The development of the church continued:
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
Church development has changed over the last 1500 years or so, and has continued to gravitate toward self instead of toward service to God. While I doubt very seriously if we would willingly admit that about ourselves all we really have to do is compare what we do today to the letters that Paul wrote to the church during his personal ministry. We had discussed in the last blog about a passage of Scripture in Romans 12:1-5 which spoke about presenting ourselves as living sacrifices that are Holy, acceptable to God which is our reasonable sacrifice. Paul told the church to not be conformed to this world, or be swayed by negative and hateful things of this world. Paul said rather that we should be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.
This world has persecuted the church ever since because it is that mind set which is completely focused on our service to God that causes the conscience of men to burn within them until they can stamp it out. Jesus himself had made a statement that was recorded in Matthew 10:37 that basically said "if we show more love to our father or mother or brother or sister than to God we are not being worthy of God"today in our self centered society that kind of loyalty to our heavenly father is thought of as being extremely radical behavior. Luke 6: 31-35 gives us an example of a face of love that is shown by God to us. The very fact that because of God's love we are drawn away from the desires and the love we have had for this world shows that we are to love so openly that we will not fear if we have enough for ourselves but be willing to give and to share because we trust in Christ and the word of God so much that we need not to worry about being repaid personally. We trust in God and we give ourselves and all that is in us to God out of love. Of course we know the Scripture that is found in the passage of John 3: 16 which tells us that God loved us because he did not want us to be harmed instead he gave the greatest thing that he had in his heart to us, which is his son that we would have life. Probably the greatest example of love for one another is that of laying down our lives for one another as is mentioned in John 15:13. Today we have grown to the point of thinking that life in general is cheap, and that attitude prevails until we face the direct truth about our own life; that truth being that life is the most precious of all things to us. The real point here is the giving of what is the most precious of things to us to some one else out of long and then does not mean those who we loved anyway, or who have loved us, but to all people whom God considers to be our brothers and our sisters.
While our obedience to the love that God has shown us starts with that kind of giving attitudes it does not stop with that commandment. Our witness is centered in the ways that we live out that love for each other, and obey the will of God's Spirit. One of the problems that the scribes and Pharisees had the most with Jesus teachings was the lack of wiggle room he brought in to obeying the law of Moses. Jesus spoke of obeying the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law which meant that even though we may obey a law that is written down we can in fact disobey, and even break that law within our hearts if the intent of our heart is not centered on giving life within us to another person out of love. Our basic duty as Christians is to grow Christians by providing a safe and loving family environment to develop strength and wisdom from God's Spirit. This is the basis for unity and love that God is established with in us as his children, and his church. While God expects us to genuinely grow and care for each other, we should allow him to draw the people through the power of his spirit to him. That is done through our commitment to the foundations of Jesus teachings and our faith in him. The real teaching does not happen by us teaching ourselves, but by our allowing God's Spirit to teach through us. We can only know that is being done by making sure that the individual teachings are based upon Christ alone, and not upon the doctrines of men. Unless we use the teachings of Christ alone as a standard of what the true foundations of our faith are we can easily be misled into theories and doctrines that lead down many different"rabbit trails"in theology. These are things that open up our minds to the thoughts and the wisdom of men and in that there is great danger.
I want to continue these thoughts in the next blog because there is much to be said about the dangers of division within the church. This division begins when we take our eyes off of Christ and begin to interject our own thoughts and values as men and women into our faith. Please take what I have said in this blog and in this series of teachings to heart because I believe these things may be key in awakening the church to the work of the Holy Spirit within us. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Church development has changed over the last 1500 years or so, and has continued to gravitate toward self instead of toward service to God. While I doubt very seriously if we would willingly admit that about ourselves all we really have to do is compare what we do today to the letters that Paul wrote to the church during his personal ministry. We had discussed in the last blog about a passage of Scripture in Romans 12:1-5 which spoke about presenting ourselves as living sacrifices that are Holy, acceptable to God which is our reasonable sacrifice. Paul told the church to not be conformed to this world, or be swayed by negative and hateful things of this world. Paul said rather that we should be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.
This world has persecuted the church ever since because it is that mind set which is completely focused on our service to God that causes the conscience of men to burn within them until they can stamp it out. Jesus himself had made a statement that was recorded in Matthew 10:37 that basically said "if we show more love to our father or mother or brother or sister than to God we are not being worthy of God"today in our self centered society that kind of loyalty to our heavenly father is thought of as being extremely radical behavior. Luke 6: 31-35 gives us an example of a face of love that is shown by God to us. The very fact that because of God's love we are drawn away from the desires and the love we have had for this world shows that we are to love so openly that we will not fear if we have enough for ourselves but be willing to give and to share because we trust in Christ and the word of God so much that we need not to worry about being repaid personally. We trust in God and we give ourselves and all that is in us to God out of love. Of course we know the Scripture that is found in the passage of John 3: 16 which tells us that God loved us because he did not want us to be harmed instead he gave the greatest thing that he had in his heart to us, which is his son that we would have life. Probably the greatest example of love for one another is that of laying down our lives for one another as is mentioned in John 15:13. Today we have grown to the point of thinking that life in general is cheap, and that attitude prevails until we face the direct truth about our own life; that truth being that life is the most precious of all things to us. The real point here is the giving of what is the most precious of things to us to some one else out of long and then does not mean those who we loved anyway, or who have loved us, but to all people whom God considers to be our brothers and our sisters.
While our obedience to the love that God has shown us starts with that kind of giving attitudes it does not stop with that commandment. Our witness is centered in the ways that we live out that love for each other, and obey the will of God's Spirit. One of the problems that the scribes and Pharisees had the most with Jesus teachings was the lack of wiggle room he brought in to obeying the law of Moses. Jesus spoke of obeying the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law which meant that even though we may obey a law that is written down we can in fact disobey, and even break that law within our hearts if the intent of our heart is not centered on giving life within us to another person out of love. Our basic duty as Christians is to grow Christians by providing a safe and loving family environment to develop strength and wisdom from God's Spirit. This is the basis for unity and love that God is established with in us as his children, and his church. While God expects us to genuinely grow and care for each other, we should allow him to draw the people through the power of his spirit to him. That is done through our commitment to the foundations of Jesus teachings and our faith in him. The real teaching does not happen by us teaching ourselves, but by our allowing God's Spirit to teach through us. We can only know that is being done by making sure that the individual teachings are based upon Christ alone, and not upon the doctrines of men. Unless we use the teachings of Christ alone as a standard of what the true foundations of our faith are we can easily be misled into theories and doctrines that lead down many different"rabbit trails"in theology. These are things that open up our minds to the thoughts and the wisdom of men and in that there is great danger.
I want to continue these thoughts in the next blog because there is much to be said about the dangers of division within the church. This division begins when we take our eyes off of Christ and begin to interject our own thoughts and values as men and women into our faith. Please take what I have said in this blog and in this series of teachings to heart because I believe these things may be key in awakening the church to the work of the Holy Spirit within us. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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