Ephesians 4:1-6 - "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all."
We must never forget as we walk with Jesus through life, that we are never alone! We are not to bear the burdens that come with our Christianity all by ourselves! The moment we said "Yes!" to Jesus Christ, the moment we received Him by grace through faith, we were "born" into a community numbering in the millions!
All of us together form one body, a particular body; that is, the body of Christ. As Christians, we are each a part of each other, inseparable by God's grace.
1 Corinthians 12:12 - "For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ."
1 Corinthians 12:18 - "But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body."
If you are a christian, and part of a group of christians, then every one of you should be doing something! If one person is doing everything, or just a couple or a few of you are doing all the jobs, this is NO GOOD!
Our Lord, has saved each and every one of us to DO SOMETHING! As an individual, you have one body; as a member of a larger body, you principally have ONE job!
God has blessed us with bodies to think carefully about this concept. Consider: The brain manages information, the heart manages blood flow, the lungs manage air flow, etc.
Now consider yourself, if you are a christian. What is it that He has given you to manage? If you don't know, pray for that knowledge, and once you receive it, manage what you have to manage, and ONLY what you have to manage! The Lord will take care of the rest through the other members! ONE body...ONE job!
Now go and be the blessing to someone else's day!
Always in Christ's Love,
Christian
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."-Matthew 28:18-20, New American Standard Bible
In a nutshell, Christian, that is our one job. Anything that detracts or distracts us from going, making disciples, baptizing them and teaching them should be cut out from our lives.
In light of the "1 Body" concept discussed previously, what part do you play in doing this one job? Are you a goer? Are you a disciple-maker? Are you a baptizer? Are you a teacher?
If you are a Christian, your life's work MUST fit into one of these four! If you can't see where your work fit's into this model that our Lord gave us, maybe you've been mistaken...
We have one job, we are one body. If you are His, He will you show you where you fit, and where your work fits in.
"For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."-Luke 19:10
Our Lord, Jesus, the Christ of God, who was from Nazareth, did not come down to walk among us solely to show us miracles and signs, wonders and proofs that He is God;
He came to find us who were lost.
He came to heal us who were sick.
He came to put us together who were scattered.
He came to fix us who were broken.
He came to know us who were unknown.
He came to resurrect us who were dead.
He came to save us who were condemned.
If you believe you have never been any of these, now is the time to recognize and realize you can be found by Him; you can be saved by Him. Be saved today by Him.
Luke 10:1-3 -- Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. And He was saying to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves."
In the time that Jesus was here with us in the flesh, He sent out His followers ahead of Him to prepare them.
So it is today, that we who name the name of Jesus Christ, we Christians, are called to go out and seek those who would receive Him before His second coming. This task is NEVER a one-person operation; there is no such thing as a "lone ranger" christian!
Two are better than one. Go forth!
It takes two wings for birds to fly away...
Check this out! Psonic Alm 9 - Two
Have you ever flipped a coin? It's always "heads it's this, tails it's that". Many times people begin tripping over theology because of how or who saves. We christians say, "Jesus saves," and that is true, but we also take a part in this process. Just as every coin, no matter how thin, has a "heads" and a "tails", so also everyone who is saved is saved because a.) God made it possible and b.) because the individual consented.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;" -Ephesians 2:8
Grace, or unmerited favor, does indeed save every one of us who will be saved; but for our part, it is our faith by which the grace does its thing. 2 save.
The three persons of the Holy Trinity that is God lead everything. Check out this article
To some, He is a benevolent dictator; to most, He is perceived as a malevolent one. No matter the perspective, though, T/He/y provide leadership for a world and a universe that is simultaneously free and bound.
This leadership is modeled by the church, which is the group of called-out people, called Christians, that follow Him. They follow Him in death; they follow Him in life; they follow Him in Spirit and in truth.
The Church, Christians, Called-out Ones (from the Greek ekklaysia) act as a kind of "training wheels" for new Christians and serve to nurture the spiritual growth of new and newer believers in addition to the "mid-wife" role in spiritual birthing (See John 3).
Believers in their walk through their spiritual life inevitably will have a relationship with God that is personal, and not requiring the intervention of any other person; it really is just Jesus (in whom is the fullness of the Godhead) and you (in whom is the fullness of you).
As a follower--or disciple--of Jesus Christ, a student finds oneself in a position of centeredness around Jesus Christ. The christian is also him/herself centered between two sets of things.
The first set is the 3 that lead the person in Christ: faith, hope and love; and as we know from the 13th chapter of First Corinthians, the greatest of these is love (verse 13). The second set is the 3 that follow the person in Christ: justification, glorification and sanctification.
It is important to realize at this point that this aspect of the "3 lead 3 follow" portion of this call is not constrained by time. That is, these things are not associated with the christian in chronological order. Just as nothing "comes to pass" with the Lord--that is, He is present at every moment in time, nothing is the past or the future for Him--these six things simply lead or follow the christian; time is not what is being referred to here.
When considering these 3 leading and these other 3 following, try not to think in terms of time; even in writing this brief blog, it has been extremely difficult to avoid the word "simultaneously" and the phrase "at the same time", because while these might best convey this concept, their very usage would go against the idea.
With all of that said, there is a temporal connection. The 3 that lead and the 3 that follow are each connected to a tense. In the 3 that lead, faith is connected to the past, hope is connected to the future, and love is connected to the present. Likewise with the 3 that follow, justification is connected to the past, glorification is connected with the future, and sanctification is connected with the present.
From the divine perspective, since time is not an all-affecting attribute as it is for us, a better description would be that faith and justification are connected with the beginning, hope and glorification are connected to the end, and love and sanctification are connected with everything "in between".
The 3 that lead are all temporal expressions of our connection to Christ. Faith is the connection a christian has to Him in the past, hope is the connection a christian has to Him in the future, and love is the connection the christian has to Him in the present moment. As C. S. Lewis somewhere put it masterfully, the present is the point where time meets eternity!
The 3 that follow are all temporal expressions of our salvation by Christ. Justification is when the christian WAS saved, that moment when they first believed. Glorification is when the christian WILL BE saved, that moment when He who authored their faith will perfect it; that is, bring it to completion. And finally, sanctification is that ongoing process between justification and glorification, whereby the christian IS BEING saved.
Surrounded by these six, the christian is caught up, or enraptured, by a kind of "auto pilot" or in a kind of "tractor beam". S/He is on a course, running a race that had a definite beginning and that definitely has one and only one outcome.
This knowledge brings a peace that surpasses all understanding.
May we praise Yahweh, the Lord God Almighty for now and forevermore, by the power of His Holy Spirit, in the Name of Jesus Christ, amen.
"Go...make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you...," -from Matthew 28:19, 20
While Jesus Christ walked among us on earth, He had twelve disciples, or learners, who became apostles. Within those twelve, He had an inner circle of 3. 3 follow.
Peter types: These are people with "alpha" personailities; very outspoken, fiercely loyal and action-oriented.
John types: These people have "omega" personalities; thoughtful and reserved, yet very loving.
James types: Mixtures of the "alpha" and "omega" type; they are strong and silent; they will do the Lord's will without reservation or recognition.
As you are following Christ, be especially on the lookout for these three types following you, and prayerfully consider one of each type for your inner circle. 3 follow.
Know that the Lord has brought them to you for their preparation to do His will. Know that He has brought you to them to minister to them and to be supported by them.
Know that your time together should be brief, but full; know that at the end of your time, you'll send them out to lead others, as you have led them. 3 follow.