If you read Philter48.com you would have seen this post already. After my last post on the word Christian, I felt that perspective was needed on who the Church belongs too, and why we as the Body the Bride need to focus solely on Him…
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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.
Diane
/ August 2, 2010Great post. Having just moved back to Northern Ireland (where it’s possible that church division has been at maximum capacity for oh, several hundred years) I have to confess, I find some of the prevailing attitudes frustrating and upsetting. While there has been grassroots attempts at ecumenism, that in itself is the problem.
Ecumenism seeks to meet on platform of ‘least offence’, not talking or sharing the hard truths of life & living in this environment. I find it to be a very different beast than people, regardless of denomination, loving each other. I mean, REALLY loving each other. It’s all too neat…too polite…..too….let’s shake hands & get back to our own wee enclave. And if the so-called Protestant denominations here can’t bear the sight of each other, God help us all if we want to get Catholics involved.
I know I probably sound a bit jaded, I guess I am, but I suppose being out of the country for 8 years is a curse as much as a blessing! We’ve come back here with the knowledge and deep impression from the Holy Spirit that how church is done HAS to change. Ideas I’m still trying to bring together less randomly
However, God is doing something – there’s a global swathe of people who once were in church leadership being ‘taken out’ of the normal church position & environment, and are questioning the status quo. I think this is a good thing. Not that the established church is necessarily bad, but there’s a growing discontent with things being done for the sake of ‘how things have always happened’, or even happening as part of the next big thing.
People want honesty and integrity. They want love without personal agenda. The church NEEDS to offer love with a heavenly agenda alone.
Make sense?
ckroboth
/ August 2, 2010This “The church NEEDS to offer love with a heavenly agenda alone.” Makes perfect sense.
Thanks Diane… Peace
Swanny
/ August 2, 2010I do not think the “church” belongs to Christ. I beleive the “Church” IS Christ. The Holy Spirit moves through His Body for the world to see the Allness of God.
Putting a definition (church or Church) on something that is so outside of the box of our modern understanding can be difficult (and should probably not even happen). Most of us grew up in the four walls of a man-made “system”, and so that model is etched in our minds and shapes our beliefs about what church is supposed to be.
God has chosen the “ekklesia” in her awesome expression to reveal the glories and the riches of His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to bring to this earth the fellowship that exists within the Trinity.
That “ekklesia” IS Christ himself.. His Body, His Bride.
We all try to define it, like I just stated above. However, I know that is impossible because our finite minds cannot even start to grasp the vastness that is God’s Son (Church). God has explained it in simple terms for us to understand. Love one another, and love Him. That is it. God is Love. There is no formula, the Holy Spirit moves through The Body in infinite ways.
Who are we to ever try to define Him.
Swanny
ckroboth
/ August 2, 2010Thanks as always for your thoughts Brian. You do not know how much I appreciate you!!!
All to often we re-define something in a way God never intended it to be. If we could all get to the simple command of Christ’s Love there would be no re-definition.
Peace Bro
Swanny
/ August 2, 2010Thanks Bro!
Hope you are doing well.