******* REVIVAL FIRE!!! *******
I AM LOOKING FOR A PERFECT CHURCH
Ok, then, where is that perfect church to which I would love to belong? Perfect church? No way! It would be perfect if it was formed by people like Jesus, each member a Jesus, then we would have a perfect church.
Ok, but we know we are a far shot from being like Jesus.
Think again: we are in Jesus, and this is in first place what God sees, while He deals with our sins, temptations, frustrations, flesh, miscalculations, misappropriations, and other .ations, He still sees us through Christ.
So where is that perfect church then? Maybe it is the church I attend? Maybe if we could just see each other through the filter of Jesus, just like the Father does?
NO CHURCH WILL GO ANY FURTHER THAN ITS OWN INDIVIDUALS
When the majority in a church become more concerned with the world, we have a worldly church; If people get involved in trying to change things around without the Holy Spirit the church becomes a social institution pursuant of the public welfare; if people succumb to the temptation of getting so spiritual that they cannot possibly be concerned with human affairs, then we have a church that has lost the “you are the salt of the earth” aspect of its life. And if the individuals in that church are moved by the desire to be like Jesus, it would be a church like Jesus.
God established the church. Jesus said: “I will build My church”. His church. Did he stop building the church? No. Has the church failed? Yes. In many areas, in many aspects churches have failed or missed the point to the very least. Is it still His church? Yes. There is no plan B for when the church failed. The church was and is the only plan. And for those who say that God is up to something so new that He is just done with the church, this would be paramount to say that He is done with the body of Christ. What is the new thing? A bodiless Christ?
THE UNIVERSALITY OF NOTHINGNESS
Many would have us buy that they don’t belong anywhere while at the same time they belong only to the “universal” body of Christ, which is the body formed by all the true saints of all ages past and yet to come. That is a nice concept. It is biblical also that we all belong to such body as Hebrews puts it: “the eternal congregation of the saints”. But it is also a way to admit that they do not belong really anywhere.
How in the world does one belong to the “universal” body which is not seen, without belonging to a local expression of the body of Christ? Can we love God who we don’t see without loving our brother who we do see?
In church, things eternal tend to lose reality if they are not expressed , lived, acted, walked, and perspired in the natural, physical, local environment of the church. I said perspired, when you move you perspire, you might even smell, and quiet, still, clean people tend not to like it. But you move anyway because the One in you stirs all your movable parts and you can’t help it. And you wonder how can it be that those other ones do not move like you do. And they are wondering why are you so crazy that you move the way you do.
Which of them belong to the church? All, each one of them.
THE BUCK STOPS HERE
We need to stop passing the buck to others, to the members, or to the leaders, or to the climatic changes in the greenhouse behind the church. In the church the buck stops with me. My church is too carnal? Do I pray long and hard enough to turn things over? My church does not like doing outreach and I feel we have to be in the streets. How about you go to the streets and start doing it? It takes one to start. My church is too structured? Be so in the Spirit that you bring in New Wine: it will break the old wineskins. Oh but then the wine will be lost! No problem brother someone will drink it from the floor. Most people in my church do not believe in miracles. Wait, you mean you need the approval of everybody before you pray for a miracle?
Why this difference between institutional church vs. the “real” church anyway? Look at it this way: God established the church, the universal body of Christ, but do not forget that the universal body of Christ expresses itself locally in every local church. Each church is or should be the local expression of the body of Christ. The Bible instructs us not to forsake our congregations. There is a need for the body to get together, gather in the name of Jesus. Whether we meet in a home or in a cathedral, we need to meet and the institution exists simply to facilitate the “meeting together of the saints”. The building exists for the sake of the gathering, not the meeting for the sake of filling up a building. Of course the church has over the centuries turned things upside down and the institution is not anymore for the meeting but the meeting for the institution: that is the problem, when we begin to need people to meet in order to keep the structures up instead of the structures to serve a purpose for the sake of the body. How do we change that? From within, within, within, within, within…and within!
BLAME THE PASTOR
But then who is to blame? Oh the pastor; it is the easiest! The leaders! That family that takes over everything in church. The young people that are allowed too much space. The old people that won’t let go of their traditions. The music is too rocky, or the music is too Bachie, too fast and too slow. The preaching has no fire, the preaching has too much fire. I like this leader style, I don’t like this leader style. I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, where did I hear that before? Come on boys, do you think per chance that if the body prays, if the individuals that form that local expression pray and keep pushing and move in the Spirit nothing will happen? If a body moves the pastors and leaders will have to move or be moved! Oh, but pastors are praying and moving in the Spirit but the body won’t follow? Push further in the Spirit until you reach the point of breakthrough.
What a mess!
This mess my friend, with all the failures, and mistakes, and mix-ups, and fallen natures creeping in trying to blend in, Babels and Arks, this is church. Is it right? Is it perfect? If God wanted a perfect church by human standards He would have chosen other beings to form it. We are walking toward perfection, together, in Him; yet the Father sees us through Christ.
The grace and mercies of God is applied to us. How much grace and mercy are we showing toward the other members of the body? Mercy, grace, love flow from the Father to us, but they are not meant to stop with us.
Moving toward a move of God
JC
J. Conrad Lampan
Revival Highway
Newport - Wales - United Kingdom
Email: conrad@revivalhighway.net
Alt Email: conradlampan@sky.com
Phone: + 44 (0) 163 385 4409
Skype: cymruargie
MSN: cymruargie@hotmail.com
From: bounce-3251823-2902599@hub.xc.org [mailto:bounce-3251823-2902599@hub.xc.org] On Behalf Of matthew Oliver
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 6:42 AM
To: A forum for Revival Discussion and Posts
Subject: [revival-fire] An Open Invitation and Response to Aaron & others….
******* REVIVAL FIRE!!! *******
As many of you know Aaron is a friend of mine and I was momentarily taken aback by his post and I thank all of you who have reached out to him and myself in love and encouragement. And I know many of you have questions.
For the questions, I do not have answers, but I give this.
Aaron is one, like myself, who is on the front lines of battle. He is learning and growing, and he is fighting, and the devil does not like him.
It is our job to encourage him in the fight, not encourage him to run.
I openly invite Aaron back to Revival Fire. His words have been encouraging and his passion, provoking. And in this moment, I have sensed, that the devil would like nothing better than to cause Aaron to run, and both Aaron and all of us would be the lesser for it.
NO – running is not the answer.
We are an army, we are a family, we are the bride, and we need one another and need to encourage each other, and we would be just like the church, that many of you have expressed frustration with, if we just allowed one to slip away, or encouraged one to run.
I will not, and in grace, and with love I invite Aaron back and pray that he learns through this process and becomes the better for it.
Now – to the issue of the church
I understand frustration with the state of the current church. I am one who feels we are not embodying the fullness of the bride. Yet, God is not coming back for individuals, He is coming back for the Church, the Bride. We are the church. Not programs, functions, meetings, religion. But currently the Bride has lost her way, and her identity is not as becoming as we would like.
Yet we do not get to abandon her because we do not like the way she/we look.
God never abandoned the Israelites just because they were not being the people they were destined to be. We do not get to either.
We get to help transform her into her true identity, and there is no better way to do that than from the inside out.
We don’t get to just shine in the darkness, we get to shine in the church as well.
Let us finally get over our petty issues and realize that there is more out there than just US! There is a world dying and in need of a supernatural God.
Let us fall in love with the church, not as we see it, but as God sees it and lets transform it into its true destiny, Not run from it!
For to long the people of God have run, let us STAND TOGETHER AND FIGHT!
And I long for the Aarons and others out there to stand and Fight with me. With the church! We are a Warring Bride!
Longing to see you on the front lines of battle
Matthew Oliver
Still learning as well
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