Church

Wake Up!! {Revelations 3}

8:00 AM

 Today's Scripture Passage: Revelations 3

I was once very much like the church of Sardis; busy, busy, busy! I was teaching in a Christians school during the day, working in the Awana and Sunday School programs on Wednesday nights and Sundays, leading a women's study on Tuesdays, while trying to make time for my husband and children each week. I was looking good on the outside; doing all the right things, but I was dead spiritually and didn't even know it, until The Lord moved me thousands of miles away from everyone and thing, except my husband, and sat me down to have a talk.  It wasn't quite like the one He had with the Church of Sardis, but there are enough similarities:

“I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead.  Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God. 

I'd be lying if I said that He hadn't gotten my undivided attention at that moment.  

Can you relate? Has there been a time in your life when you were kept so busy in ministering to others that it was adversely impacting your relationship with Him?

  • Your study time was to benefit others through your teaching.
  • Your prayer time had become mechanical. Running down a list of requests for others or your own personal needs you could foresee coming ahead for that day or week. 
  • Your date book was full with notations of phone calls to make and so forth, and when your phone did ring you feared you'd forgotten someone or something.
  • You fell into bed at night and were out as soon as your head hit the pillow. 
  • There was never anytime to sit silently before the Lord and listen even for five minutes. 

 Did you know that the way the Lord presents Himself to each of the churches is a clue as to what the underlining problem is within each of them? Here He calls Himself, "him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars." These symbols were identified for us in the first chapter of Revelation. The "seven spirits" are a symbol of the Holy Spirit in His fullness. 

Therefore, what the church at Sardis and I desperately needed was God's Spirit operating and back in charge.  

We need to be walking in the Spirit, and to remember that Jesus is Lord of His church. It is never left up to us to run the church, and minister in our own strength.

Somehow both the church at Sardis and I had forgotten that along the way. Which should lead us to wonder, what do we do when that happens? He tells us in the very next verses,

  Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.

4 “Yet there are some in the church in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes with evil. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.

Simple as that! Turn around and go back to The Lord, surrender once more and allow Him to take over.  Don't you just love how simple The Lord makes things?  Everything changes in one act of obedience. We can set it all back into His hands and find rest, refreshment and the renewal our soul had been longing for. 

One more thing I must tell you before I close, for this speaks volumes of our Lord's heart I believe. It's found in Revelation 3:5, 

Did you know that white garments are always a symbol of redemption in the Scriptures? In the seventh chapter of this book we'll read of a great multitude of people who will come out of the great tribulation and who have "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," (Revelation 7:14).

White garments are a sign of being redeemed, being saved by the grace of God. Our Lord is so very rich in mercy and lovingkindness, beloved.  He promises us once more all will be forgiven and forgotten. When we fall short, whether by accident or on purpose we only need to turn (repent) to right our relationship with Him once more. 

Know wonder He is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.(Is 9:6)

Blessings, 


sue

Acts

The First Day of Church {Acts 2}

5:00 PM



Monday Feb. 10, “Walking in Wisdom”


After the death and resurrection of Christ, the disciples had gathered together to celebrate Pentecost, the Jewish Feast of Weeks. “Suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.", (vs. 1-4). Can you imagine what a glorious spectacle that must have been! One minute the disciples were ordinary men meeting and worshiping together, the next they were filled with the Holy Spirit; preaching in all languages to all peoples about the "mighty deeds of God."

While Jesus walked the earth, He was able to physically minister to His followers; providing strength, healing, and teaching. But soon He would be returning to sit at the right hand of God. And so He told the disciples, "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever." (John 14:26) That Helper is the Holy Spirit; a Helper not reserved for the disciples alone, but for each of us as well. For the very minute we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to indwell also in us; beginning the work of shaping and conforming us into the likeness of Jesus. And not only is He sent to help, comfort, and guide us, the Holy Spirit is also God's seal on us marking us as His very own.

As wonderful as that particular day of Pentecost was with the outpouring of the Holy Spirt, an equally wonderful thing also happened that day. That day the Lord’s church was established. “The church is the body of Christ, of which He is the head. “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” (Ep. 1:22-23) The body of Christ is made up of all believers in Jesus Christ from the day of Pentecost until Christ’s return. “ (gotquestions.org)

With all of the fighting and strife  in the world, in the church, and amongst Christians themselves, my heart longs to be a member of that first church of believers. To be a part of such pure joy, love, and fellowship! For in that gathering, the people weren’t gossiping about each other. They weren’t debating doctrine. They weren’t arguing over who was the greatest, most giving, or most knowledgeable. They weren’t pronouncing judgments on each other. Nor were they busy glorifying themselves or their works. Instead, at that gathering all the members of the church were busy rejoicing in their love for God and demonstrating their love for each other. “All the believers were together and had everything in common.They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” (vs. 44-47)

In the current climate, there is more than enough hate to go around. And it’s easy to get caught up in the anger and turmoil of the day. But as the church, as Jesus’ representatives on earth, shouldn’t we strive to do better? To be better? Shouldn’t we want to get back to the same rejoicing, generosity, togetherness, and worship demonstrated by the early church? Shouldn’t we have hearts which share God’s will to be beacons of light in a dark world? If that is indeed our will, the Holy Spirit is the way. For the more we walk in His power, the more the fruit of the Spirit becomes evident in our lives. What is the fruit of the Spirit? James tells us, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."  (Gal. 5:22-23) So lets get back to being the church the Lord established on that glorious Day of Pentecost. May each of us, out of love and joy, let the fruit of the Spirit flow abundantly through us to others. And may the Lord’s church be so powerful a witness that Jesus can add to the number daily, “those who were being saved.” (vs. 47)



1 Peter 5

Shepherding God's Flock {1 Peter 5}

12:30 AM

November 14, 2017

I have always felt I resembled Peter.  I love listening to the Lord.  I love following the Lord.  I love when I am so focused I can walk on water.  But I sometimes fail, and sink when I lose my focus.  I’ve also been known to deny the One who gives me life.

Today, we come to the conclusion of Peter’s first epistle.  And I’d like to focus on our Great Shepard and being the Church.

Oh, give ear, Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who are enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth!  Psalm 80:1

Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.  Psalm 100:3

"Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; Acts 20:28-29

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10:11-15

 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 1 Peter 2:25

Peter was one of the 12 disciples, and one of three who witnessed Christ’s glory at the transfiguration and he witnessed the death and resurrection of Christ.  It’s no wonder he became a pillar of the church.  In this final chapter, Peter is writing to the elders of the church, but he’s identifying as a fellow elder, not a superior, when he asks them to “Be shepherds of God’s flock.”   This was exactly what Jesus had told him to do in John 21:15-17.

As the Church, we are the greatest hope for the world.  We have the ability, resources and gifting from God to bring hope to the world.  But what’s happening to the Church around us?  Are you noticing the impact we are losing?  How many churches are closing and becoming museums or concert halls?  We are so focused on outside influences and so distracted that we are amusing ourselves to death.  It seems we tend to focus on the electronics, gadgets and social media, that we are losing our commitment to Jesus.  Just look at the self-ism and consumerism in and around our churches.

Go back and read Acts 20:28, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

These last couple of weeks, I have focused on becoming, or being Christ.  No, we can never take His place.  But as we study and pray and meditate on His word, we become more like Him. 

We are a Building – when Solomon’s workers were building the church, these stones were quarried and polished away from the site of the temple and no hammer could be heard when they were placed together - they fit perfectly (1 Kings 6:7).  God is bringing all of us together as living stones (1 Peter 2:5).

We are the Body – Paul explained that we are the hands, feet, eyes and ears of the Church body.  We are all working together.  We are unified in Christ.  I have always heard that believers attract one another which is why we are a transnational community.

We are a Family – The Church is a household of God.  It is a caring place for people to bring their brokenness and needs.  We should be looking for opportunities to help others.  Shepherds are committed to one another.

We are the Temple – we are being built together for the habitation of God.

We are the Members – we are not the head of the Church.  We were sought out.  We are a worshipping community giving God all the glory and praise.  And we need to remember that we were chosen, just as the women at the well who had 5 husbands, and was not married at the time Jesus met her.  Jesus told her that the Father was seeking her. (John 4:16-26).

We are a Lamp – we are a witnessing community, open and available to God to introduce others to Christ.

Be the Church – we represent the invisible God to a skeptical world.

As shepherds, we have a lot to look after.  We are always at work.  We have to “Be alert and of sober mind.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kinds of sufferings.” (v. 8-9).

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