Monday, August
13, 2018
Carefully
determine what pleases the Lord. Take
no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to
talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their evil intentions
will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes
everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the
dead, and Christ will give you light.”
Ephesians 5:10-14(NLT)
The trend towards everything
personal in today’s culture is emptying the church. It’s not that people have no spirituality
about them; in fact, according to most religion studies, more people are
interested in the spiritual side of life these days than previously. But this overwhelming emphasis on personal
freedom, personal growth, and personal choices make the church an impractical anachronism,
a useless institution that misses the mark of what individuals want today. And that word want is the key
that opens Pandora’s Box.
God designed the church to
be exactly what humans need, and not necessarily
what we want. And in the
scheme of things, as we push through this life under the influence of our
fallen nature, we crave what we want much more than what we need.
The apostle Paul tells us we
should carefully determine what pleases the LORD. That is so different than our human bent, which
is to move towards the darkness of selfishness, pleasing self. However, in our human proclivity towards the darkness
of selfishness, too often we fail to see that moving towards what pleases
the LORD (moving towards the light) is that one needful thing our
souls really crave.
As I read the statistics and
opinions about how the institutional church is slowly sinking into oblivion I
am impressed with two thoughts:
1.
An institution that fails in
its mission ought to go out of business.
Everything about the church’s mission is geared towards bringing praise,
glory and honor to God through Jesus Christ.
If we cannot center on doing that, we miss the purpose for which we
exist; we become self-serving, and we live in darkness. That version of church doesn’t
deserve to be called “Christian”.
2.
God’s Word is true.
Jesus gave us the ultimate reality check in his conversation with
Peter.
…upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers
of hell will not conquer it. Matthew
16:18b(NLT)
If we believe-in Christ, trust, and rely on His word
being true, how can we simply opt-out of Christ’s church…particularly in favor
of some personal pseudo-spirituality that creates aloofness and
separation? Rather, God has specifically
called us into fellowship with believers.
Emptying the
church (as I’ve entitled this post) is an oxymoron for true believers; you don’t
leave the church – that is like leaving Christ.
How can the foot depart from the leg and still be a foot? How can the hand say it needs nothing but
absence from the body which needs the hand to feed it? How can the stomach despise the hand that feeds
it?[2]
The denominations
(groups of churches) that claim to follow Christ are not infallible; neither
are they holy when they call sin holy and refuse to move from that stand. It is right that believers do everything
possible to help correct the heresy. But
if the refusal to repent stands, the only choice left is to stand-apart from
that group.
For You Today
Let’s let the apostle have the
final word today:
Don’t team
up with those who are unbelievers. How
can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be
between Christ and the devil? How can a
believer be a partner with an unbeliever? And what union can there be between God’s
temple and idols? For we are the temple
of the living God. As God said: “I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my
people. Therefore, come out from among
unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will
welcome you. And I will be your Father, and
you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:14-18(NLT)
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com
[2] See Paul’s discourse on this
concept in 1 Corinthians 12
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