Tuesday, May 21, 2013,
6:44 a.m. – When I was getting ready to have my quiet time with the Lord
this morning, he put the song “The Battle
for Truth” in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read John 2:13-25 (NIV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%202&version=NIV
When
it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the
temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others
sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove
all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of
the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he
said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”
His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume
me.”
The
Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority
to do all this?”
Jesus
answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
They
replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going
to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After
he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they
believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Now
while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs
he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself
to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind,
for he knew what was in each person.
Experience
For the most part, during the years my (and my husband’s)
four children were growing up, I was a stay-at-home mom. When they all reached
adulthood, I decided to go back to work outside the home for pay. My first two
jobs were both in the field of marketing and sales. I was an administrative (or
personal) assistant, so I was involved in the preparation and distribution of
marketing and sales materials. I had no previous experience in marketing or
sales prior to this, to the best of my recollection. Then, I had a couple of
church administrative assistant positions where I was able to put my newly
learned marketing skills to good use in the making of church bulletins and in
the editing, planning, development and distribution of church newsletters.
Ever since my husband and I were teenagers, we have both
been involved in Christian ministry in and outside of the institutional church,
with some gaps. We were involved in church planting twice as lay pastor and
wife. Then, in 1999 the Lord Jesus led us to begin a ministry to college-age
adults out of our home, though we did try connecting with several churches,
too. This lasted seven years (until 2006). While in this process of working
with these college-age adults and pursuing the direction of planting a church,
I decided to take some classes at our local two year community college. I
attended classes part-time between 2002 and 2006, and secured an entrepreneur certificate
(just a little shy of a 2 year degree in business). I took mostly business
classes, one of which was a marketing class.
So, it is with that experience under my belt that I am able
to speak on this subject with some knowledge and understanding of what I’m
going to share with you here. Yet, I trust the Lord Jesus to give me the words
he would have me to share with you today.
Marketing and Sales
The word of God is alive and active, and it still speaks to
our hearts - to our circumstances today. The Bible says that all scripture is God-breathed
and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness
(see 2 Tim. 3:16). So, even though this is a historical event about the life of
Jesus and the Jewish temple described in this passage, the scriptural truths contained
within the story can be applied to the church today.
If Jesus were to walk in the doors of our institutional
churches today, what do you think he would see, and what do you think would be
his reaction? I believe that he would see far worse than what he saw with these
merchants and money changers in the temple area of his day. But, let’s take it
beyond that, because Jesus made it clear that when he spoke of the temple, he
was speaking of his body (see vv. 19-22). Today the temple of God dwells within
the hearts and lives of Christ’s followers, both individually and collectively
(the church). So, if you could picture him physically with you throughout the
day, what would he see (and does see), and what do you think his reaction would
be to your (and my) activities, thoughts, desires, words expressed, etc.?
The reason I shared my experiences with you is so you
understand that I am not just speaking in theory here or from books I have
read, but I have physically seen and have personally witnessed the selling,
marketing, and the desecration of God’s holy temple – Christ’s body - his
church, which goes on daily in our lives individually and corporately. The
church of today is marketed just like any other business. Not all marketing is
deceptive, but much of it is. Gimmicks, entertainment, comedy routines,
manipulations of minds and emotions, deception, lies, half-truths (lies), human
thinking and reasoning and philosophies, human goals and objectives, and a
diluted gospel (so as not to offend anyone) are routine. Those who are needy
and hurting, as well as those who hold to the truths of scripture, are often
cast aside because they get in the way of the big business goals and
objectives. People are stepped on and they are throwaways, all for the purpose
of building earthly kingdoms of mankind over and above building God’s eternal
kingdom.
The worst offense of all, I believe, is the diluting of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel has been turned into a free-for-all (no
rules; chaotic; no definite standards). Yet, that is not the gospel of
scripture. Yet, its purpose is to make the gospel more palatable and non-offensive
so that the world will want to come into our churches (social clubs). The
church, nonetheless, is not supposed to be an organization, club or business of
humans, but it is, in reality, a spiritual organism of God, with Christ as the
head, and with the Holy Spirit determining the parts of the body and the
giftedness of the Spirit in individual believers’ lives. You wouldn’t know that
to attend most institutional churches today, though.
The Truth
The true gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of grace, but it
is not without rules. Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must
deny himself (his self-life) and take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and
self), and follow (obey) the Lord Jesus (see Lu. 9:23-25). Paul (speaking in
the Spirit) said that we come to know Christ by forsaking our lives of sin, by being
transformed in heart and mind, and by putting on our new lives in Christ Jesus,
“created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (see Eph. 4:17-24).
He said that being crucified with Christ means that we (the “I” in us) no
longer lives, but Christ lives within us, and the life we now live, we live by
faith in the Son of God (see Gal. 2:20). We don’t just clean up our old lives
at our own pace when we come to Christ, but believing in Jesus Christ involves
a radical change of heart and mind away from lives of sin and toward walking in
humble and submissive obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, God is calling his church, including individual
believers in Christ, to repent of her sins of idolatry and spiritual adultery,
and to return to her first love, Jesus Christ, and to make him her only Lord
and husband. He is calling his church away from marketing schemes of humans and
from human teaching and philosophy, and back to the truths of scripture. He is
calling his church away from thinking of church as a corporation, a social club
and/or a place to bring the unsaved of this world, thus working hard to attract
the world to the “church,” and back to the teachings of scripture on the
church, and the understanding that we don’t bring the world into the church by
worldly means, but it is Christ who adds daily to the church those who are
being saved. The church should be a place for the body of Christ to be
nurtured, taught, ministered to, encouraged, strengthened, and for them to
participate in the life of the body as God designed, not as man designed. And,
then the church should go out into the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ,
and it should grow by salvations.
If the church does not repent, and she does not return to
her first love, the Lord will come against her in judgment (see Rev. 2-3 and
the book of Isaiah). And, he will come with a whip, because zeal for his temple
(his body/God’s holy place) consumes him. God is a jealous God. He promised us
to one husband, and he will do what it takes to get his church to return to her
one true love. So, if this lesson speaks to you, I pray you will repent today.
The Battle for Truth
/ An Original Work / May 18, 2013
Based off Malachi 1-4
I love you. Honor me.
Tell the truth. You’ll
be free.
Sing My praise all
your days.
I will give all you
need.
Turn from sin;
cleansed within.
Stand in awe of My
Name.
Teach what’s true.
Walk in peace.
Follow Christ, in His
ways.
Show to God
faithfulness.
Do not be adult’rous.
Do not shed shallow
tears.
Do not be insincere.
I have sent
messengers,
Who have giv’n my
address.
They call for
repentance,
And they warn of
judgment.
I, the Lord, do not
change,
So return – blessings
gain:
Healing comes;
joyfulness;
Freedom from your
distress.
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