Focusing on the foundations of Christ
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
As I follow up in this conversation about the foundations of our faith I want to continue in my focus as well on the ministry to men and the ministry of man in the church. The basic facts remain the same and those are that most men are not involved in any real responsibilities within the body of Christ.
The basic idea that Christ started with was to develop a ministry to man that would result in a ministry of example given by men to the community around them. Jesus started with 12 men who were given the task of being examples to others. Jesus called that ministry to become a witness to all of the world. That particular witness by men has taken many different twists and turns over the centuries. Mostly it has been delegated to many others who in turn have dropped the ball on what it means to be a true witness of Christ. When I say that I need to qualify the statement by saying that all people do not witness the same way. What I mean in this case is that many have claimed to witness Christ with out being an example to others of what it means to live the Christian life.
This particular foundation of our faith is what most churches are judged by when the world watches the testimony of Christians. We no longer have the luxury of simply saying we believe in Christ without also showing the community around us how to bear fruit of the spirit in our lives. It becomes that fatal flaw with in our witness to how Christ has changed our lives, and how we he can give hope to a world filled with despair. The Scripture tells us that it does us no good to approach someone who is starving and say "be filled, happy, and at peace"and then simply walk away. There is something much more that we should do in our witness to those around us. We should care enough to invest in the lives of those around us by showing them what it means to be filled, happy, and at peace in Christ alone. We can only hope to do that by example of what the words mean in our life.
The men of the church who are true to their walk in Christ must take the lead role in showing an example of what it means to walk in Christ. At some point someone must become a mentor to these men by taking a leadership role in developing men of example for the church. This effort may take many months or even years to develop and yet the results will show forth the true fruit of the spirit of Christ that will eat eventually bring forth unity and spiritual fruit in the whole church. My role in all of this is to tell you the truth about what it will take for your life to be transformed by the Spirit of Christ. While I have no doubt that there will be some of you who take these discussions seriously I know that the majority of people today will simply walk by on the other side when dealing with this challenge.
I have no doubt that there are many good men within the body of Christ who agree with the truth I am giving you, but who also will do nothing personally about it. I feel that the beginning of the development of the true bride of Christ is found in the example given by men to the world around us about what it means to be a real Christian man. I do not believe that we will see positive changes within our church bodies until we see real men begin to stand for Christ. This is the beginning of the foundations that Christ used to establish his church. We will continue this discussion as we look into what it means to actually invest in the life of another person. Maybe you should bless God that through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
As I follow up in this conversation about the foundations of our faith I want to continue in my focus as well on the ministry to men and the ministry of man in the church. The basic facts remain the same and those are that most men are not involved in any real responsibilities within the body of Christ.
The basic idea that Christ started with was to develop a ministry to man that would result in a ministry of example given by men to the community around them. Jesus started with 12 men who were given the task of being examples to others. Jesus called that ministry to become a witness to all of the world. That particular witness by men has taken many different twists and turns over the centuries. Mostly it has been delegated to many others who in turn have dropped the ball on what it means to be a true witness of Christ. When I say that I need to qualify the statement by saying that all people do not witness the same way. What I mean in this case is that many have claimed to witness Christ with out being an example to others of what it means to live the Christian life.
This particular foundation of our faith is what most churches are judged by when the world watches the testimony of Christians. We no longer have the luxury of simply saying we believe in Christ without also showing the community around us how to bear fruit of the spirit in our lives. It becomes that fatal flaw with in our witness to how Christ has changed our lives, and how we he can give hope to a world filled with despair. The Scripture tells us that it does us no good to approach someone who is starving and say "be filled, happy, and at peace"and then simply walk away. There is something much more that we should do in our witness to those around us. We should care enough to invest in the lives of those around us by showing them what it means to be filled, happy, and at peace in Christ alone. We can only hope to do that by example of what the words mean in our life.
The men of the church who are true to their walk in Christ must take the lead role in showing an example of what it means to walk in Christ. At some point someone must become a mentor to these men by taking a leadership role in developing men of example for the church. This effort may take many months or even years to develop and yet the results will show forth the true fruit of the spirit of Christ that will eat eventually bring forth unity and spiritual fruit in the whole church. My role in all of this is to tell you the truth about what it will take for your life to be transformed by the Spirit of Christ. While I have no doubt that there will be some of you who take these discussions seriously I know that the majority of people today will simply walk by on the other side when dealing with this challenge.
I have no doubt that there are many good men within the body of Christ who agree with the truth I am giving you, but who also will do nothing personally about it. I feel that the beginning of the development of the true bride of Christ is found in the example given by men to the world around us about what it means to be a real Christian man. I do not believe that we will see positive changes within our church bodies until we see real men begin to stand for Christ. This is the beginning of the foundations that Christ used to establish his church. We will continue this discussion as we look into what it means to actually invest in the life of another person. Maybe you should bless God that through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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