewed day by day… it is working for me, to produce in me His glory, thus I refuse to look at the visible, but rather focus on the unseen.” (2 Cor. 4:16-18 paraphrase)
God has always used and invaded the visible. He has always provided visible points of contact for His people. Consider all the visible elements that He instructed Moses to build. Those elaborate provisions provided a visible means through which Moses might be able to hear God’s voice. The tabernacle, the sacrificial equipment, the rituals and so forth provided a point for constant interaction in the visible world with the invisible God. They were called to worship morning and evening, at the very door of the tent of meeting, “I will meet with you, to speak with you there” (Ex. 29:42). Here they, “heard the sounds of the words, but saw no form…”(Deut. 4:10-14). Here they stood, only one step away from the visible to unseen reality of God’s Kingdom.
The Voice of heaven becomes visible in and through the life of Jesus Christ. After His resurrection He appears to his disciples in visible form a few times in order to allow them to grow accustom to hearing him without seeing him. Thus it was “through the Holy Spirit” that he gave instructions to his apostles (Acts 1:2). He made Himself visible to them just enough to give them confidence that it was he who was speaking in their hearts. This prepared them to continue listening and conversing with him after he no longer appeared to them visibly.
Remember for a moment those two heartbroken students who were on the road to Emmaus. He caught up with them in a visible form that they did not recognize. He spoke with them from the Scriptures and explained what had happened to their Jesus. Then when they sat at supper with him, suddenly “their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight” (Luke 24:31). They asked one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).
They realized that his words had always affected their hearts, their inward life, in a very peculiar way. No one else spoke the words or the way that He did. They realized that they should have recognized Him by the affect that His words had on their hearts. This was not the first time that they had discussed “holy heartburn” that was produced by Jesus’ words.
We are called to live on the road, on a journey, with intermittent moments of “HOLY HEARTBURN.”
Our healing, our health is directly related if not proportionate to our hearing of God’s word. If we are to walk in health, it begins with our hearts being warmed by the very VOICE of the One who came to “heal the broken-hearted.”
Today, be listening, be expecting to hear the voice that will warm your heart, and make you whole!!!
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