But we will not boast of authority we do not have. Our goal is to stay within the boundaries of God’s Plan for us, and this plan includes our working there with you. 2 Cor. 10:13 (NLT)
Jesus is the Foundation of our faith. It is with His knowledge that we are able to see Jesus in the face of everyone we deal with. It should be our plan to stay within the boundaries that God sets within us as we talk and work with others. We are subject to the Faith, Hope and the Charity that God implanted in us. To be unkind, mocking or disrespectful to others is to be the same to Jesus. Your words, actions and attitudes are a reflection of your regard for Jesus. These Graces are what lead us into the wholeness with Christ. “Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, having no ambition except to do good.” Titus 2:14 (NIV) Since we are claimed as belonging to Christ, we should have a natural response to share the Lovingkindness with others who are also in Christ. We sing of how Jesus is the Rock, the Cornerstone, the pillar and our Foundation. Yet we, by our inability to get along with each other, chip away at that foundation until we erode the source of our strength. Do be complacent in you Faith, Satan continuously works to bring down the redeemed until he can claim them as his. Although many don’t think this way, I personally believe that we can abandon our salvation, so I examine my walk daily to see if I can truly say I Love my Lord.
Examine how new churches are born each day. It is not because of scripture errors as much as it is because we want to “Do it our way!” Luther was not trying to create a new church when he started the reformation, he was trying to heal a damaged church. If you study history carefully, the church rejected him, because they didn’t see anything wrong with how they presented the Gospel. I have studied the Roman Catholic Church as it teaches the Gospel today and find them teaching the very things Luther did. John Wesley Took the Gospel into the streets, mines, factories and work farms and was refused the pulpits in the Anglican churches, he wanted the world to know that redemption was not just for the fortunate and wealthy (it was a popular belief at that time that the poor were poor because they were denied salvation).
We start churches today to satisfy pour our zeal and vanities and to mark us as separate from other Christians, we try to say we are new and improved and in that way, say the old is wrong. We should therefore try to bring the churches together to share the foundation of Jesus.
We are called to come as individuals in Christ for the purpose of being in agreement with God. We are to be supported by the Christ Foundation and not that of our own Vanities.
We have a vast building from God, but instead of meeting and greeting in Christ’s Love each other, we lock ourselves into our tiny rooms of Dogma. How much greater is the House of God when we sing together and hold each other up in praise? The sound of Joy is greater when it is raise up in unity to be harmonious instead of different voices singing different songs, trying to out sing each other as if God would listen to any of us glaring at the other. Christ, as our foundation, has given us the command to love one another as He has Loved us. He said to Peter, “Feed My sheep” not to starve them by withholding our love. When we fail to work with each other, we are unable to do the simplest tasks set before us by God. When we fail, it is not because Christ has not heard us but because we have not listened to Him to be One Body in Him.
While we are able to remain individual churches and congregations, we must be open to unity in the purpose of resting strong on the Foundation of Jesus to Love, Serve and Live Christ with each other. Paul asked the question, ” Is Christ divided? Of course Not!” Why then have we tried to slice up the foundation of Salvation and why have we feared to be a cooperative people and we are determined to tell other, “I don’t trust what you teach, so I will not help you minister to the needs of the people.”? By His doing, we are in Christ, He is the one who gives us wisdom righteousness, sanctification and redemption. the Wholeness of Jesus is founded on His willingness to impart upon us an assurance of Unity with the Father. It then makes no sense to quarrel amongst each other who are to be entrusted to do Godly things. We should be asking ourselves, how can I improve what you are doing? How can we strengthen each other? Can we share the tears, hopes and blessings, and heal the broken to bring the unsaved to Jesus?
What we have become was spoken of by Ezekiel, (12:2) “Son of man, you live in the midst of the rebellious house, who having eyes to see but do not hear, ears to hear but do not listen.” Jesus spoke these very works to the priests of Jerusalem and they sought to kill him. The chosen of God chose to slay their Salvation, think about that as you reject the lovers of Jesus today. We have heard the word of Jesus we have see the works of His hands in others yet we will not accept them into our family. We have not acted as the family of God, One body in the Holy Spirit, but been as fragmented and mutilated body parts. We need to use the mortar of Grace and Trust to mend the cracks and splinters into a Whole Church. Not a single church as was tried before many times because that will lead us back into a path of self seekers, but as a symbolic Faith of churches tied to one purpose; to build on the foundation laid by Christ and to be unified in works as a response to the Grace of God.
We need to keep our eyes, ears, hand and feet and most importantly our hearts focused on the Foundation so that we don’t start building on soft soil or crumpling rocks. We are not to spread ourselves out to embrace weak or strange design, but to tie ourselves to the steal beams of Christ’s Knowledge and Wisdom and, of course, God’s Lovingkindness.
Jesus has been our Dwelling Place, and we have put locks on all the doors inviting in only those we choose. We have shut ourselves into our tiny little rooms and shut out the others who live in the House of God. We don’t even accept them as part of the Family of God. About 190 B.C, Jesus Ben Sira wrote, “Blessed is the man who has not sinned in speech and who need feel no remorse for sins. Blessed the man whose soul does not accuse him, and has never given up hope.” Let us then speak with kindness, let there be no one to accuse us of sin. Let us give the joy of the Lord with are very lives.
Here we are today, with churches accepting strange doctrines, condoning sin, passing judgment on others and defining the scriptures. Here we are at the same time not bringing them into correction, as we would a member of our family, but allowing the wrong to claim righteousness. But even as the churches do what is wrong in the sight of God, we are to still love them. I left a church because it would not take a stand on abortion and I told them why I was leaving. Many in that church don’t agree with the church but still love the Lord while worshiping there. It is their hope that the leadership of the church will return to the pro-life stand. We remain friends and we can work and pray together. another church says Homosexuality is not a sin but a natural thing. Scripture does not concur. I like to point out that Natural Selection does not concur either. As a family of God, standing on the Foundation of Jesus, we can overcome these teachings and return all the churches to the Lovingkindness and the prosperity of Truth. Ben Sira also said; “Do not say, ‘The LORD was responsible for my sinning,’ for he is never the cause of what He hates.” Don’t say this is the way God made me, I can’t help myself. If that where so, because I was sexual abused as a teen, I would have been an abuser myself. Because I was made to doubt myself as a teen, I would have turned to suicide or drugs and it would be because God made me to do it. Hog Wash! God made me to turn evil into good, pain into blessings and hate and loath into compassion. Jeremiah in Lamentations 3:39 said; “Why should any living mortal or any man offer complaint in view of his sins? Let us examine and probe our ways, and let us return to the LORD.” Christ came that we might be one people under God and yet we have become as a remnant and scattered race with rivalry and contention with each other. I fail to see where this has gotten us over the years.
If Jesus is to truly be the Foundation of our churches, then we must seek that which binds us together. While there is a need for small churches today, they do not need to isolate themselves from the larger churches or denominations. More importantly, they should not separate themselves from the larger body of Christ by condemnation. I have stated from the beginning that Lovingkindness is the Nature of God and if we fail to practice it among each other, we fail in our attempt to be Christlike. We need to build on the foundation of Jesus’ example and be in unity with the Salvation message. WE may see the message differently, but God knows our heart. And if I say I chose Jesus and you say Jesus chose you, what matter is it? We both say the choice has been made, we serve God. We need look at each other as building blocks, not rubble. There is a place for us in the Temple of the LORD, He will use each of us as He chooses. There is no difference between the largest and grandest nor the smallest and weakest. Each will be cleaned and made perfect in His grace and bound together by the mortar of the Holy Spirit. WE are held steadfast by the Faith of Salvation, Hope of the Spirit of Promise and the Lovingkindness of Jesus
