There are basically but 2 world views that grind across the human heart with eternal certainty. The grindings will end up with diamonds preserved for and by the King or untold grains of sand left to be trampled in agony by the lonely suffering Thief.
There is, quite possibly has been, a disturbing trend in the Body of Christ that distorts the vision and purpose given by Christ. That trend is an unhealthy attitude that has developed between generations. For many years there has been an unhealthy discussion and absolute tug of war for the control of buildings and assets by folks who desire to ‘do it my way’. Mostly this tug of war is about methods of worship and ministries and it is not the methods that should be at issue. The issue should be the eternal rest for the souls of men and women….this should be the issue.
Organized bodies that refer to themselves as the Body of Christ are oftentimes so terribly concerned about territorial battles that eternity is overshadowed by the shallow ranting and raving over “how we should do this or how we should do that”. And all the while there is a growing number of souls that are quietly sliding into eternity without Jesus Christ because their thirst has not been quenched by the waters that have been stirred by the Holy Spirit because there has been no one to take them to the Pool of Grace. “A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, "Do you wish to get well?" The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me." Jesus said to him, "Get up, pick up your pallet and walk." Luke 5:5-8.
The disconcerting statement in this short discourse between Jesus is made by this crippled man, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me." Could it not be that while the Community that calls itself “Christian” is caught up in the frivolity of deciding whether or not they should be involved in “Contemporary Worship”, folks are not able to “come to the waters”? These Communities of Fight are so involved in the brackish waters of their on making that the spiritually inept and crippled are overlooked. They are thirsting and die of the same.
My concern is that the Body of Christ has so lost so much of her power to influence the lost that she is quickly and needlessly slipping away from being the Body and becoming just another lifeless organization of baptized believers.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. "Incline your ear and come to Me Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David. Isaiah 55:2-3.
One last thing, “HO!” It is necessary to “Stop and smell the roses while they are yet blooming.” Wake up, O Church, and listen to the voice of your Lord. HE is calling us to be involved, not in ourselves, but in the work of being the Body of Jesus Christ.
"To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: 'I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. 'Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. 'So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.” Revelation 3:1-3.
Jesus is Lord
BobW
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