WHAT DO WE DO?
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
What do we do when we can see the problems within the church around us, but feel powerless to do anything about it? That was a discussion I had with a group of men this last week, and it caused me to realize that we often find ourselves up against this question. We have all been faced with the overwhelming task of finding out the true character within us by being forced to stand in the gap personally about what we were going to do in our own part to change something that we saw was wrong.
I noticed that among the first things we all can do rather well is to name what is wrong by pointing fingers at people and practices that we do not consider to be creating the problems we see. It was very easy to spend a lot of time in dealing with what we could see that needed to be fixed, but when it came to how we repair things the room became rather silent. Jesus told us that nothing can be changed by ourselves and that He as a man could do nothing except through the power of God's Spirit within Him. Jesus also pointed out that we cannot do anything to change another person; what we can change is ourselves and our personal view and attitude about things. In other words we must seek to geet the plank out of our own eye before we can see clearly enough to take the speck of saw dust out of someone else's eye.
No matter if we like it or not the changes must start with us first and then be spread out to other people whom we wish to influence. Jesus spoke a lot about reconciliation with others whom we have had problems with. He spoke of that as being a key to continued unity within the body of Christ as a tool to be used to create power through the Holy Spirit within the body of believers. We find that to be a key point in people being of one accord in the book of Acts when the church received the power of the Holy Spirit to give witness and testimony to this world about the truth of Christ.
It all seems to come back to us as individuals in our relationship with Christ.
1. The first thing that we must do is to seek God on a personal basis. That means to me that we must take the first line of defense in making sure that we are not turned away from fellowship with other Christians because of a disagreement within the body. When it comes down to someone who gets hurt feelings about something or feels wronged we can only take our pleas to the Father to change within us whatever is holding us back from forgiving and mending that relationship.
2. In order for us to be whole and complete in Christ we must regain that perspective of being of one mind and one heart in Christ. It becomes time then for all of us to reassess our person views of what happened and assign blame to an enemy that we can all agree on. We know that sin was involved somewhere, but do we want to look at our own part in that sin and pain? Have we ourselves been effected by someone else's sin? Is it right to continue to be offended when the problem is finally dealt with?
3. We cannot fight another's battles for them even though we may want to protect them from someone else. We can only assess our own motives and allow God's Spirit to change our own heart toward creating that single mindset and heart that God needs; and then we must allow God's Spirit and will to be in control of how that singleness of mind and heart is used within the body of Christ..
4. Today God calls us toward a reconciliation between brothers and sisters in Christ by extending His hand to us and telling us to follow Him. Are we going to do what we have said we will do all along...are we going to actually allow God to do the leading? I have often wondered about all of those who have been up in arms over something that has happened within a church body which has caused them to stop fellowship with a church body. Who has been in charge of that life? It certainly was not Jesus or His Spirit who separated the love and fellowship of those who professed to love God more than self.
When we calculate the time we have spent in being right about something as opposed to being loving about something which one comes out on top? It appears to me that we would find our time much better spent in trying to agree on the enemy rather than trying to name the enemy. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
What do we do when we can see the problems within the church around us, but feel powerless to do anything about it? That was a discussion I had with a group of men this last week, and it caused me to realize that we often find ourselves up against this question. We have all been faced with the overwhelming task of finding out the true character within us by being forced to stand in the gap personally about what we were going to do in our own part to change something that we saw was wrong.
I noticed that among the first things we all can do rather well is to name what is wrong by pointing fingers at people and practices that we do not consider to be creating the problems we see. It was very easy to spend a lot of time in dealing with what we could see that needed to be fixed, but when it came to how we repair things the room became rather silent. Jesus told us that nothing can be changed by ourselves and that He as a man could do nothing except through the power of God's Spirit within Him. Jesus also pointed out that we cannot do anything to change another person; what we can change is ourselves and our personal view and attitude about things. In other words we must seek to geet the plank out of our own eye before we can see clearly enough to take the speck of saw dust out of someone else's eye.
No matter if we like it or not the changes must start with us first and then be spread out to other people whom we wish to influence. Jesus spoke a lot about reconciliation with others whom we have had problems with. He spoke of that as being a key to continued unity within the body of Christ as a tool to be used to create power through the Holy Spirit within the body of believers. We find that to be a key point in people being of one accord in the book of Acts when the church received the power of the Holy Spirit to give witness and testimony to this world about the truth of Christ.
It all seems to come back to us as individuals in our relationship with Christ.
1. The first thing that we must do is to seek God on a personal basis. That means to me that we must take the first line of defense in making sure that we are not turned away from fellowship with other Christians because of a disagreement within the body. When it comes down to someone who gets hurt feelings about something or feels wronged we can only take our pleas to the Father to change within us whatever is holding us back from forgiving and mending that relationship.
2. In order for us to be whole and complete in Christ we must regain that perspective of being of one mind and one heart in Christ. It becomes time then for all of us to reassess our person views of what happened and assign blame to an enemy that we can all agree on. We know that sin was involved somewhere, but do we want to look at our own part in that sin and pain? Have we ourselves been effected by someone else's sin? Is it right to continue to be offended when the problem is finally dealt with?
3. We cannot fight another's battles for them even though we may want to protect them from someone else. We can only assess our own motives and allow God's Spirit to change our own heart toward creating that single mindset and heart that God needs; and then we must allow God's Spirit and will to be in control of how that singleness of mind and heart is used within the body of Christ..
4. Today God calls us toward a reconciliation between brothers and sisters in Christ by extending His hand to us and telling us to follow Him. Are we going to do what we have said we will do all along...are we going to actually allow God to do the leading? I have often wondered about all of those who have been up in arms over something that has happened within a church body which has caused them to stop fellowship with a church body. Who has been in charge of that life? It certainly was not Jesus or His Spirit who separated the love and fellowship of those who professed to love God more than self.When we calculate the time we have spent in being right about something as opposed to being loving about something which one comes out on top? It appears to me that we would find our time much better spent in trying to agree on the enemy rather than trying to name the enemy. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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