Chruch is not a Building (John Eldredge)

Church Is Not A Building
09/24/2008
Church is not a building. Church is not an event that takes place on Sundays. I know, its how we think of it. “I go to First Baptist.” “We are members of St. Luke’s.” “Is it time to go to church?” Much to our surprise, that is not how the Bible uses the term. Not at all. When the Scripture talks about church, it means community. The little fellowships of the heart that are outposts of the kingdom. A shared life. They worship together, eat together, pray for one another, go on quests together. They hang out together, in each other’s homes. When Peter is sprung from prison, “he went to the house of Mary the mother of John…where many people had gathered and were praying” (Acts 12:12).

Anytime an army goes to war or an expedition takes to the field, it breaks down into little platoons and squads. And every chronicle of war or quest will tell you that the men and women who fought so bravely fought for each other. That’s where the acts of heroism and sacrifice take place, because that’s where the devotion is. You simply can’t be devoted to a mass of people; devotion takes place in small units, just like a family.

We have stopped short of being an organization; we are an organism instead, a living and spontaneous association of individuals who know one another intimately, care for each other deeply, and feel a kind of respect for one another that makes rules and bylaws unnecessary. A group is the right size, I would guess, when each member can pray for every other member, individually and by name.

This is the wisdom of Brother Andrew, who smuggled Bibles into communist countries for decades. It’s the model, frankly, of the church in nearly every country but the U.S. Now, I’m not suggesting you don’t do whatever it is you do on Sunday mornings. I’m simply helping you accept reality – that whatever else you do, you must have a small fellowship to walk with you and fight with you and bandage your wounds. This is essential

So If I Fall

We are all going to fall/sin the question is how long will I stay in that fallen place. Its very easy to fall and then just give in and not move forward. I think that when we fall and we will the best thing to do is get up, learn why did I fall, what were my blind spots, patterns to ware me down, and then make adjustments and move on back towards being pure. How long will you be down? Its up to you. Free will also allows us to stay down and forget that we are created in Gods image and that means we can have access to wonderful power to love ourselves and forgive ourselves when we fall. Let forgive ourselves and move back to the love of our souls.

Having a Growth Goal

A growth goal is something that you can change, it is not dependent on others so to say my goal is to make everyone like me is not a good growth goal because you can never make everyone like me. However you can have a goal that might say "The next time I am tempted to give the finger I will smile or turn my head instead of giving the finger or some other negative gesture. Or the next time that I am tempted to act out I will immediately remove myself from the stimulation and distract myself and talk with the Lord and ask for strength. We will all be tempted to act out weather its Anger, Lust, Drinking, Drugging, Sex, Spending, Eating etc. We need to decide the way we are going to respond to the stimulation or thought that wants us to act out. When we say the next time (BLANK)_________________ happens I will (RESPOND) _________________ in this new way we have come up with a growth goal. What is yours?

What do I see

Perception is everything, stimuli in life (evens) are neutral, its how I respond to them that causes life or death. Every encounter with some one is an opportunity to share life, every temptation is a chance to draw closer to the Lover of your soul. How are you sharing with other and what are you sharing, who are you drawing closer too?

Can I See

Ok well let go with the idea that I want to change and that I want to do it Gods way. Great, but can I see? Seeing is all about perspective, the way we see things the way we experience our world and get stimulated by it and interpret what is going on. Wow that was a mouth full. Real we all have prospectives and when we do life with our REFLECTION (one of my favorite words) we never examine what are my prospectives and am i seeing things as I really should. So as my good friend and colleague Dr. Carl Benzio would say its about Perceiving what is and then Responding to is. Ok So how do I get to see if I am seeing it right. I think the best way is to hold up my ideas to what God has reviled in scripture, Himself, and creation. More on this tomorrow but ask yourself am I seeing things the way they really are or are my lenses broken or dirty?

Ok I will Stop it

Is it enough to say I will stop it? I will stop drinking, sex, spending, eating, porn, drugs, anger explosions. While it is good to want to stop with out a plan and dependency on Christ change or transformation is just not possible. Its God who changes the heart and its with Christ that all things are possible. With out Him its impossible. See Jn 15. To really Love God, others, ourselves we need to be intimately connected to the Trinity and which out them no way can we really love the way our Creator intended for us to love each other. Who are you depending on to stop or change. Next time we will take a look at the plan.

When We Fall

When we fall its easy to think I quit, suck, I will never change, but that is not what the writer in 1 John tells us. He is clear that he wants our joy to be complete and tells us when we sin and we will we need to bring confession to Christ and He will forgive us ALL our sins, yep even the ones we don't know about yet. That is how Awesome our God is He wants fellowship and healing and restoration with all of us and He has make the Way for us thought His Son our Savior. Confess your sins to be healed.

Desire is not enough

So many of us struggle with things like over eating, smoking, drinking, sex, spending, all looking to escape, find life, and excitement. Many of us will come to a place where what we drink in does not satisfy out thirst. Recently when I was taking with a former professor of mine on the phone he said "Its not when we live our dreams out that we are satisfied but when we meet, find, want with Christ. So we get to this place where we say YES then what. We cant do it alone we need to be in community. Christ's community is the church. The hospital for the soul. So lets help each other walk home in Faith, Hope and Love

Welcome to Going Pure

The goal of this blog is to be a form and place where those who are following the Way, The Teaching and Life Style that Jesus Christ taught that leads to life.