II Corinthians 5:16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
The following words are not my own. They are from a book I read 20-some years ago by the name of Living With Jesus Today, by Juan Carlos Ortiz. He was an Argentinian evangelist. The book had an impact on me then, but combined with all I've learned and experienced I am enjoying it even more the second and third time around. This is just part of one of the chapters. The book is currently out of print but there are 11 used copies available at Amazon.com for next to nothing, if you feel like reading it. I give this book 5 stars.
"The primitive church was just starting. It was small to begin with, but they conquered. Wherever they went, all over the earth, one desire consumed them: to bring the whole world into the worship of Christ. They preached Jesus, not a systematic theology.
The aim of the primitive church was not to have a bigger church so that they could say, "Ours is larger than that one."
It wasn't to form separate denominations based on certain doctrines, calling themselves "methodists" or "presbyterians" No, their whole purpose was to expand the kingdom under Christ. They had unity because they were centered in Jesus.
Today we are not under Christ, but under other banners. So we have a broken church that is fractured into hundreds of denominations. But Jesus does not have many churches. The church is the bride of Christ, and He is not a polygamist. He is going to marry just one church.
Don't ask me which church I belong to, because there is just THE church. When you say "baptist," "methodist" or "lutheran".....be careful. Those names are bad words in the kingdom of God. Don't repeat them too often, because Jesus may wash your mouth out with soap if you keep on saying those things.
We cannot choose our brothers. All the children of God in the same area belong to the same church, whether they like it or not. We cannot say, "you are my brother but he is not my brother."
Who can choose his brothers in any family?....
.....The church is formed of all those who have the Son within them. Whether they are Anglicans, Seventh Day Adventists, or Roman Catholics---if they have the Son, they are in the kingdom. They belong to the family of God. It's not by philosophical approach, but by the life they have.
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Our system of religion tells us that if we believe that Jesus is the way, that's okay. That's enough to be saved.
But it's not okay. Jesus in not the way just so that we can believe that He is the way, He is the way so that we can walk with Him. He is the truth not just so that I might believe He is the truth, but that I may trust Him. And He is the life not just so that I can believe that He is the life, but that I might live that life. We cannot just have a doctine or a concept, we must have the reality. The primitive Christians were called those of "the way." Is the Anglican church way? Are the methodists or the baptists the way?
No, the way is Jesus. It doesn't matter whether you are a member of a denomination or of an independant congregation. To be in "the way" is to have Him who is "the way."
If you are in Jesus, you are in the same way that I am. If you have the Son within you, you have the life of God.
It doesn't matter whether you believe in the millennium, or you don't believe in the millennium; whether you believe in the coming of Christ before or after the tribulation. Those things divide the people of God and have no value for living. They are just an intellectual approach to the philosophy of the Bible. They may be interesting, but they have nothing to do with whether or not we are brothers.
The church has a tendency to be a Christian club. A club is an institution in which all of the members agree to certain principles. If we start a new club, say a non-smokers and non-drinkers club, it's because all of us agree not to smoke and not to drink. So non-smoking and non-drinking is what unites us....
....When we gather together around principles or doctrines, that's a club. Anything that is centered in a set of rules or concepts is a club. But when we gather together around a living person whose name is Jesus, we are a church.....
....When we get converted, we become Baptists, or Episcopalians. We are rivals. It's like two clubs. Before we fought for our politics or for our football club. Now we fight for our doctrines. But it's the same flesh finding new channels to manifest itself.
I used to belong to a church which prayed kneeling down. We never prayed standing or seated. Once we went to visit another church where people stood to pray. We were scandalized. "Look at that!" These cannot be Christians. They pray standing." Today, the issue might be whether a brother is immersed or sprinkled in baptism, or whether he speaks in tongues or not. But all of these divisions are because we are more centered in doctrine and concepts than in life.
A person becomes your brother because he has been begotten by the Father. ......
.....He commands us to repent of our hatred of one another. And when He lives within us and we are led by His Spirit, we will accept each other as members of His body not because of doctrines, but simply because He has accepted us. We will be one church because we all share one common life----the life of Christ in us."
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5 comments:
Hi Karen,
thanks so much for posting a comment on my blog. How do you and your family 'do' church since you don't go to a building down the block? :) It's great to hear from someone who knows where I'm coming from. I'm glad you enjoy The Naked Church and the other one by Wayne Jacobson! Eye opening books.
Hope to hear from you soon!
-Sunshine @ Brand Name Faith at Wordpress.com
I really need to do a post about this some time but I guess the short answer is, "We don't." Instead of 'doing' chuch we just 'are' the church but I do know what you're asking. How do we fulfill Hebrews 10:25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Very simply, we get together with other believers all the time. Over dinner, coffee, or just in the living room. For instance Thursdays are my day that I get together with my believing friends and we talk, question, pass along to each other what we have been learning or going through, and then we pray together until we've prayed everything through that's on our hearts. We have had outreaches into our neighborhoods for the women. My husband has guys that he meets with regularly for the same stuff for breakfast and he (up until recently) has had believers at work that he spend a considerable amount of time with). We then get together with other friends and couples as we can, together. We pray for the church in our town (all of it, no matter where they worship) and that those who don't know the Lord yet will be "added to our number daily". We haven't seen much of the 'adding' part yet but my husband was seeing some fruit with the guys at work and we've seen tremendous growth both in ourselves and others. Now it's OUR responsibility to feed ourselves or to get fed. It's OUR responsibility to see that our kids 'get it'. I'm sure we don't do it perfectly and the Lord will show us where we're wrong or need to do something else. Glad you stopped by!
Karen I hope that you read this! We too believe just as this. God is not going to ask for our membership to one church or another as we all covered in His blood belong to His church...no other.
We have home church. I know that Bill is looking for a pulpit if the Lord permits, but he has made it clear this belief.
So until then he is going to go out and evangelize with another brother, church to church.
Good for him! That's awesome. One of these days I'll have to go back and read more of your earlier penofjen's so I know more of your and Bill's story. Is it okay if I read Bill's blog, too?
I'd love to hear about your home church sometime. Is it just your family or do others occassionally join you? How long have you been doing this? Same day every week? Just curious. It's so fun to see what the Lord is doing in everyone else's circumstances.
One of these days, I'll have to go into a little more detail on our whole story and I wish Jim would "guest post" once in a while to give his guy's perspective on our journey. Hmmm, maybe.....I better not get ahead of myself. He's only been at his new position a month so he's still working a lot of extra hours getting things in order.
Again, Jen, thanks for all your encouragement.
Karen Please feel free to read about us. Bill had a car accident on jan. 1 2005 that altered our lives forever.
But praise God that he lived. God had lots to do with him. Sometimes others come to our church, and on Wednesdays we hold a Bible study and have had several attend. We also do a family reading every night and discuss the verse. Any verse that one is pondering..
God totally works all things for Him, and we stand amazed so much. We were not Christians when we began home schooling.Oh we thought that we were"good people" and all, but had not received the blood of Jesus.
BTW Bill told me that he believes that the Lord has had him home preach to prepare him for something...I know we will understand when God thinks we need to know.
Life for us 2.5 years ago was being a Christian(if it did not interfere with Bill's work) family, making nearly 55,000.00 as a cop.
Our whole lives were devoted to this career and the accident devastated us. He had switched from Utah to Nevada law enforcement in 2001, so he was 4 months shy of being vested in Nevada...his union held a vote and opted not to vest Bill...no disablity pension. Now it is a small department and funds were low, but at the time we were floored. Now we see Gods hand in it all. Of course he uses a cane and is on serious meds, but he got a job(secular) making 18,000.00 a year.
Humbled is an understatement. When we left Nevada we took the proceeds of our home and bought a 5ht wheel and truck, so I guess we did leave with more than just his life.
But our savings is nearly gone(month or so) and we were not able to assist the oldest at all when he moved out...So emotions are always being left to the Lord...
Forgive me for dropping a mini series...just a back drop into the pen of jen and her workings...
BTW I love that you are here in the blogity world...you have made a difference in my life !
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