THE ROCK AND THE KEY
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
We have made a series of mistakes within the church over the last 300 years...one of the big ones was the rebellion we have had against God's Spirit in dealing with the injustice of church leadership and authority.
While I agree with the proclamation of Martin Luther that the leadership of the then accepted church was corrupt and needed to be changed. The process was taken out of God's hands to correct it and put into the hands of self autonomy which started to break down the unity of God's people. Ever since that time we have been progressively adding our own individual spins to what is important for our salvation and what we think God is leading us to.
Matthew 16:15-19 shows us that even the disciples had different views of Christ, and He questioned His own disciples as to what they though about Him. The answers He got back are an indication of what we see happening today within the church structures we see. When turned to Peter who had always been taught unity in his faith he said "You are the Christ the Son of the living God". That of course was the confession that Jesus had hoped for, and it was on those words that Christ built His church. Many times we take only a part of a meaning or an idea off of a concept to build upon instead of a whole truth. There are no additions or supplements needed in that statement that "Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God", and yet we attempt to use our own wisdom to define that. The Catholic church was built upon their first Pope who they had named as Peter, but what Jesus build His church on was the confession of Peter as to who Jesus was. That confession went rather quickly from the rock to the gates of hell not prevailing against it. The name Peter means small pebble or a piece of stone, and the term rock in the day of Christ does not mean what we take it to mean today. When we consider what Jesus was saying to them we need to take into account the truth of what He was saying. The true church (or the Bride of Christ) was invincible, and the Gates of Hell could not prevail against it. The only inception to that was that many of those who were classifying themselves as believers were not actually believers that Jesus was the Christ the Son of the living God, but more interested in the promotion of their personal faith in God, and their brand of denomination.
There are keys to this Kingdom that need to be used to find the gate that can be unlocked to reveal the truth of God's Kingdom. The major one is that of complete belief in Jesus as the Son of the living God. That for me changes the weight of anything that Jesus says to me as being a direct statement from God and therefore a command that cannot be ignored. It is the Holy Spirit then according to Jesus that must be in charge of what we as the true church do and say. I was Jesus who tells us that we should have the same unity with each other as Jesus had with the Father, and the only way of achieving that is to allow the Holy Spirit complete control over our lives, and dealing with one another. The concept that Jesus taught us in teaching others is that of mentoring which means that our personal commitment to God must be complete before we begin to teach or mentor others. I believe this to be the main reasons that those whom we teach today have not in turn taught anyone else; there has never been a mentality that states a duty to teach others what we have learned in a study. The example that we give to this world is wrapped up in the ways we deal with one another...that is our witness to this world. They are reading the book of our life (which are saying is based in our belief that Jesus is the Son of God) and if that book they read does not line up with what we are saying we believe it is obviously deceitful and should not be trusted. The rock is that confession we make, and the key is our true belief and live lived in Christ daily for ourselves. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
We have made a series of mistakes within the church over the last 300 years...one of the big ones was the rebellion we have had against God's Spirit in dealing with the injustice of church leadership and authority.
While I agree with the proclamation of Martin Luther that the leadership of the then accepted church was corrupt and needed to be changed. The process was taken out of God's hands to correct it and put into the hands of self autonomy which started to break down the unity of God's people. Ever since that time we have been progressively adding our own individual spins to what is important for our salvation and what we think God is leading us to.
Matthew 16:15-19 shows us that even the disciples had different views of Christ, and He questioned His own disciples as to what they though about Him. The answers He got back are an indication of what we see happening today within the church structures we see. When turned to Peter who had always been taught unity in his faith he said "You are the Christ the Son of the living God". That of course was the confession that Jesus had hoped for, and it was on those words that Christ built His church. Many times we take only a part of a meaning or an idea off of a concept to build upon instead of a whole truth. There are no additions or supplements needed in that statement that "Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God", and yet we attempt to use our own wisdom to define that. The Catholic church was built upon their first Pope who they had named as Peter, but what Jesus build His church on was the confession of Peter as to who Jesus was. That confession went rather quickly from the rock to the gates of hell not prevailing against it. The name Peter means small pebble or a piece of stone, and the term rock in the day of Christ does not mean what we take it to mean today. When we consider what Jesus was saying to them we need to take into account the truth of what He was saying. The true church (or the Bride of Christ) was invincible, and the Gates of Hell could not prevail against it. The only inception to that was that many of those who were classifying themselves as believers were not actually believers that Jesus was the Christ the Son of the living God, but more interested in the promotion of their personal faith in God, and their brand of denomination.
There are keys to this Kingdom that need to be used to find the gate that can be unlocked to reveal the truth of God's Kingdom. The major one is that of complete belief in Jesus as the Son of the living God. That for me changes the weight of anything that Jesus says to me as being a direct statement from God and therefore a command that cannot be ignored. It is the Holy Spirit then according to Jesus that must be in charge of what we as the true church do and say. I was Jesus who tells us that we should have the same unity with each other as Jesus had with the Father, and the only way of achieving that is to allow the Holy Spirit complete control over our lives, and dealing with one another. The concept that Jesus taught us in teaching others is that of mentoring which means that our personal commitment to God must be complete before we begin to teach or mentor others. I believe this to be the main reasons that those whom we teach today have not in turn taught anyone else; there has never been a mentality that states a duty to teach others what we have learned in a study. The example that we give to this world is wrapped up in the ways we deal with one another...that is our witness to this world. They are reading the book of our life (which are saying is based in our belief that Jesus is the Son of God) and if that book they read does not line up with what we are saying we believe it is obviously deceitful and should not be trusted. The rock is that confession we make, and the key is our true belief and live lived in Christ daily for ourselves. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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