Foundations, building the church
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
We may not realize it today but God is calling us to begin to give an account for our faith in Christ. He is doing this within the hearts of those who have long been seeking his face first and putting him before all the other things in their lives. That desire is starting to pull at hearts to find a deeper relationship with God than ever before. What this means is that there is becoming natural separation in the strength and the dry of the spirit of many people with in many different churches today. Actually these people are becoming even more separated from this world than ever before... They are becoming set aside by God's spirit or sanctified and becoming a part of God's world as they are separated from the traits of this world. Unfortunately they will also be separated from the worldly traits that are found to be operating with in the church as well.
In God's eye all of these things that tend to divide us from one another and tend to turn us away from one another as brothers and sisters are viewed as things that are worldly. No matter how hard we made tried to disguise them anything that does not promote unity and love is not of God. We have known for a long time that the day would come when God's Holy Spirit would begin to be poured out upon the children of God in very special ways. We can read in the Scripture about the fact that the bride of Christ will be drawn out from among all nations in the later days. What we have never until now focused on is the fact that it isn't the church that we see in the mainstream of denominational culture that is called the bride of Christ, but very simply it is those who have surrendered wholeheartedly to the control of the power of God's Spirit that God calls the bride of Christ.
When I make a statement like that"we need to get rid of the clutter in our churches"what God's Spirit is trying to say is that it is time to focus on the true foundations of Christ. We are very much like the disciples were when Christ was still with them in that we have operated under the direction of this world instead under the direction of the Holy Spirit. We have become addicted to quick fixes and fast solutions that the world blaze all too often at our feet. We use our minds and our earthly wisdom to deal with each problem that might come up. We use the materials of this world to build upon the foundations of Christ teachings with, and in all eyes we can make things look pretty good. We can make things look very stable, and very impressive until God begins to test the worth of what we have built.
It becomes very important for us to take the time to dig into the subject deeply to uncover what God is trying to say to us. I have personally been dealing with this issue with in the church for many years and I have found that the tendency for Christians to be led by the wisdom of the world instead of by God's spirit is becoming an increasing problem in the church. We are living with in a time when in Christ words will be"a corrupt generation"which has chosen a way of dealing with spiritual things that have seemed reasonable to us as men, and yet we are allowing our wisdom to lead us into destruction. We have adopted so much of this world into our church life that it is no longer unusual to operate within the same guidelines that have been successful in the world. The problems are that this world is geared toward getting gain for itself, and in the gross or good seen by this world promotes self and the profit of it is to store up and grow richer and more affluent in the eyes of the world.
We have become in the United States a church which promotes a form of Christ or as Christ said "a form of godliness"but which is not the real relationship that God has wanted. The result of this is a lack of any kind of spiritual power. As I look at that fact I begin to get angry; not only angry at the tendency to follow programs and studies that look good on the outside but never lead to a commitment to live out Christ on the inside. These programs may well on the surface deal with very good subjects to start with but when they are coupled with the drive to succeed in this world and in the eyes of this world they become a wide variety of programs and activities that simply keep the average Christian busy as they are told to "PLUG IN" to a church ministry rather than seeing growth in God's spirit and maturity that is needed to understand the information there heads are being stuffed with. We may not realize this but God's Spirit is giving us a message to start focusing upon the foundations that Christ has given us in establishing his church. In order for us to do that we must get rid of all of the clutter doctrines and traditions that has done nothing more than to divide us from one another in fellowship. We will continue with this same course of thought in the next blog but for now may you richly bless God your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
We may not realize it today but God is calling us to begin to give an account for our faith in Christ. He is doing this within the hearts of those who have long been seeking his face first and putting him before all the other things in their lives. That desire is starting to pull at hearts to find a deeper relationship with God than ever before. What this means is that there is becoming natural separation in the strength and the dry of the spirit of many people with in many different churches today. Actually these people are becoming even more separated from this world than ever before... They are becoming set aside by God's spirit or sanctified and becoming a part of God's world as they are separated from the traits of this world. Unfortunately they will also be separated from the worldly traits that are found to be operating with in the church as well.
In God's eye all of these things that tend to divide us from one another and tend to turn us away from one another as brothers and sisters are viewed as things that are worldly. No matter how hard we made tried to disguise them anything that does not promote unity and love is not of God. We have known for a long time that the day would come when God's Holy Spirit would begin to be poured out upon the children of God in very special ways. We can read in the Scripture about the fact that the bride of Christ will be drawn out from among all nations in the later days. What we have never until now focused on is the fact that it isn't the church that we see in the mainstream of denominational culture that is called the bride of Christ, but very simply it is those who have surrendered wholeheartedly to the control of the power of God's Spirit that God calls the bride of Christ.
When I make a statement like that"we need to get rid of the clutter in our churches"what God's Spirit is trying to say is that it is time to focus on the true foundations of Christ. We are very much like the disciples were when Christ was still with them in that we have operated under the direction of this world instead under the direction of the Holy Spirit. We have become addicted to quick fixes and fast solutions that the world blaze all too often at our feet. We use our minds and our earthly wisdom to deal with each problem that might come up. We use the materials of this world to build upon the foundations of Christ teachings with, and in all eyes we can make things look pretty good. We can make things look very stable, and very impressive until God begins to test the worth of what we have built.
It becomes very important for us to take the time to dig into the subject deeply to uncover what God is trying to say to us. I have personally been dealing with this issue with in the church for many years and I have found that the tendency for Christians to be led by the wisdom of the world instead of by God's spirit is becoming an increasing problem in the church. We are living with in a time when in Christ words will be"a corrupt generation"which has chosen a way of dealing with spiritual things that have seemed reasonable to us as men, and yet we are allowing our wisdom to lead us into destruction. We have adopted so much of this world into our church life that it is no longer unusual to operate within the same guidelines that have been successful in the world. The problems are that this world is geared toward getting gain for itself, and in the gross or good seen by this world promotes self and the profit of it is to store up and grow richer and more affluent in the eyes of the world.
We have become in the United States a church which promotes a form of Christ or as Christ said "a form of godliness"but which is not the real relationship that God has wanted. The result of this is a lack of any kind of spiritual power. As I look at that fact I begin to get angry; not only angry at the tendency to follow programs and studies that look good on the outside but never lead to a commitment to live out Christ on the inside. These programs may well on the surface deal with very good subjects to start with but when they are coupled with the drive to succeed in this world and in the eyes of this world they become a wide variety of programs and activities that simply keep the average Christian busy as they are told to "PLUG IN" to a church ministry rather than seeing growth in God's spirit and maturity that is needed to understand the information there heads are being stuffed with. We may not realize this but God's Spirit is giving us a message to start focusing upon the foundations that Christ has given us in establishing his church. In order for us to do that we must get rid of all of the clutter doctrines and traditions that has done nothing more than to divide us from one another in fellowship. We will continue with this same course of thought in the next blog but for now may you richly bless God your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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