Luke 20:45-47 ESV
“And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, ‘Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.’”
In America today, the church, or what is called “church,” hardly mimics the New Testament model of what the church is and is supposed to look like at all. First of all it is we the people of God who are the church, not the building, not church denominations, and not businesses of men incorporated under the state, yet this is what the church has been turned into.
Second of all, the whole structure of what is called church today is largely of men and not of God at all. For one man or a paid staff of men are not to be the only ministers. We all are to minister to one another, and not for money, but out of love for one another and out of obedience to Christ. We all are to encourage and exhort one another in our walks of faith and obedience to Christ.
For the church is the body of Christ, and we who believe in Jesus are all parts of that body, and we are all given Spiritual gifts, and we are all assigned our individual body parts by God, and we are all to be doing those assignments using the gifts we have been given toward the building up of the body to maturity in Christ. And we are all to proclaim the excellencies of God who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.
So we are not to be spectators just sitting and watching a show while a select few people entertain us and instruct us in the ways of the Lord, often without anyone testing what they are doing and saying to make certain that what they are doing and saying is aligned with the teachings of Christ and of the New Testament apostles.
But we are to have Spiritual overseers, but they are to lead by example, not lord it over the people. And they are not to want people to worship them as though they are God. But so many of them now have become cult leaders and they want undying devotion to them without question, whether or not they are teaching and living the truth of the gospel.
So this is an encouragement to beware men who raise themselves up to places of honor beyond what God commands, and who put on a show of righteousness but who are not living and teaching the truth of God’s word. We are to test them all against the Scriptures in context. And this is an encouragement, too, to find a biblical gathering of the church where God can use you to minister to the body of Christ.
My Sheep
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Based off John 10:1-18 NIV
My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.
So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.
Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…
They know my voice, so they follow me.
https://vimeo.com/114938263
No comments:
Post a Comment