Wholeness: Discipline continued /7b
Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD appeared to him from afar saying:
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.(NAS)
Isaiah 51:7 Harken to Me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings.”(KJV)
Ecclesiastes 5:2-3 Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in our heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. as a dream come when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words.(NIV)
Psalm 119:29-30 Keep me from deceitful ways;
be gracious to me through your law.
I have chosen the way of truth;
I have set my heart on your laws.(NIV)
We all seek to serve Jesus Christ and I hope that we all are believers in the redemptive power of His Grace. In John 17:20 we read: “I (Jesus) pray not only for these but for those who through their words will believe in me.” We strive to serve God in our fullest, I see Christ in those who serve Him in all their ability and who, by their lives, prove the Love of Jesus regardless of the church attended. If Christ is in the believers, then Christ is in their church. The Wholeness of the body of Believers must be in the desire to be the Wholeness in the Body of Christ that makes up the congregation.
The prayers of a Catholic, a Baptist and a Methodist each brought me to a place where I was able to come to the Faith, the Hope and the Love of Jesus, who is the Wholeness wonder of God, Christ, Perfect Man and Perfect God.
I recognize that where two or three are gathered in the Name of Jesus, whether they are Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist or Adventist; My Lord, Jesus Christ is in their midst. Only the laws that we have established separate us. God’s Law of Love and Forgiveness binds us together. And as a people of Salvation, we can be in one accord. One communion that creates us as one Body of Christ. Jesus is the path to Salvation. The church is there to guide us on that path and to provide us with company. We must seek to keep together with those of like mind for the strength they can provide, but in the discipline of Mercy, we are not to throw stones at those who chose to walk in a different area of the same road. We are traveling on a mighty highway and there is room for each of us. When we get to heaven we can tell each other of the view we had along the way, but while we travel together, we should only warn of the potholes and dips that we all face. And if anyone gets a flat along the way, we should stop and help fix it.
This isn’t an attempt to condone the sects and cults that plague the churches today but to affirm those bodies of believers that are faithful to the Word to grow and prosper in their walk.
someday we will meet in glory, Those who recognize that Jesus is their personal Savior, their only path of Salvation, are a part of the true body of Christ. How you can to know Him is between you and the Lord. How you express the Love is also between you and Him. The rules of church are for the church, and unless it can be confirmed by scripture exclusively is also between you and the Lord. It was the path He chose for you. I was brought up in one church, came to Christ in an other church, served Him in even other churches and even worked for still other churches while being a member of another. Once we have decided to follow Jesus Christ, we are bound to serve Him in obedience and in Lovingkindness.
If we tell others that they aren’t acceptable to the body of Christ because the are bound to “church law”, it is the same as Jesus telling Nicodemus that he couldn’t be born again because he was a Pharisee. This is not the way of Jesus. There are completed Jews today as there was in the time of Jesus because they accepted Jesus as the Messiah and Redeemer of God. The Church of Judea was filled with them. Some were Pharisees and scribes of the temple, some were tax collectors and tanners. Some even were fishermen and carpenters. They were Jews not bound to the Law, but bound to the Love of God. They, like Nicodemus, are born again in the Spirit of the Promise; the Holy Spirit and the Witness to the Mercy of the Father. True discipline comes with the desire to have correction in our lives. True correction comes with the desire to have discipline with Christ. Grace comes to those who believe in the Wholeness of the Communion that Christ brings in Love to us.
It is in the interest of the Body of Christ that we are to have the Heart of Revival. and be able to cross the boundaries of Denominations and help all who desire to love Christ and to come to a fullness with Him. We are called to correction, fellowship, discipleship and Lovingkindness TOGETHER. The purpose of coming together is to share God’s wisdom, work for the need of each other and to Praise God as one body Together.
Christ’s Lovingkindness is a common sense love. The wonder of it is; that as simple and practical as it is, we are unable to recognize it with out Him. We desire to have the power to apply this wonderful Love and because of our human frailties, we only make vague attempts at it. Correction and Discipline in the Word gives us the tools by which we can learn, but it is in the strength of Jesus and the guidance of the Holy Spirit that will make it possible. While we lack the discipline to love others in the Whole Body, we lack the grace to fully Love Christ. The Word tell me that I must Love all in order to obey the will of God. I must obey His service, His desires, and I must NOT dictate to another how they should live in THEIR walk with Christ. I am to encourage and uplift so that they might also have the love of Jesus to their fullest. Once the desire is reached, that sameness with Christ as I seek, there is no longer a wall that separates us from each other but a bridge that connects us to God.
The Discipline of Christ’s Love brings us into correction of the Will of Our Lord. Being in correction means having no desire or ambition other than that of Christ. Scripture provides the pathway to know the discipline and the desire of Christ. It teaches us to reach out and to touch the lives of others. It also teaches me to hold back, to give space so others have the room to grow. The Lovingkindness should be so strong, so much apart of us. that we have no choice but to obey the statutes of Christ’s Law, to Love and Forgive.
God gave us the freedom of choice and free will. It is pleasing to Him that we choose to obey His Love by responding in correction and to discipline ourselves into His Perfect Will. Discipline should be Christ instructed, God invoked, not by members of a body that claim righteousness, but by the intervention of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in our lives. Grace is grace, given that we might have reason to discipline and correct ourselves purely for the Love of Jesus. In this Grace that builds, the Body of Christ is in the Wholeness Jesus intended.
Discipleship: Love, Obey, Forgive and Serve. This is the discipline of the Wholeness of Lovingkindness of Jesus.
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