I remember hearing a 'joke' once, about a man who has been stranded for years on a desert island, and is finally discovered by another man. Before they depart in the rescuer's boat, the survivor wants to show him what he's built on his island. He shows him his home, and his church - the place he built to worship God. He prays a last prayer at the altar, and turns to head toward the boat. The man stops him, and points to a third structure that they didn't visit. "What's that?" he asks. "Oh, that!" says the survivor. "That's the OTHER church - I NEVER go there!" . . .
It is interesting to think about the state of '
the church' vs all the
denominations who claim Christ . . . I think it is more accurate to think about the
actual body of Christ vs
man's attempts to follow God
. . . I tend to relate this to the fact that there was a remnant within
the Israelites that followed God in their hearts vs the organized
activity and teachings in the synagogues . . . the prophets spoke to the
nation, but the message was to each individual's heart . . . Jesus
challenged individuals as well. Yes, we are to participate in the
church, but my responsibility is to make sure that MY heart is right
with God, that MY life is lived in obedience to Him. Jesus' answer to
the question 'what is the greatest commandment?' - "Love the Lord your
God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength; and the second is like
it: love your neighbor as yourself. On this hangs ALL the law and the
prophets."
I do not believe that the church will ever be a
perfect reflection of Him on this earth because of the frailty of our
flesh . . . we each struggle daily with living worthy of our calling;
when we function collectively, those struggles are multiplied
exponentially. The Holy Spirit within us is fully capable of doing
anything and everything perfectly, but God gives us the right and
responsibility of exercising our will - to believe we are able to find a
group of people on earth who are ALL collectively submitting to the
control, direction and purpose of the Father and therefore living out
the "true" church is a deception of pride straight from the enemy - one
of the proofs of that statement is the fact that whenever we 'feel' that
we have found that church, we also come to believe that everyone else
who is worshiping differently is 'wrong' . . . yet it is not our calling to judge others . . .
Discerning false teaching is absolutely our call; proclaiming truth is absolutely our call;
to say that I'm living truth and you're not is NOT our call, it is the Holy Spirit's.
A preacher once said that a man can truly be humble up until the point
that he calls himself humble . . . then he has become proud. That line
is so fine as to be able to be walked
only by the GodMan Himself,
and I dare not believe that I, another individual, or a group of
individuals has somehow risen to that level.
I believe that all
of us who genuinely desire to follow God are being led by His Holy
Spirit, but the fact that we are each still in the
process of
being transformed into His image, that is, being sanctified, means that
there are things about me that are NOT in line with His image, His
being. I still have distortions of thought, lies that I am held captive
to - often unaware, due to my own blind spots, conditioning, or
societal justification; these things are continuously being revealed to
me by God as I meet with Him in His word - He brings truth to bear and
exposes the lies, but then I must be willing to turn from that which I
have known, reject it and submit to His truth - and that is not an
instantaneous process. I am justified by faith - completely; but He who
began a good work in me is seeing it to completion in Christ as I am
transformed by the renewing of my mind. I thank Him that His mercies
are new every morning, because without His grace I would be lost and
without hope, as there is no good thing in me . . . I am but dust, but I
am His dust; and when He has tested me - and sifted me - I will come
forth as gold - not because of me, but because of His work in me.
All
that to say - I am not representing Christ perfectly; NO human on earth
is representing Christ perfectly, therefore NO church on earth is
representing Him perfectly either.
He said "I will build my
church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." He promised
that His followers would be more in number than the stars. He states
that people from every nation will follow Him.
That is the
church - it is universal and supernatural. We meet in local bodies of
believers, and we have strengths and weaknesses in those groups . . . we
have a mixture of truth and error in our attempts to live out our faith
. . . often because of personal bias, preference and even prejudice . .
. But
THE CHURCH in reality is the collection of individuals
whose hearts are set on Him - and we are scattered all over the planet,
throughout all generations, and members of many different
'denominations' - He is our head, He is the Word, He convicts of us of
our sin, leads us in paths of righteousness, causes passion for truth to
burn within us parallel with compassion on the multitudes who have been
deceived by the enemy. The enemy would like us to be distracted by
accusing each other of error - but that is to participate in
his
evil work - he is the accuser of the brethren. The Bible is the sword
of the Spirit - it is to be wielded against the enemy, not against each
other - in order that truth may be recognized and captives set free by
it. Jesus said that if He is lifted up, He will draw all men to
Himself.
He states that "narrow is the way that leads to life, and few who find it", but those of us who find it recognize that
He found us
- that is why we are never glad to recognize how many people remain
deceived by the enemy, never proud that we "get it" and they don't . . .
'we' have been pursued by God Almighty, and even our faith is a gift
from Him. He is not willing that any should perish, and neither should I
be. Any concern I have about 'error' in the teaching of a person or a
church should be motivated by my love of Truth, and my belief that only
the Truth can set men free.
Here is Truth: that God is utterly Holy; He is sovereign; He is the Creator and
all of Creation, including every human being throughout time,
is
subject to Him - whether we 'believe' that or not. Man was never
intended to live separate of God; separation is the result of sin, which
every human is guilty of. We don't 'die' physically when we sin, and
therefore we become deceived into thinking that nothing has changed,
that we are indeed 'alive' . . . what we fail to recognize is that we
have become separated from Life Himself, God, and therefore are actually
the 'living' dead. Without a sacrifice being made to cover our sins,
there can be no forgiveness, no reconciliation to God, no restoration of
genuine life. Jesus Christ became flesh - fully God/fully human, lived
a perfect, sinless life, and offered Himself as a sacrifice for all the
sins of mankind. His shed blood satisfied the requirement of the
sacrifice of a pure life to pay the debt of sin. Any human being who
acknowledges Jesus Christ as God and His sacrifice as the
substitutionary payment for sin can ask Jesus to cover them with His
blood. That person's sins are then atoned for, full forgiveness of sin
(past and future, since this debt was paid prior to most of our
lifetimes) is granted, the Holy Spirit is imparted to dwell within this
individual and he becomes subject to Jesus as the Lord of his life.
(This, I believe, is the missing emphasis of most evangelistic messages - Jesus Christ is Lord AND Savior . . . NOT Savior only . . . If one is unwilling to submit to Him as Lord that person should seriously question whether or not he has truly received Him as Savior - He is both. One who has been forgiven is indwelt with the Spirit and therefore aware as never before of their sin nature, their tendency toward sin, and the absolute necessity of reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit within him to keep him from sinning. Believers are also aware that this is a constant struggle, that we continue to sin, and must confess our sin, repent - that is turn from it - and seek God's power to live victorious over that sin continuously, as a matter of day to day living as long as we are on this earth.)
Our purpose on earth is to glorify God - that is, to live in such a way
that reflects God's glory - His power in us and through us, and points
men to God. This world will eventually pass away, and those who come to
Him throughout all generations will one day inhabit a new world
together, living in unity with Him and each other in a life that is free
of sin.
That is the truth that cannot be compromised -
everything else is shades of grey, areas of hair-splitting and the
devil's playground that tempts our pride to unite with some and scorn
others - all distracting from God's purpose of calling forth a people to
Himself.
