It is very interesting how our enemy Satan attacks. In this instance I mean attacks upon the church as a whole not Satan attacking us as individuals. In Acts 3 aand 4 Satan attacks the church from the outside. He brings persecution from those who are oppossed to the church. First this persecution comes upon the leadership of the church and when that is not effective, Satan brings persecution on the membership as a whole. This proved to be ineffective also. The enemy does not give up and so in Acts 4 he attacks from within. Satan uses part of the church to try and damage the whole church.
Satan has not changed his tactics. We see it today. The church is growing in places where it is being attacked from outside. In countries like China and Cuba where the government tries to control and limted what churches and Christians can do the church is growing. In American and Western Eurpoe where there is freedom to meet and evangelize the church is not growing nearly as fast and there are internal conflicts like: authority of Scripture, worship styles, and Bible translations.
I also see it on a more local and personal level. God is doing an awesomely cool work in our church. Sunday has become an amazing time to see God work in people's live and the repsonse among God's people to what He is saying and doing. It amazes me that in the very middle of God working we see Satan using people in the church to try and stop God. We have seen it in three ways.
One way is people not focusing on what God is doing, but on their on own selfish desires. This people will find a small petty thing and if it is not to thier liking try and casue a conflict over it. One of the biggest of this is worship style. In reality the worship style you use is to be pleasing not to us, but to the one you are worshiping. Our worship does not have to please us, but to please our audience of One - Jesus.
A second way we have seen internal problems is people getting angry at one another. This again is usually over very unimportant things. However, when there is disunity within the Body of Christ the Holy Spirit is grieved and hindered in His ability to work with His people.
The third way that Satan has attacked inwardly is by people attacking the spiritual leadership of the church. Spiritual leadership in the chruch should be held at very high level of accountablity . It should not be required to be perfect. When there is a concern on the part of an individual in the church about the leadership it should be in love taken to the leader face to face, not in gossip behind their back. Spiritual leadership should be repected, not followed blindly or in Biblical ignorance.
For God to Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls of His church we must focus on what God is doing and let Him do it His way and not demand that He do it our way. We must be in unity, one heart and one mind. We must support the spiritual leadership that God has placed within the church. As we do that God will do awesome things in and through His church.
Joe
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
The Church Part Two
When I read about the church in the New Testament the words that are used to describe the church are very revealing about what the nature of the church is. Italso shows who we as the church is to be.
The church is called the Body of Christ. A body is made up of many different parts with many different functions, but they all work together so that the body can fucation as it should. The church is made up of many different kinds of people and these people have many different fuctions. When we as the church in our differences come together under the Head and fuction as we should it is an awesome dispaly of who Jesus is.
The chrch is called the Family of God. A family is again made up of different people with again functions. A family works when in love the different people work together putting each others needs ahaed of their own. Family is about loving no matter what.
A third way the church is described is as the Bride of Christ. A woman who is a bride has to have a man willing to be the groom. The church as the bride has Jesus as our groom. For a marriage to work the bride most respect, love and honor the groom. The groom in turn must respect, love and honor the bride. Jesus respects us as His bride, He loves us and He honors us. We as the bride must also respect, love and honor Him. A bride and groom share an intimacy that is the deepest human intimacy that we can experience. Jesus desires intimacy with us, the church as His bride.
The thing all of these describes share is that they are all relational. The church then is God's people realting to Him in unity and love with great intimacy. The church is also to relate to each other with that same unity, love and intimacy.
The world will take notice and be blown away when the church is who God's Word says we are and acts as Christ' Body, Family, and Bride.
Joe
The church is called the Body of Christ. A body is made up of many different parts with many different functions, but they all work together so that the body can fucation as it should. The church is made up of many different kinds of people and these people have many different fuctions. When we as the church in our differences come together under the Head and fuction as we should it is an awesome dispaly of who Jesus is.
The chrch is called the Family of God. A family is again made up of different people with again functions. A family works when in love the different people work together putting each others needs ahaed of their own. Family is about loving no matter what.
A third way the church is described is as the Bride of Christ. A woman who is a bride has to have a man willing to be the groom. The church as the bride has Jesus as our groom. For a marriage to work the bride most respect, love and honor the groom. The groom in turn must respect, love and honor the bride. Jesus respects us as His bride, He loves us and He honors us. We as the bride must also respect, love and honor Him. A bride and groom share an intimacy that is the deepest human intimacy that we can experience. Jesus desires intimacy with us, the church as His bride.
The thing all of these describes share is that they are all relational. The church then is God's people realting to Him in unity and love with great intimacy. The church is also to relate to each other with that same unity, love and intimacy.
The world will take notice and be blown away when the church is who God's Word says we are and acts as Christ' Body, Family, and Bride.
Joe
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The Church Part One
What is the church? The building, the programs, the ministries? Well, the word translated church in the New Testament means a gathering of the called out ones. That indicates to me that the church is the people. Then we have to ask what people? Ninety percent of the time church is used in the New Testament it refers to the local church. So the church is those followers of Christ who week after week meet together for worship, study, and fellowship and who work together in ministry and evangelism.
When God gave me the idea of Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls part of it was to emphasize to our church that the church is not the building, but that the church was US. In reality we never go to church we are the church. The church is not a place or thing it is a who. I ran into a big obstacle a few years ago when I attempted to have a Sunday evening worship service at some place other than the "church building". I was told that if we didn't have the service at the "church building" it was not really "church". I remebering thing at that time how unbiblical and sad because in the New Testament their were no "church buildings".
Now, I am not against church buildings unless they interfere with the church doing the work that we were called to do by the Head of the church - Jesus. The bulding that a church meets in can get in the way of what God wants to do. It can do that in several ways.
One way the buidling can get in the way is if our view of what the church is has more to do with the building then with Jesus. If we see the church as the building and are not willing to get outside the four walls of that building and minister to people where they are that goes against who Jesus is and what He has commmanded us, the church to do. If we think that if it doesn't happen in the building and we can't count it on some form, it is not really church than that is hindering what Jesus' mission for His church is.
A second way that the building can get in the way is if our view of the church is a fortress mentality one. If we view the building as what protects us from all the terrible people and things out there (in the world) and are not willing to go outside or invite some kinds of people inside than it hinders what Jesus has commanded us as His church to do.
Another way that the building can get in the way is if so much of our resources are poured into the building and stops us from putting resourses into minsitering to and sharing the Gospel with lost and hurting people. God didn't tell us as the church to maintain, He told us to grow and He didn't mean to build bigger buildings. Jesus told us to grow by making disciples. If large portions of our church budgets are about building payments and building upkeep to the detriment of money going to help the poor, to share the Gospel, or missons that is not honoring to God.
So buildings are not wrong, but I do believe that God would have us to let Him Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls of His church so that the world can see the glory of the One who is the Head of the church - Jesus!
Joe
When God gave me the idea of Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls part of it was to emphasize to our church that the church is not the building, but that the church was US. In reality we never go to church we are the church. The church is not a place or thing it is a who. I ran into a big obstacle a few years ago when I attempted to have a Sunday evening worship service at some place other than the "church building". I was told that if we didn't have the service at the "church building" it was not really "church". I remebering thing at that time how unbiblical and sad because in the New Testament their were no "church buildings".
Now, I am not against church buildings unless they interfere with the church doing the work that we were called to do by the Head of the church - Jesus. The bulding that a church meets in can get in the way of what God wants to do. It can do that in several ways.
One way the buidling can get in the way is if our view of what the church is has more to do with the building then with Jesus. If we see the church as the building and are not willing to get outside the four walls of that building and minister to people where they are that goes against who Jesus is and what He has commmanded us, the church to do. If we think that if it doesn't happen in the building and we can't count it on some form, it is not really church than that is hindering what Jesus' mission for His church is.
A second way that the building can get in the way is if our view of the church is a fortress mentality one. If we view the building as what protects us from all the terrible people and things out there (in the world) and are not willing to go outside or invite some kinds of people inside than it hinders what Jesus has commanded us as His church to do.
Another way that the building can get in the way is if so much of our resources are poured into the building and stops us from putting resourses into minsitering to and sharing the Gospel with lost and hurting people. God didn't tell us as the church to maintain, He told us to grow and He didn't mean to build bigger buildings. Jesus told us to grow by making disciples. If large portions of our church budgets are about building payments and building upkeep to the detriment of money going to help the poor, to share the Gospel, or missons that is not honoring to God.
So buildings are not wrong, but I do believe that God would have us to let Him Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls of His church so that the world can see the glory of the One who is the Head of the church - Jesus!
Joe
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
The Epic Life
We are going to see our kids today. I love being with them because I really love them. It is one of the great plasures of my life to watch my granddaughter. I loving just watching her live life. She lives life to the fullest. Everyday for her is an adventure (she has made life for her parents that way too) and nothing ever seems ordianry to her. She is one of the most passionate people I have ever been around.
So because of going to see the kids and because I have been reading a new book by John Eldredge called The Way of the Wild Heart. God has got me thinking about living an epic life. This began as I was reading the book and Eldredge makes the statement that to capture a boys heart, his focus, something has to be epic. I looked up the word epic and it means bigger than life.
As I read that definition I realized that when I was about 18 to 19 years old that is what God did in my life. He showed me that Christianity was not about just going to church and trying to be good. Christianity was about following this epic, bigger than life, God. It also answered a question that has been in my spirit for years. The question is what did my wife, Jan and I do as our son was growing up that helped him establish a real and passionate realtionship with Jesus. You see, every time I ask my son what we did that helped him know Jesus, he says you guys made it real. He tells us that we lived it out. I now understand that through our passionately seeking Jesus everyday in all things and in allowing our lives to center around Jesus not religious stuff we passed a view of God that was bigger than life, epic on to our son.
Some of the things we did to others seemed crazy and downright over the edge. But to our son they seemed big, risky, and that captured his attention and directed him to Jesus because if Jesus didn't come through on what we believed that He was telling us then we were sunk.The world and even some of the church thought we were crazy, but our son thought it was cool and though it he learned to know that God is real and epic.
I have an ordianry family, but we serve an extraordinarily epic God.
Joe
So because of going to see the kids and because I have been reading a new book by John Eldredge called The Way of the Wild Heart. God has got me thinking about living an epic life. This began as I was reading the book and Eldredge makes the statement that to capture a boys heart, his focus, something has to be epic. I looked up the word epic and it means bigger than life.
As I read that definition I realized that when I was about 18 to 19 years old that is what God did in my life. He showed me that Christianity was not about just going to church and trying to be good. Christianity was about following this epic, bigger than life, God. It also answered a question that has been in my spirit for years. The question is what did my wife, Jan and I do as our son was growing up that helped him establish a real and passionate realtionship with Jesus. You see, every time I ask my son what we did that helped him know Jesus, he says you guys made it real. He tells us that we lived it out. I now understand that through our passionately seeking Jesus everyday in all things and in allowing our lives to center around Jesus not religious stuff we passed a view of God that was bigger than life, epic on to our son.
Some of the things we did to others seemed crazy and downright over the edge. But to our son they seemed big, risky, and that captured his attention and directed him to Jesus because if Jesus didn't come through on what we believed that He was telling us then we were sunk.The world and even some of the church thought we were crazy, but our son thought it was cool and though it he learned to know that God is real and epic.
I have an ordianry family, but we serve an extraordinarily epic God.
Joe
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Loving the Unlovable
Tuesday afternoon as I visited with one of our church family we were interrupted by a person who I have encountered many times. This person comes by frequently usually looking for some type of help. My first response was to tell the person that I was busy and to go away. But as I was about to do that God stopped me and very gentle told me to show love to this person. I have to be honest it is hard for me to love this person. Their life style is not something that I believe is of God and this person is also very demanding and not very grateful when I do help them. After I was able to help this person I began to wonder if Jesus had to deal with people like this person in His earthly ministry. Then the spiritual light bulb went off and I though of course He did. Jesus had people all the time demanding things from Him. Jesus healed, feed, and helped many people. And as I thought about it we don't have a record of many of them telling Him thank you. When Jesus feed the 4,000 and the 5,000 did any of them tell Him thank you? When He raised Lazarus from the dead did Martha and Mary tell Him thank you? Did any of the people Jesus healed tell Him thank you?
There was one episode when Jesus healed some people and most of the them didn't tell Him thank you. Jesus encountered ten lepers. They called out to Him and ask for mercy. Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest and as they were going they all were healed. One of the men saw he was healed and came back to thank Jesus, but the other nine didn't.
As I thought about how ungrateful most of the people Jesus ministered to were, I realized that I needed to love this person who was so demanding and ungrateful because it is not about the person or me it is about obeying and honoring Jesus. If I love only the lovable people that is easy and anybody can do that. If I love the unlovable then it is not me loving them because I can't, it is about Jesus loving them through me. That glorifies God!
I realize now that this person who I struggle with loving has been brought into my life by God so I can help them but also so I can learn how to love like Jesus. The whole salvation process is not just about me going to heaven, but God molding me into the image of His Son, Jesus. God is Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls of my life through learning to love people like Jesus does, not matter who they are, what they do, how demanding they are or how ungrateful they are. I want the love of Jesus to be a character trait of my life.
Joe
There was one episode when Jesus healed some people and most of the them didn't tell Him thank you. Jesus encountered ten lepers. They called out to Him and ask for mercy. Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest and as they were going they all were healed. One of the men saw he was healed and came back to thank Jesus, but the other nine didn't.
As I thought about how ungrateful most of the people Jesus ministered to were, I realized that I needed to love this person who was so demanding and ungrateful because it is not about the person or me it is about obeying and honoring Jesus. If I love only the lovable people that is easy and anybody can do that. If I love the unlovable then it is not me loving them because I can't, it is about Jesus loving them through me. That glorifies God!
I realize now that this person who I struggle with loving has been brought into my life by God so I can help them but also so I can learn how to love like Jesus. The whole salvation process is not just about me going to heaven, but God molding me into the image of His Son, Jesus. God is Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls of my life through learning to love people like Jesus does, not matter who they are, what they do, how demanding they are or how ungrateful they are. I want the love of Jesus to be a character trait of my life.
Joe
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