Let us take a quick look at the followers of Jesus, the process of becoming a disciple, just a plain ole person that loved whole Jesus was and what He had to give unto them, the ones that recognized the power and the truth He was to give to those that had ears to hear.
Now when Jesus walked this earth, there was a group that followed Him.
And there was nothing really special about anyone of them.
They ranged from tax collectors, smelly fishermen and such Whores and great deceptors, murderers and thugs. The only thing they had in common, the only thing that I can see is the same way they responded when Jesus said to “follow me.”
There are those that call them saints, because of their great deeds, but these were common people just the same as you and me. They ere not some super human that could bring about world change, but they had an encounter, and their lives were rearranged. And none of them were chosen for their great abilities, but it’s the way they all responded when Jesus said to “follow me”.
We see them all at their beginning, their motives are revealed, some are just pretending, the others’ hearts are real. It’s not long before they realized this will be no easy task, they can’t follow after Jesus like those leaders of the past. There is no one else to turn too, He gives life each time He speaks.
They overcome just by responding when Jesus says to “follow me.”
So it’s only as we follow Him, that change will come about. Like the children in the wilderness, Jesus is that cloud.
We leave that old man in the desert, as Joshua leads us to a new land. Joshua’s name means Jesus and He’s leading in the new man. To those of you who may have fear and doubt, I have a word for you. Jesus chose a Thomas to show He is able to take us through.
The Gospel Jesus left us is the power of God’s salvation, His words are Truth and Spirit, and bring our liberation. In the call is God’s ability to transform us all within, our own strengths and our abilities will only hinder Him.
There’s no guilt, nor separation, there’s no condemnation at all, There’s only grace awaiting those responding to God’s call.
We can see here in these lyrics, that there are no big guys or small ones.
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4a Most people were like me in the sense that we were taught all we know about the scriptures and how they were to be understood by the only source or institution that we knew of that was out there teaching. Most certainly were taught to take the scriptures literally, even boasting to our peers that we believe that the Word is to be taken at face value. Which can be understood that way, but only the shallowest of interpretations will be received. That is to say that only the flesh will be appeased, only the outer man will be feed while we each are starving for that fullness that comes from eating His body and drinking His blood. Since God is a mystery, and will never be fully comprehended, He has also given us an in-depth look at Himself by the parables and the hidden messages that they contain.
Whether we are studying Adam and Eve or Noah and his ark, or Moses and his journey through the wilderness, or Jacob and his sons, or even Hosea taking to himself his wife Gomer, all can be seen and understood when we look past the literal meaning, and see what God is saying, individually, to each one that has that thirst for Truth about themselves. In Mark four it tells us that; Jesus, “without a parable, He did not speak to them.” This was that those without could not understand, but those within His covenant, those truly following Him, could understand all things by the Spirit. Even if I wanted too, I could not go through each and every story or parable in the Bible and relay what each one is about on the higher level, for that is the place that only the Holy Spirit can and will involve himself at the deepest level of our heart…..The Man within.
I know that the many years that I spent reading the Bible in the literal sense, with its literal values, that my approach kept me away from the fullness that God was speaking. I spent my first twenty years in this thing that is called “church”, either learning, teaching a Sunday school class or preaching from the pulpit, before Gods’ Spirit opened up the whole new approach of looking at Him. You know, even then, the years I learned of Him this way, I could hear His presence showing things in a different level, but just didn’t have the confidence to dig a little deeper, being encouraged not to do so by them in charge of the institutions. Each little group or could say denomination had its own set of rules and regulations and wanted each of us to conform to their ways of life
Like the folks that lived in Babel that were united in their thinking and thought they could build a tower unto Heaven. They began to make bricks made by their hands, instead of using stone, stone is not man made and is the foundation of Truth, to build unto themselves a tower and used slime for mortar. This is not a history lesson nor a trivial account of some insignificant story about a long lost group of people, but an insight of today and what we as Gods’ children are doing with the institution that we are promoting today with man as the center of the empire. We too have and are continuing to build this “thing’, and call it for God or from God, and it is not. For the Temple of God, the Kingdom of God is not made by the hands of man, nor can it be locked down in any certain place, cannot be named, nor can the temple have a bank account or charter. It is, just like Jesus said; “in your heart”.
Just as Babylon was in the hearts of the Israelites, and Gods’ people were in bondage in those yester-years, the religious spirit continues to prevail today in this thing that is called “church”. The brick and slime were man made doctrine, creeds, traditions, and the attitudes that are still carried on today with the same captivity and Babylonian traditions as were in those and cannot change, for it is embedded in the hearts of Gods’ people far too deep for man to turn around.
But, all things are possible thru Christ Jesus.
What would you call a people that only are attracted to their own kind? In this case we might call them homo-sectarian, (or in this sense maybe should call them homo-secular.) If you look into the denominations you will find that maybe the Baptist secretly despise the Methodist, the Lutherans avoid the Presbyterians, the Church of Christ have no respect for the Pentecostals, or any other arrangement I might put together, even if called non-denominational.
Heck, within the religion of the Jews or the Catholics, there are different sects that don’t even get along among themselves. Any way you look at it, it is not what Jesus spoke about when referring to His Church. Somehow through mans’ intervention, and even could say man trying to create God in his own image, we have missed completely the Mark that Jesus had intended. The reason that I call “it”, (the church), a thing is because a person can touch or see with the flesh, things, but cannot see or touch the Ekklesia, the Church built by Christ. Ekklesia is the Greek word used in scriptures for the word translated Church, which means; ‘called out ones.’ The Ekklesia or the true Church is people, people not necessarily going to a building to meet with other fellow believers, but those seeking a walk, or better said a closer intimate walk with God.
Did you go to church today? Was church good today? Where do you go to church? What is the name of your church? All are questions asked on a weekly basis that doesn’t even make sense when we see that Church, Ekklesia, the called out ones, or better said “You” is the rock upon which Jesus shall build His Church….. We are the co-operate son, the many membered body of Christ.
If we really speak of the true definition of what the word Church, as defined in scriptures, means our conversations would sound something like this: Did you go to “you” today? Was “you” good today? Where do you go to “you”? What is the name of your “you”? Folks, this doesn’t even make a lick-of-sense. Where did it get so screwed up that we have completely lost track of what Jesus had intended? When did the “thing”, the institution place man over and above what Christ was building within each person that came to Him? We, those that come thirsting for Christ are the Church, fitly joined together making up His body. Man was not to promote himself, organizations, committees, programs, titles on a marquee, vacation bible school and such, and place them above His foundation, the Church, to whom He shall receive unto Himself. We’ve gotten way out of line when we reached towards our self and created an institution that is very similar to the tower of Babel.
Like the Pharisee’ we have organized, incorporated, and deployed systems to make, or should say take up money, manipulating many to give thinking they are to get something back, all in the name of God, to be seen and recognized in our communities to be the ‘man-in-charge, and not that of a humble Spirit, which is required for the Kingdom to grow within.
God has set his Kingdom up in the heart of those seeking Him in the Way, the Truth, and the Life, in the Spirit man within us, the Ekklesia, the Church. We are His sons, we are his way, his truth, and His life, and He is within us, not some place or thing. When Man intervened to set up the called out ones into an institution, we then ceased to be governed by Jesus Christ. Jesus was not crippled, He has always been steadfast, never changing, but we did cut the legs out from under our selves. When man gave the meeting place, which was in one house and then another, a name, he then promoted himself above the Rock on which Christ was building the fellowship of His believers. I long to fellowship with those that love and seek the Lord and those willing to be “the body of Christ”, but not willing to come under the bondage or the games they play to be a member of an institution that man put together to promote himself.
I realize that I’m speaking on a touchy subject that is close to us all, and I’m not trying to offend anyone, but it is now time that the true believers that are gathered in the wilderness, come together with Christ as the head. Listening silently as the Spirit has something to give to each and every one of us that we may build up each other in the body. We do not have to agree with one another, but we can come together with love and respect and the desire to seek that which Christ is leading us to. There is no separation or condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, just lively stones fitly joined together, with Jesus as the head.
The true house of God is made up of and measured by the love, joy, peace, respect, hope, life, faith, grace, forgiveness and mercy of those willing to lay down his life, and follow as His Spirit moves within His own body of believers. Church is not a place you can go to or a ‘thing’ you can have or a building with a sign out front, a place to pay your tithes, a thing to join, nor does the true Church have a parking lot, it is those of us meeting to build up each other in the gifts and to minister one to another as God has given us severally.
Again, I understand that this is a sticky subject, especially to those that think that serving the church is the same thing as serving Christ. Jesus is a person that lives within all of those made in the similitude of God; therefore it is the serving of Christ in man, not man himself that we are to come together to worship; God and Christ through the leading of the Holy Spirit.
This ‘thing’ that is called church, as we have come to express ‘it’, has been taught to us as the only ‘thing’ that resonates the only place where God supposedly gathers His people, and ‘it’ is not. We ARE to come together, we are to grow together, we are to help and be helped by each other as Christ gives to His own body.