The Church

What is the church?  What is it's purpose and mission?

If you haven't read Paul's letter to Ephesus: Ephesians, please find the time to do so.  Here is a link to Biblegateway: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians&version=NLT
The arrows at the top of the page will allow you to navigate the pages forward and reverse.

I believe this book gives us deep insight into God's plan and purpose for our lives.  From it's verses we find this about the church:

 ¹¹ Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. ¹² Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. ¹³ This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
 ¹⁴ Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. ¹⁵ Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. ¹⁶ He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

To the people/body/church in Corinth, Paul again writes...

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

New Living Translation (NLT)

One Body with Many Parts

 ¹² The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. ¹³ Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles,^[a] some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.^{[b]  14} Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. ¹⁵ If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?
 ¹⁸ But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. ¹⁹ How strange a body would be if it had only one part! ²⁰ Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. ²¹ The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
 ²² In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. ²³ And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, ²⁴ while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. ²⁵ This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
 ²⁷ All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. ²⁸ Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church:
   first are apostles,
   second are prophets,
   third are teachers,
   then those who do miracles,
   those who have the gift of healing,
   those who can help others,
   those who have the gift of leadership,
   those who speak in unknown languages.
 ²⁹ Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? ³⁰ Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not! ³¹ So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts.
   But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

Footnotes:

1. 1 Corinthians 12:13 Greek some are Greeks.
2. 1 Corinthians 12:13 Greek we were all given one Spirit to drink.

So how should this body of believers act and move?  Go to a church building each week and hear a man talk for an hour...or hours?

Doctor Luke in the book, Acts, describes how the body was born in its purest form:

Acts 2:42-47

New Living Translation (NLT)

The Believers Form a Community

 ⁴² All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper^[a]), and to prayer.  ⁴³ A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. ⁴⁴ And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. ⁴⁵ They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. ⁴⁶ They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity^[b]—⁴⁷ all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

Footnotes:

1. Acts 2:42 Greek the breaking of bread; also in 2:46.
2. Acts 2:46 Or and sincere hearts.

K.P. Yohannan in his book "Revolution in World Missions"

speaks of the moden institution that man, not Christ, has built and why, today, it is big business...much like in the time of Christ (Matthew chapter 21).

Please take a moment and read chapter 4: "I walked in a daze"

http://www.eaec.org/bookstore/revolution_in_world_missions.pdf

I would also encourage you to pick up a copy of: Pagan Christianity ~ By Frank Viola and George Barna



Does it matter??

Mark 7:6-13

New Living Translation (NLT)

 ⁶ Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
   ‘These people honor me with their lips,
      but their hearts are far from me.
    ⁷ Their worship is a farce,
      for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’^[a]
 8 For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”
 ⁹ Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. ¹⁰ For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’^[b] and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’^{[c] 11} But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’^{[d] 12} In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. ¹³ And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”

Footnotes:

1. Mark 7:7 Isa 29:13 (Greek version).
2. Mark 7:10 Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16.
3. Mark 7:10 Exod 21:17 (Greek version); Lev 20:9 (Greek version).
4. Mark 7:11 Greek ‘What I would have given to you is Corban’ (that is, a gift).

PURPOSE & HOPE

I would love to recommend a book given to me by a dear friend and brother in Christ, called "Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives"...it has been a great encouragement.

From it's pages I would like to quote a letter from Mrs. An.  Mrs. An's husband was a pastor in Vietnam.  When their church was closed by police, he was thrown into prison.  Without official papers, she and her children were forced to live on a balcony outside an apartment.  Yet her faith has forged a sanctuary out of her surroundings, from which she greets us:

My Dear Friends,

...You know around here we are experiencing hardships, but we thank the Lord He is comforting us and caring for us in every way.  When we experience misfortune, adversity, distress and hardship, only then do we see the real blessing of the Lord poured down on us in such a way that we cannot contain it.
     We have been obligated recently to leave our modest apartment and for over two months have been living on a balcony.  The rain has been beating down and soaking us.  Sometimes in the middle of the night we are forced to gather our blankets and run to seek refuge in a stairwell.
     Do you know what I do then?  I laugh and I praise the Lord, because we can still take shelter in the stairwell.  I think of how many people are experiencing much worse hardships than I am.  Then I remember the words of the Lord, "To the  poor, O Lord, You are a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat" (cp. Isaiah 25:4), and I am greatly comforted...
     Our Father...is the One who according to the Scriptures does not break the bruised reed nor put out the flickering lamp.  He is the One who looks after the orphan and the widow.  He is the One who brings blessings and peace to the numberless people.
     I do not know what words to use in order to describe the love that the Lord has shown our family.  I only can bow my knee and my heart and offer to the Lord words of deepest thanks and praise.  Although we have lost our house and our possessions, we have not lost the Lord, and He is enough.  With the Lord I have everything.  The only thing I would fear losing is His blessing!
     Could I ask you and our friends in the churches abroad to continue to pray for me that I will faithfully follow the Lord and serve Him regardless of what the circumstances may be?
As far as my husband is concerned, I was able to visit him this past summer.  We had a 20-minute conversation that brought us great joy...
     I greet you with my love
               Mrs. Nguyen Thi An

Friends, we need to perservere through the trials...and still find the strength to praise Him.

When we are feeling beaten down, check out what our brother in Christ, Paul, endured in 2 Corinthians 11:24-28 and maybe we will find the strength to carry on.  That is exactly what a runner must do to finish the race...find that hidden strength.

I too have had my times in the boat...when the storms of life seem so big, so threatening and I am reminded of Jesus' words after He calmed the storm, the winds, the sea... oh you of little faith... and I am convicted.  After the storm has passed, I ask myself...why was I worried....Jesus was in the boat.

As Moses told Joshua : ⁸ And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”

Be encouraged...are you not more important that the lillies of the field...the birds of the air?  Yes you are!!

Agape!

I Was Made This Way

It always surprised me when, in the course of defending their position, the GLT movement always demanded that “they were made that way.”  Insisting that God made them gay and there was no way that He could possibly judge them for being that way since He created them that way. 

The conclusion that I have come up with is: THEY’RE RIGHT!  They WERE made that way.  King David, in his Psalm (51), wrote to the Chief Musician when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone to Bathseba,  and declared:

“⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
         And in sin my mother conceived me.”

Bam…there it is!

The argument made against the evangelicals goes on to state that if they are going to consider homosexuality as a sin, what about divorce?  Wow, that’s wonderful that they are thinking like that!  And they are absolutely correct… God hates divorce too!!  As revealed by the prophet Malachi in chapter 2 verse 16:

“ For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one’s garment with violence,” Says the LORD of hosts. “ Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously.”

Jesus, in Matthew’s Gospel, the nineteenth chapter goes on to speak of marriage and divorce in light of man’s legalistic challenge:
³ The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”
⁴ And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made^[a]them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’^{[b] 5} and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?^{[c] 6} So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
⁷ They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”
⁸ He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹ And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality,^[d] and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”
¹⁰ His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”

So, again, they are correct in their challenge to evangelicals that divorce is a sin leading into adultery and death.

In fact, in today’s day and age, man has, over and over again “pulled an Eve.”  What does that mean?  It simply means that mankind uses the same EXCUSE for sin that Eve used to justify her sin when she agreed with the serpent on the challenge: “Did God really say…” (Genesis 3:1)

It is interesting to note, that Jesus didn’t put up with mankind’s challenge.  Not only would he defend the commandments, but expound upon them saying:

·         If you look upon another with lust in your heart – You are guilty of adultery

·         If you hate someone – You are guilty of murder

Oh, you say, but the evangelicals got the interpretation of Romans chapter one all wrong.  If you look back into the Greek, it doesn’t really say what they are trying to make it say. 

Sounds like we’re pulling an Eve again!

Moses shares God’s opinion on the matter in Leviticus 18:22:
“²² You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.”
Hum, that sounds rather specific and he goes on to describe it’s seriousness in Leviticus 20:13
“¹³ If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.”

Stop right there.  That’s the OLD testament; we are not living under the law!

Okay, the Apostle Paul again makes it clear in his letter to the church in Corinth:
^“9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”

That’s a pretty extensive list…did anyone find themselves listed there?  I sure did.

And what of Sodom and Gomorrah? Didn’t man become so full of himself and do many of the same things so that God totally wiped them out?

So just because mankind makes something “legal” doesn’t mean that God stops calling it sin.  It is a heart condition!  And it’s fatal!!

Jesus tells us in Mark’s Gospel the tenth chapter and eighteenth verse:
¹⁸ So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
Again, He goes on to challenge the young man’s heart who was trying to “get right” with God but was pursuing riches of this world instead of laying down the idol of “wealth” and pursuing God with “All his heart…”
¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”
²⁰ And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.”
²¹ Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
²² But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

We often forget the first and second commands, placing so much of life and “stuff” at the top of our list and above God.  Sorry friends, that’s sin too!

But, you say, the Bible was written by men, and, like the founding documents of this land, are living and change with the times, as does the meaning and intent of the scriptures. 

Well perhaps some of the customs and traditions, but certainly not God’s commands as He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

So my Gay, Lesbian and Transgender friends, you are right!  You were made that way.  And I, as a heterosexual male, was made the way I was made.  Both of us sinners in need of a savior.  Instead of lusting towards another male, I lust towards another female and it’s called adultery.  Sin is sin.  My divorce, sin again, is also called adultery.  Man I am a mess!

The Apostle Paul shared our same struggles, as a man, in the flesh.  Romans chapter seven describes his battle and comes to this conclusion:
¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. ¹⁵ For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. ¹⁶ If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷ But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. ¹⁹ For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ²⁰ Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
²¹ I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. ²² For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. ²³ But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

For those trying to “pray away the gay” in their life, I suggest this counsel given to Paul by God in 2 Corinthians chapter 12:
⁸ Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. ⁹ And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

In short, His grace is enough!  My suggestion?  Surrender.  Acknowledge you are a mess like me and there is nothing, apart from Jesus the Christ, that will ever make you right with Him in this life.  As His Spirit comes upon you, He will give you the strength each day to pick up your cross and follow Him.  It’s a long road, but together we can make it.