There was a much greater expectation of Jesus return back in 1970 than there is now. We’ve seen a whole generation become jaded and lose its expectation, desire and longing for Jesus return.
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, WHERE IS THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
2 Peter 3:3-4
Text: 1 Corinthians 14
Rather than being an event one attends as a spectator, Church, as defined in 1 Cor 14, was supposed to have been A PROCESS of interaction with the Body of Christ, by the Holy Spirit. By A PROCESS we mean that just by obeying the directions Paul gave as to how to “do church”, just by taking part in THE PROCESS we are changed progressively. It is a process.
When a natural family gets together they don’t set up a pulpit in the living room and follow a program, and elect who will talk etc.. They relate to each other as equals, either for better or for worse, yet they are forced to relate to one another as equals. They are in relationship to one another. They are family. For them to relate to one another by following a program would be an insult to their intelligence.
Church is a spiritual family, so how is it any different?
See God’s wisdom in making the Church relational? So that the very PROCESS of relating to one another with respect, as equals – humbling ourselves, making room for one another, learning to listen, causes us to grow. We grow by submitting to the process. If the process is rejected, and tradition takes its place, then people don’t grow together as the Body of Christ. They are not participating in THE PROCESS of relating together as a spiritual family, which God designed from the beginning as the spiritual environment in which we could thrive.
Sure, they may learn a lot of things, but without the process of a relational gathering they will never become what Christ intended for them, for they have rejected His process. They will remain immature.
And that is a vicious cycle, for if they remain immature they will also remain ignorant of THE PROCESS, and continue just being a spectator at an event, and ignorantly supporting the religious system which keeps them immature.
People in the religious system can attain to so much knowledge, and can be quite effectual for God, but they never learn to function corporately in a relational way and according to Kingdom order. Their way of doing church eliminates the relational process, so they never come to full maturity in the way that they relate to other believers and to the world, and this was never God’s desire, for it robs His Son of the glory due to Him.
Did you know that “Fossil Fuels” are very abundant in the universe, in places where there are no fossils? Then it’s quite possible that the “Fossil Fuels” under the earth did not originate from decaying organic matter, challenging theories concerning the age of the earth.
http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/guess-what-fossil-fuels-dont-come-from/?cat_orig=world
I NEED YOUR HELP LORD!
When a Gentile loves a Jew with the wonderful love of the King of the Jews it has to cause them to consider the nature of the Jewish-Gentile divide, for here is a love which breaches that divide, and crosses and fills that gap, making peace between the two, making one new man (Ephesians 2:13-16).
When the Jews perceive Gentiles no longer as their enemies, no longer a threat, but as friends who really love them, who support their God-given right to the Land of Israel, then it will be hard for them to consider such Gentiles as Gentiles, or to think of themselves as superior, and easier for them to grasp the true Messiah and His purpose for the whole world, and the role the Jews play in that.
In the NT, Jew or Jewish never means superior, it means a special calling and stewardship.
For they [Israel] being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Romans 10:3-4
The finished work of Christ on the Cross, and the subsequent free gift of His righteousness, is described here as something men must submit themselves to. And, like Israel, the context of this submission is mans stubborn refusal to let go of his own righteousness. Mankind is actually stubbornly resisting to submit to the righteousness of God. The religious world (as typified by Israel) has an active resistance to submitting to the righteousness of God, and is going about trying to establish their own righteousness. They are resisting His righteousness, and they need to stop resisting it, and submit to it.
Here, salvation is spelled out in terms of simply submitting to the righteousness of God – to no longer resist His righteousness, but submit to it, and thereby submit to Christ Jesus.
It costs you your pride, and, to most, that is a big cost, for now you have nothing to glory in, boast of, or be proud of, except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To be righteous in the sight of God is only possible if you cease from resisting His righteousness and submit to the righteousness of Christ – that you cease from your own works and enter His rest (Heb 4:10). When you trust in His righteousness then you have the righteousness of faith and His Word and Spirit leads you in the path of righteousness, and empowers you to do what is right in His sight.
Only submitting to His righteousness produces a righteous life.
This is a very special and holy day. Let’s get into the Spirit of this very special season and worship before God’s throne.
Joyce Meyer quote: “Love is not a feeling we have; it’s a decision to treat people the way Jesus would treat them.”
Indeed. And how would Jesus treat Joyce Meyer? What would Jesus say to her? He would say, How do you have the audacity to make millions of dollars by merchandizing the gospel, and then use that illegal money to live in the lap of luxury, in a multimillion dollar mansion and your own personal jet??
This kind of hypocrisy can only incubate and breed in a certain medium, in A FAKE SPIRITUAL ENVIRONMENT, by keeping people of integrity as far out of the picture as possible and fellowshiping with shallow, superficial Christians, who couldn’t care either way.
The Church of Jesus Christ was always supposed to have been a spiritual environment where such hypocrisy could never get a foothold in the first place, where such seeds of sin could not find a compatible environment in which they could incubate and spore.
E.g. What if Joyce (or you name it) comes to Paul the Apostle in Ephesus and says, “Paul, will you allow me to merchandize my books here in your church and make millions of dollars out of your brethren, so I can live in the lap of luxury? Is that OK Paul? Will you allow me to?”
The scenario does not fit when you try to match it with Bible REALITY.
From Jim’s blog:
Here is a response to a question posted on Facebook by a good brother..
If you were looking for a gathering of fellow believers and had the flexibility to specify your top three criteria, what would they be? Why?
1) As free from roman catholic leaven as possible (clergy-laity divide, religious titles, 501c, denominational names, etc)
Because Jesus is dishonored by these things, they keep even the few true saints in that system in spiritual infancy by mocking Christs and the apostles teachings. He died so that we would all be brethren, that the elders would be the lessers, that His body would be built up through its many members learning to function in their God given gifting. A place where I am closer with the brethren then I was with my worldly friends before I was saved, where we are connected effectually through Christ and not through a program or structure.
2) A pilgrim mindset
Because 150,000 people are dying every day and going to hell, Jesus is coming back sooner than later, and even if not in our life we must still appear at the judgment seat of Christ to have every single work tried by fire. What is our life but a vapor?
3) A radical devotion to Christ and His kingdom – especially in faith-filled prayer and joyful obedience to the whole counsel of His word
Because even the most saintly of us need to be made to squirm in our chairs on occasion as secret areas of pride, apathy, worldliness, etc are exposed in our hearts that they can be replaced with better things, things of God. In short a group that is full of the power and fire of God that these things can happen without them being forced as a law but be received as a cold glass of water on a hot day instead. A place where the most lowly of saints takes seriously his responsibility to be “my brothers keeper” that we can be helped down the narrow road that leads to life. A place that helps the brothers to be Godly husbands and fathers not for the purpose of living quaint little pious lives with our family at ease in zion, but where we aren’t afraid to take the kids down to the ghetto and minister to gangs and prostitutes, or have them wrap their arms around a dirty bum who hasn’t had a hug in five years and say that Jesus loves them – even at the risk of bringing home flees and lice. All this without compromising sound doctrine or exalting experiences over the clear word of God.
fleebabylon.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/a-gathering-of-fellow-believers/
There are two people who are very interested in you: Jesus and satan.
Both will come knocking on your door, but to whom will you open the door of your heart to? Which of these persons will you welcome, and fellowship with?
Today is another holy day for the people of God! It’s a very special day. It’s a day to be holy and to know the Holy One. It’s the day the LORD has made. The HOLY Spirit will govern this special day, not tradition, for it is HIS day, as is tomorrow, and the day after… until the last day, the coming glorious day of Jesus return.
26 Dec. HAPPY JESUS DAY to everyone! Let’s celebrate Jesus on this holy day. And on the 27, 28, 29th……
We pray every blessing in Christ Jesus for you on this very special day.
Someone was writing on FB that, for many, Christmas is a sad time. There are more suicides at this time of year than any other.
So the people who invented Christmas have a lot to answer for?
I don’t feel sad at Christmas time, we just ignore it. This “season” is just a man-made religious fabrication. Jesus doesn’t recognize any such “season” so why should we?
The Jewish people were very much tied to the calendar according to the law. There were many days they had to observe. Then Jesus came along, and the funny thing is that no one even noted the date of His birth. It was totally overlooked. Now, isn’t that highly unusual when you consider how tied the Jews were to observing holy days? But they had the fear of God, so they knew that man cannot just invent a holy day as he pleases. The Holy Spirit did not include any such thing, or detail or command when He inspired the Scriptures, rather, it is obvious that the Spirit of God actually obscured the date, and put no emphasis at all upon anyone creating a new religious festival, and did not lead the early church to have any such interest in such a thing.
No believer in the early church had the slightest interest in knowing the date of Jesus birth, let alone celebrating His birth as a holy day. And that’s very unusual and unique. No other religion thinks that way. The 25th Dec was just another day for believers for the first 300 years. Were they “missing it” or “missing out” for 300 years? Dishonoring Jesus for 300 years? Then, after 300 years did Christians become more enlightened about it than the Apostles and the early church were?
Only when Christianity had reached a certain level of Apostasy did people think it up. It was a “good idea”. The Apostate church had a lot of “good ideas” they thought up. Humanism. We call it Mystery Babylon.
(From my FB post)
It was Mystery Babylon that invented Christmas and invented religious institutions. Mystery Babylon is a type of Christianity which is a substitute for the real thing, for NT Christianity.
And the tragedy is that people prefer the substitute more than the real thing.
(From my FB post)
Jesus Christ is the only Man in the history of the world who never sinned, bcos He is the ONLY begotten Son of God. Every other man who ever lived is a sinner, except Him (John 8:46). No other man in history was the Son of God. Yet the religions of the world follow men whom they know are/were corrupt (John 3:18-21).
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your REASONABLE SERVICE. Romans 12:1
ESV says ..your SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
In the Greek, “reasonable service” is logikos latreia.
Logikos : rational (“logical”): – reasonable, of the word.
Latreia : ministration of God, that is, worship: – (divine) service.
That is, your rational spiritual worship. Your logical or intelligent response to God. The essence of your worship.
You present your body to God. You present your spirit, your heart, your soul and mind, your will, your thoughts, your intelligence, your abilities, your gifts, your talents, your strengths, your weakness, your eyes, your mouth, your tongue, your ears, your stomach, and every part of your body to God.
THIS is your worship, as far as God is concerned, from His perspective.
The whole point of presenting your body to God is that He will do something with that body! He will fill what is offered to Him. He will use that body, presented to Him, for His glory.
Let’s repeat: God requires us to present our bodies to Him SO THAT HE CAN DO SOMETHING WITH THAT BODY WHICH IS PRESENTED TO HIM.
Don’t think you’re missing out on anything by presenting your body to God. On the contrary, think of what what you would miss out on if you don’t!
It’s not hard to present your body to God. Just present it. Just present it to Him and ask Him to work in your body in a mighty way, and believe that He will. Believe your body has been purchased by Jesus Christ, when He shed His blood and died on the Cross, and that He purchased you for His glory, to be a partaker of His glory.
Without the living sacrifice of our body presented to God in worship and love, then there is no worship.
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repents, more than over ninety and nine just persons, who need no repentance…
…Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents. Luke 15:7,10
Even the repentance of one sinner causes a celebration in heaven.
Note, that it’s repentance from sin which registers in heaven. Lip-service to God does not register. From God’s perspective, it is the true, from-the-heart repentance of a sinner which counts as conversion. Heaven only registers the kind of faith which results in repentance.
See how interconnected heaven and earth is? You are being watched. Even the angels of heaven can see everything we do, and have the capacity to rejoice over our life.
Every member of the Body of Christ is an equal shareholder in the Church. It’s your Church. They are your people. God invested heavily in His Church, and His investment is YOU. Each living stone of the Church has been purchased by the precious Blood of Christ.
It cost God everything to purchase His Church. By God’s grace you have a stake in His Church, you are a shareholder. You have a stake in the Glory, but firstly a share in the burden of responsibility. (I’m not talking about a traditional church but a relational one.)
So what we need is proactive shareholders and not silent ones. You should be a part of a Church which is truly a Church in God’s sight, where you don’t just attend, but you are a proactive shareholder, where you take personal responsibility for the state of the Church. If it is not what it should be it is bcos you have been negligent.
Bcos the NT Church is not a show or a program one attends, but is the sharing and participation of every member, then the “spiritual health” of such a church directly reflects the condition of its members. Not so in a traditional church. It can go ahead quite nicely even if the members are not born again.
God’s greatest wealth is His people, and His people constitute His Church.
Can’t help but think that all the hoopla about the world ending in 2012 is just a smokescreen to try and discredit, deflect and minimize Bible prophecy concerning the end of this age. The Mayans were wrong, the Bible is right. Stick with the Bible. Jesus is coming soon!
Ian Vincent 