FROM
THE HEART:
I
used to live in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Now
Lawrenceville is one of some thirty to forty other cities that make up
the entire Atlanta metropolitan area. Only two miles from my
house, on one intersection, there are six small churches. Each Church has slightly differing doctrinal beliefs. Each
Pastor has differing visions for their community and neighborhood.
Finally, if you add the total membership of each and divide that
by six, the average membership is about thirty-six members per Church.
Most of the members of these Churches have been disappointed in
their previous Church, for whatever reason, and have decided to join
this new body of believers. Thus,
these six Churches silently compete with each other for their members
and change, mandated by their members needs instead of the Lord’s
direction.
If
only the church would start following Jesus.
If each church embraced the same tenants of faith - if they would
only unite around the same vision - then there would be one church
instead of six! If in Lawrenceville, Georgia, which is in the metropolis
of Atlanta, this could happen on this one street corner and spread
throughout the whole town, then there would be one church, instead of
124 churches!
What
would happen if like these six churches locally, all churches united
with others in the Atlanta’s entire metropolitan area? The six to
seven thousand other churches that make up Christianity in this vast
metropolis would be one church! Oh
saints, can you dream with me a moment?
Then and only then, would we see through our Lord, Jesus
Christ’s eyes! Because
our Lord sees one church in all of Atlanta, whether we see it that way
or not! That would be a church to die for!
The
average membership of these six, to seven thousand churches that make up
what Christ sees as “the church in Atlanta,” is still about
thirty-six. (Am I out of mind or do I have Christ’s mind, for
dreaming?) Let’s now take all of the churches out of the building and
divide each into three home churches. Then, the church in Atlanta would
consist of 20,000 home cell churches – all accountable to each other,
yet all networked together as the whole body, in Atlanta. Now you can
begin to view what Paul saw when he wrote “to the church at Corinth,
or Ephesus.” Back then, these hundreds and thousands of home churches
were many times more united-as-one as even the most united Church in
Atlanta today. Why? The church, back then was one heart & in one
accord.
(GW)
Eph 1:21 “He is far above all rulers, authorities, powers, lords, and
all other names that can be named, not only in this present world but
also in the world to come. 22
God has put everything under the control of Christ. He has made Christ
the head of everything for the good of the church.
23 The church is
Christ's body and completes him as he fills everything in
every way.”
In
God’s Word translation, two things stand out: all that Christ has and
all that Christ rules is for the benefit of all of His Church.
And the church is the completion and even completes Christ, in
the earth. It’s therefore
humbling to know that your Church may be the only Bible that others
around you may ever read. Christ,
in and through your church, is the only Christ that others may ever
know! May God forgive His
church in this generation! For if the church of our generation would be the only example
of Christ, in the earth, then history would not have a perfect, or
“complete picture” of Christ.
Hey,
I am not against the Church of Christ, I am all for the true Church of
Christ. In the book of Haggai, from which we have gotten our
corporate name, it reads: Hag 2:7 “And I will shake all nations, and
the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this
house with glory, saith the
LORD of hosts.”
In
the Hebrew, the word desire implies (the object of all desires) shall
come! All nations are all
waiting in expectancy, for this glorious end-time church that is
permeated with God’s glorious grace and power.
Yes, I am willing to die for that church, but the world has yet
to see this glorious church. In this age, the church is too busy blending in and being
politically proper to arise out of its slumber to stand in that kind of
glory.
In
the famous prayer of Jesus, in John 17, He prayed: Joh 17:4 “I have
glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest
me to do.” Well before we
can go home, the church needs to finish the work that Christ has given
her to do. The church of
our age cannot say “I have glorified you on the earth, Lord.”
Also, no one can convince me that the church has fulfilled this
prayer of Christ in this chapter.
Joh
17:20 “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their words.”
This is speaking of us. Thank
God Jesus was also including us in His prayer. In this age, we will come
together in unity! We will start fishing for men.
I am not hopeless for the church of this hour; I am rather
impregnated with the hope of Christ’s prayer being fulfilled in the
age. But the church must
first unite and then grow up. Most
importantly, the church must be willing to lay down their lives for each
other. My
friends, this would be a church to die for!
8/3/10
in
depth study of what must be
restored to the modern day church before Christ can take us home.
