REMEMBERING WHO WE ARE
Is there any wonder why we are so messed up and divided when we allow ourselves to manipulate the truth of God's word to fit a brand of Christ so that we can have our name on it? One of the first things on our road back to the real pursuit of the truth about who we are as Christians is the admission that God is the only authority that we need to His word.
A very good example of what I mean is found in the kinds of materials we use to build our life in Christ with. Most of us are very lazy when it comes to seeking out the very best that we have within us to build with. Either we will seek these things and find them within us that look so good to us that we want to hold on to them rather than to use them to build with, or we simply hoard them from God with the idea that somehow we can keep anything from Him without His knowledge of it. This is all very self-defeating on our part and will cause us to stray away from the very foundations of Christ we have tried to build upon.
One of the first things that we must understand is that if we build on any foundations without using God's blueprint to build we will not be building upon the foundation that God has provided. This is like building the main frame of the house just a little off of the foundation so that there is room for the storms of life to wreck whatever we have built in our relationship with God. Instead of the rock, we have built upon the sand, and God warns us that sooner or later we will suffer loss. This is the kind of thing that happens when we start to follow the concepts of other men instead of staying with the basic principals that God has already laid down for us. Most of the time we don't even think about our denomination or church doctrine as being a division from others, but it is. If we dared to stay with that which we have been taught apart from the church rules and doctrines learned along the way there would be no reason for any lack of fellowship with the others churches or Christians believers around us. If we call ourselves Christian and follow the principals of Christ then why do we need to be known as Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Pentecost, or anything else? The question that we must ask ourselves is what is it then that separates us from one another in Christ? When we actually stop to think about this it isn't hard to find the answer to that question.
The statement that Christ made of " If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways I will hear their prayers and heal their land" The issue is for us to first recognize that we are all from the same church; the same body and the same Christ. The next thing is that we must get rid of our attitude of being correct on any given issue and stick to the basics of what Christ has told us. The next thing is that we must love one another in the same ways we love ourselves instead of pitting ourselves in competition against one another in ministry. I don't believe it is because we have not been taught the difference or that we have not seen the difference, but that we have allowed the world to confuse us with so much information that we can no longer make our minds up. We have become the double-minded man that Paul spoke of in Romans because we are too confused by too much input of information. What can we do? It is time to get back into teaching only Christ, and what He has told us was important to our growth and our salvation. It is time to leave all of this division behind and actually allow Christ to be Lord of our lives. May you richly bless God through your lif3e in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
A very good example of what I mean is found in the kinds of materials we use to build our life in Christ with. Most of us are very lazy when it comes to seeking out the very best that we have within us to build with. Either we will seek these things and find them within us that look so good to us that we want to hold on to them rather than to use them to build with, or we simply hoard them from God with the idea that somehow we can keep anything from Him without His knowledge of it. This is all very self-defeating on our part and will cause us to stray away from the very foundations of Christ we have tried to build upon.
One of the first things that we must understand is that if we build on any foundations without using God's blueprint to build we will not be building upon the foundation that God has provided. This is like building the main frame of the house just a little off of the foundation so that there is room for the storms of life to wreck whatever we have built in our relationship with God. Instead of the rock, we have built upon the sand, and God warns us that sooner or later we will suffer loss. This is the kind of thing that happens when we start to follow the concepts of other men instead of staying with the basic principals that God has already laid down for us. Most of the time we don't even think about our denomination or church doctrine as being a division from others, but it is. If we dared to stay with that which we have been taught apart from the church rules and doctrines learned along the way there would be no reason for any lack of fellowship with the others churches or Christians believers around us. If we call ourselves Christian and follow the principals of Christ then why do we need to be known as Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Pentecost, or anything else? The question that we must ask ourselves is what is it then that separates us from one another in Christ? When we actually stop to think about this it isn't hard to find the answer to that question.
The statement that Christ made of " If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways I will hear their prayers and heal their land" The issue is for us to first recognize that we are all from the same church; the same body and the same Christ. The next thing is that we must get rid of our attitude of being correct on any given issue and stick to the basics of what Christ has told us. The next thing is that we must love one another in the same ways we love ourselves instead of pitting ourselves in competition against one another in ministry. I don't believe it is because we have not been taught the difference or that we have not seen the difference, but that we have allowed the world to confuse us with so much information that we can no longer make our minds up. We have become the double-minded man that Paul spoke of in Romans because we are too confused by too much input of information. What can we do? It is time to get back into teaching only Christ, and what He has told us was important to our growth and our salvation. It is time to leave all of this division behind and actually allow Christ to be Lord of our lives. May you richly bless God through your lif3e in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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