Passage of the Day: Ephesians 4: 11 – 12 [see underlined and in bold below with explanation added in parentheses] … 11 It was He [the Holy Spirit] Who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
My Journal for Today: John MacArthur, in his Strength for Today devotional on this date, states truth when he declares that God desires to reach the world with His Church declaring and sending out His Gospel (as we read in today’s passage and also in a verse I hope you have memorized, Acts 1: 8). To do this the Holy Spirit is given to individual believers so that we are energized, edified, enabled, and empowered to become the collective Body of Christ in order that this unified Body may carry out God’s Great Commission (see Matt. 28: 19 – 20).
Therefore, it is ultimately the Church who becomes the unified and equipped representation of Jesus Christ in the world, … ALL of us individually and collectively using our Spirit-given gifts to reach out with God’s mission/ministry of witness to a lost and dying world (see Christ’s mission/ministry in Luke 4: 18).
So, if we try to be “lone ranger” Christians, we deter or impede the effectiveness of God’s outreach, not using our individual gifts within the collective power that is Christ’s Body, the Church. God, the Holy Spirit, imparts His gifts with the purpose that my gifts will be joined with others, like you, in the unified Church to shine a much brighter, Spirit-enabled, light into this darkened and sin-ridden world, thereby glorifying God, The Father and drawing the lost to His Son (see Matt. 5: 16 in the context of The Great Commission).
{BTW, if you want to hear a great sermon on this subject which my own Pastor delivered to his flock on Sunday, Sept. 25th, go to this link. However, when I went to that site as I’m writing this, the sermon had not yet been posted. Be patient, though; I know it will be posted in the next day or so; and it will be well worth your time to listen to our Pastor passionately preach about “the church” being empowered by God’s Spirit to do God’s will in the world.}
I don’t know about you; but I’m convicted that I don’t use my gifts enough, with Spirit-lifted enablement, for God’s Great Commission and/or His mission for my life. And it doesn’t take a theologian or rocket-scientist to see that the Church is not what it could be in this world because of disunity and division and too many lone ranger Christians trying to do their own thing rather than working in well-equipped unity for God’s Glory. I’ll leave it to God’s Spirit to convict any who might read this of whether we, as God’s Body, are doing enough for our Lord or whether we, as individual Christians are doing enough to promote unity and power in the Church.
My Prayer Today: Lord, use my gifts in Your Church to shine Your Light in this dark world. Amen
Showing posts with label The Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Church. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
September 6, 2011 … The Reality of the Promise
Passage of the Day: 1st Corinthians 12: 13 … For we were all baptized by [or “with”] one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
My Journal for Today: It has been over 2000 years since Pentecost. However, even today the most potent evidence of the reality of God’s Spirit is a unified and living Church where God is seen in the transformed lives of Christians coming together into the collectively fruitful ministry of the Body of Christ.
When one Christian is truly saved, we see that life metamorphose from a life lived for the flesh (see Gal. 5: 19 - 21) to one brimming with the fruit of the Spirit (see Gal. 5: 22 – 23). But when that life is joined into a collective body of believers, God’s Spirit is magnified and loosed into the world with the collective witness of many fruitful Christians, who become the river of living water written of in John 7: 37 – 39, … a torrent of God’s power working in an anti-God world. Many today try to find this kind of power in science, technology, politics, new-age pursuits, or far-eastern mysticism. However, as today’s passage declares, we really only find the evidence of God’s Spirit when we see Him in all of His presence and power working in a united and collectively surrendered church.
I have been privileged in my life to see this on display in my local church – Central Church in Collierville, TN – where God has transformed my life from one who was obsessively driven by sexual drives to an Elder and Ordained Minister in this body of believers. I could tell story upon story of God working through the life of our body of believers to help yours truly become what is described in 2nd Cor. 5: 17, “a new creation in Christ.” You’ll never be able to get this witness to deny what I’ve seen many times over when God’s people come together in what I call “surrender mode,” allowing God’s Spirit to be loosed in their collective and unified efforts for God’s glory.
Oh, I know that “the Church” collective is not perfect. There are many stories that can be told of churches splitting or becoming impotent in their outreach for Christ. However, in every one of those instances you can probably find a story similar to what caused the Church at Ephesus to fail (see Rev. 2: 4 - 5) by losing their “first love, which is ”… that singular, unified dedication to Christ and His great commission (see Matt. 28: 19 – 20). I pray that God’s Spirit flows in and trough your church in these days where God’s church is being surrounded and embattled by growing worldly evil.
But we should be uplifted by the promise of Jesus Himself, where He was teaching His disciples at Caesarea Philippi, and more specifically trying to show Peter, that once He [Jesus] builds His church with Himself as the cornerstone, the very powers of hell itself will not prevail against it (i.e., Christ’s Church) [see Matt. 16: 18].
My Prayer Today: Dear Lord, flow like a river through Your Church today. Amen
My Journal for Today: It has been over 2000 years since Pentecost. However, even today the most potent evidence of the reality of God’s Spirit is a unified and living Church where God is seen in the transformed lives of Christians coming together into the collectively fruitful ministry of the Body of Christ.
When one Christian is truly saved, we see that life metamorphose from a life lived for the flesh (see Gal. 5: 19 - 21) to one brimming with the fruit of the Spirit (see Gal. 5: 22 – 23). But when that life is joined into a collective body of believers, God’s Spirit is magnified and loosed into the world with the collective witness of many fruitful Christians, who become the river of living water written of in John 7: 37 – 39, … a torrent of God’s power working in an anti-God world. Many today try to find this kind of power in science, technology, politics, new-age pursuits, or far-eastern mysticism. However, as today’s passage declares, we really only find the evidence of God’s Spirit when we see Him in all of His presence and power working in a united and collectively surrendered church.
I have been privileged in my life to see this on display in my local church – Central Church in Collierville, TN – where God has transformed my life from one who was obsessively driven by sexual drives to an Elder and Ordained Minister in this body of believers. I could tell story upon story of God working through the life of our body of believers to help yours truly become what is described in 2nd Cor. 5: 17, “a new creation in Christ.” You’ll never be able to get this witness to deny what I’ve seen many times over when God’s people come together in what I call “surrender mode,” allowing God’s Spirit to be loosed in their collective and unified efforts for God’s glory.
Oh, I know that “the Church” collective is not perfect. There are many stories that can be told of churches splitting or becoming impotent in their outreach for Christ. However, in every one of those instances you can probably find a story similar to what caused the Church at Ephesus to fail (see Rev. 2: 4 - 5) by losing their “first love, which is ”… that singular, unified dedication to Christ and His great commission (see Matt. 28: 19 – 20). I pray that God’s Spirit flows in and trough your church in these days where God’s church is being surrounded and embattled by growing worldly evil.
But we should be uplifted by the promise of Jesus Himself, where He was teaching His disciples at Caesarea Philippi, and more specifically trying to show Peter, that once He [Jesus] builds His church with Himself as the cornerstone, the very powers of hell itself will not prevail against it (i.e., Christ’s Church) [see Matt. 16: 18].
My Prayer Today: Dear Lord, flow like a river through Your Church today. Amen
Thursday, April 28, 2011
April 28, 2011 … The Resurrection: Motive for Sanctification
Passage of the Day: 1st Corinthians 15: 33 - 34 … 33 Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." 34 Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.
My Journal for Today: Perhaps as you grew up you heard your parents say, as I did, something like this: ” If you run with a bad crowd, you become a bad person.” In fact my parents were very vigilant to see that I ran with the “good guys,” so that I didn’t become one of the group of kids we used to call “the hoods,” who drove fast cars and did bad stuff. But I don’t think that my parents realized that their parental vigilance about my friends was a biblical principle.
But it certainly was; and it’s discussed in today’s passage. However, as we bring this up, the group identification principle of 1st Cor. 15: 33 doesn’t preclude any person from doing ungodly things on his/her own. Even though I was identified as one of “the good boys” growing up, I let my own mind wander into some pretty ungodly behavior as I moved farther and farther away from a relationship with Christ in my own world of habitual sexual sin. And truthfully, it is this latter relationship, in the context of today’s teaching, which becomes a powerful guideline of Christian discipleship.
If we, as individuals, have a deep/abiding personal relationship with Christ, believing in the truth of the Gospel, which we’ve been exploring this month, and we tie that with close association with other like-minded Christians, Paul’s exhortation today will likely produce a cohesive group of believers where Christ’s love and His power can work through the group more effectively and with more power. And that is how individual belief and collective discipleship can produce God’s power working in the lives of believers to use God’s grace to overcome their own deceitful hearts, and the forces of Satan in the world.
This month we’ve been looking at how Christ’s resurrection and the belief thereunto lead to salvation. But in today’s verse we see how that belief takes the next step, resurrection belief moving the church toward sanctification. We remember Christ’s admonition for individual disciples [from Luke 9: 23], … for believers to deny self, take up their crosses daily, and follow Him. Well, the application of individual believers, collectively following Christ in the fellowship of believers, allows the church to become the collective agent of Proverbs 13: 20 …
SCRIPTURE: Prov. 13:20 ... He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.
We also know that “…as a man thinks in his heart, so is he [Prov. 23: 7 – NKJV];” … and this movement from Godly thought to Godly action works most effectively for God’s kingdom when thinking/believing individuals come together to think and believe AND ACT together. And Paul recognized what was going on in the hedonistic and godless culture where Christianity had been planted in Corinth; and he knew that it would be very difficult for these Corinthian believers to thrive in their discipleship and in Christlikeness if they were fragmented and separated. Hence, we read Paul’s admonition in today’s passage.
We, who believe in Christ’s resurrection and the power of the Gospel message, do need to come together as is exhorted by the Author of Hebrews …
SCRIPTURE: Heb. 10: 24 - 25 … And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let 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.
Together, as believers in Christ’s resurrection, we in the church can do so much more for His gospel and His kingdom than we can as “lone ranger” Christians. In Battle Plan Ministry, where I’ve been called to lead, we advocate this “group-think” >>> “group action” principle in discipleship to promote freedom from sexual sin. Christian men (or women) standing together, well grounded in God’s word, and being accountable to one another is one of the most salient battle plans a group of Christians can have to help them all walk in a worthy manner (see Eph. 4: 1 - 2) and to do battle for Christ in the world (see Eph. 6: 13 – 18). I pray that you are in a battle cohort with other like-minded Christian soldiers, fighting together side-by-side and back-to-back against the forces of evil in the world, thinking together and growing together into Christlikeness. Always remember the instruction of Prov. 27: 17 that “iron sharpens iron!”
Everyday I thank God for the cohorts of accountability and strength which surround me, … at church, in Battle Plan Ministry, in my family, and in prayer to help keep me standing upright and walking with my Lord.
My Prayer Today: Help me to become like You, Lord, by working with other Christians. Amen
My Journal for Today: Perhaps as you grew up you heard your parents say, as I did, something like this: ” If you run with a bad crowd, you become a bad person.” In fact my parents were very vigilant to see that I ran with the “good guys,” so that I didn’t become one of the group of kids we used to call “the hoods,” who drove fast cars and did bad stuff. But I don’t think that my parents realized that their parental vigilance about my friends was a biblical principle.
But it certainly was; and it’s discussed in today’s passage. However, as we bring this up, the group identification principle of 1st Cor. 15: 33 doesn’t preclude any person from doing ungodly things on his/her own. Even though I was identified as one of “the good boys” growing up, I let my own mind wander into some pretty ungodly behavior as I moved farther and farther away from a relationship with Christ in my own world of habitual sexual sin. And truthfully, it is this latter relationship, in the context of today’s teaching, which becomes a powerful guideline of Christian discipleship.
If we, as individuals, have a deep/abiding personal relationship with Christ, believing in the truth of the Gospel, which we’ve been exploring this month, and we tie that with close association with other like-minded Christians, Paul’s exhortation today will likely produce a cohesive group of believers where Christ’s love and His power can work through the group more effectively and with more power. And that is how individual belief and collective discipleship can produce God’s power working in the lives of believers to use God’s grace to overcome their own deceitful hearts, and the forces of Satan in the world.
This month we’ve been looking at how Christ’s resurrection and the belief thereunto lead to salvation. But in today’s verse we see how that belief takes the next step, resurrection belief moving the church toward sanctification. We remember Christ’s admonition for individual disciples [from Luke 9: 23], … for believers to deny self, take up their crosses daily, and follow Him. Well, the application of individual believers, collectively following Christ in the fellowship of believers, allows the church to become the collective agent of Proverbs 13: 20 …
SCRIPTURE: Prov. 13:20 ... He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.
We also know that “…as a man thinks in his heart, so is he [Prov. 23: 7 – NKJV];” … and this movement from Godly thought to Godly action works most effectively for God’s kingdom when thinking/believing individuals come together to think and believe AND ACT together. And Paul recognized what was going on in the hedonistic and godless culture where Christianity had been planted in Corinth; and he knew that it would be very difficult for these Corinthian believers to thrive in their discipleship and in Christlikeness if they were fragmented and separated. Hence, we read Paul’s admonition in today’s passage.
We, who believe in Christ’s resurrection and the power of the Gospel message, do need to come together as is exhorted by the Author of Hebrews …
SCRIPTURE: Heb. 10: 24 - 25 … And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let 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.
Together, as believers in Christ’s resurrection, we in the church can do so much more for His gospel and His kingdom than we can as “lone ranger” Christians. In Battle Plan Ministry, where I’ve been called to lead, we advocate this “group-think” >>> “group action” principle in discipleship to promote freedom from sexual sin. Christian men (or women) standing together, well grounded in God’s word, and being accountable to one another is one of the most salient battle plans a group of Christians can have to help them all walk in a worthy manner (see Eph. 4: 1 - 2) and to do battle for Christ in the world (see Eph. 6: 13 – 18). I pray that you are in a battle cohort with other like-minded Christian soldiers, fighting together side-by-side and back-to-back against the forces of evil in the world, thinking together and growing together into Christlikeness. Always remember the instruction of Prov. 27: 17 that “iron sharpens iron!”
Everyday I thank God for the cohorts of accountability and strength which surround me, … at church, in Battle Plan Ministry, in my family, and in prayer to help keep me standing upright and walking with my Lord.
My Prayer Today: Help me to become like You, Lord, by working with other Christians. Amen
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