The Beautiful Church

 

 

The Church

 

 

Our first introduction to God, in the scriptures, is the description of his act of creating the heavens and the earth. We see presented here a very clear principle that everything God creates is very good. This is his own perfect testimony. He was satisfied with his creation. Everything God does is good, and this is no less true with the church. The church is God’s idea and occupied his thoughts throughout eternity before he created the physical order. He had an eternal purpose, Paul tells the Ephesian church, that through the church he would reveal his manifold wisdom to ‘rulers and authorities in heavenly places’. And I believe that includes both good and bad angels.

The church belongs to Jesus, so he tells Peter, and he has assumed the responsibility to build it.

The church is not lesser than the Kingdom of God. It is the body of Christ; it is Christ in this world. It is the expression of the King of the Kingdom

The church is not a building, it is, as is made clear in the Greek meaning of ekklesia. This refers to a called out company of people.

The church is not an organisation or corporation with a managing director called The Pastor, who oversees various departments.

I have written the above introduction because I believe that the church is under assault by a ‘fifth column’ movement within it, which is manipulated by the enemy, satan. This ‘fifth column’ movement is comprised of Christians who moan and criticise the church. Christians who take the stand not to be part of a local expression of the church etc. The enemy, satan, often doesn’t need to make a full frontal attack upon the church – he has many helpers who purportedly own the name of Jesus.

This saddens me greatly, as I have served Jesus’ church for many years, particularly as a Holy Spirit appointed elder. The average Christian & church member is not perfect in practice, but is on a journey of sanctification to perfection. However God sees us as the completed product. He sees us as Christ himself, and he is well pleased with what he sees.

I believe that the factors I have identified in my first paragraph are important, and as we rightly grasp these things so we will start to see the church as God sees it.

·       Christian, do you realise that the church is God’s idea. What you currently see, even in its apparent imperfection, is God’s idea?

·       Christian, do you realise that the church is the expression of God’s wisdom to angels, even in its apparent imperfect state?

·       Christian, do you realise that the church belongs to Jesus. Yes, even in its apparent imperfect condition?
 

·       Christian, do you see the church as God’s precious jewels, living stones being built together by the Holy Spirit. Even though what is physically visible may seem to be imperfect?

·       Christian, does your vocabulary convey an untrue description of the church of Jesus Christ?

Everything I have said above carries scriptural support. I have refrained from putting references – you can do your own study. But I believe that when we manifest, either in speech or action, criticism of the church, then we are implicitly criticising Jesus. This saddens me!

 

In a future article I will look briefly at some things that the Spirit says about the church. But your own study will probably reveal those things to you beforehand.

 

George Jarvis

 

 



Today!

Today

 

 

I have spent a little time over the past month thinking about 'Today'. I am aware of several scriptures in the Bible which refer specifically to the current day, or 'Today' as I call it. Paul states in 2Cor 6:2 that 'now is the day of salvation' - Today is the day of salvation. There are several others, and this prompted me to consider in a little more depth the significance of Today.


The first thing God created was light, and out of that light he created day (Gen 1:3-5). So we see right at the beginning of creation God created 'day'. This was a totally new thing God had done. He was God who did not dwell in time, and was not constrained by time. He inhabits timeless eternity (Isa 57:15). He is the God of the 'eternal present'. and we see this in his descriptions of himself as being past, present & future. For example “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Rev 1:8, also see Rev 1:4). In the context of the eternal present he also said to Moses in Ex 3:14, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” So he was at the same 'time' the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. In answer to Moses' question he said his name is 'I am' (Ex 3:14). His name is, in my words, the 'one of the constant present'.

Then on the sixth day God created the 'pinnacle' of his creative action - man and woman, the image and likeness of himself (Gen 1:26).

So I see God created day as the basic unit of time at the start of his creative activity recorded in Gen 1. This is, as it were, his first gift to mankind whom he created as last of all & pinnacle of this recorded creation action. We then read on that he delegated to man the care of his physical creation. The first 'tool' God gave to man was time, the day, or Today.

Many years later Paul writing to the church in Thessalonica said that 'man belongs to the day' and that we are all 'children of light, children of day' (1Thess 5:4-6,8).

In being God's delegated authority for the care of the earth, the only time we have available to us is Today. We are people of Today but sadly so many people's lives are overwhelmingly shaped by the past, or lived in the expectation of some future 'Eldorado'.

God has created us to live life to its fullness today. We serve him to the fullness today. In fact we are exhorted by the Spirit not to boast about tomorrow (Prov 27:1). Tomorrow is not a resource for us, tomorrow belongs to God. We see this clearly suggested by James in his epistle (James 4:13-15)

 

There are indicated in the scriptures a number of actions God ordains for us in the Today. These actions clearly shape our life and move us forward in our demonstrating a life in the image and likeness of God.

 

1. In Heb 3:7,8,15 & 4:7 the Spirit makes it clear that Today is not a day for the 'hardening of our heart'. What does this mean? It is obviously important because within a few verses thisis mentioned 3 times. The Message translation says 'don't turn a deaf ear'. In other words Today is the time to listen to God. I see here that a primary activity for everyone today is to listen to God. God never tries to say anything. He is speaking all the time - it's just that we don't hear, usually because we are not listening. The Spirit indicates in Psa 19  that God is constantly speaking through creation - and that is all around us. He primarily speaks through his word, the scriptures, and it is not difficult to hear him as we read the scriptures, asking the Spirit to speak to us. He speaks through Christian ministers, friends (sometimes even enemies), circumstances etc.

So a Today activity is to listen to God, not turn a deaf ear to him. Turning a deaf ear to the creator of today causes us to lose this precious gift of time he has given us. Read the story of Jonah and see how much time he lost because he turned a deaf ear to God.

2. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the favourable time. Paul quotes this in 2Cor 6;2 from Isaiah. Salvation is wholeness, well-being in every way. Today is the favourable time of God's help. Today is the time to ask God to help us to wholeness in every part of our being. Today is the time to tell others of the wholeness to be found in God. Some many set a particular time to get 'sorted' - it may be when we have 'sown our wild oats'. or it may be when the big evangelist hits town. But today is the time given us to move into wholeness or to help someone else to do so. Putting off to another time is known as procrastination, and someone once said that 'procrastination is the thief of time'. When we put off our 'getting whole' we are allowing ourselves to be robbed of a beautiful and important gift.

3. Jesus said in John 9:4 that today is the time to 'work the works of God'. The works of God, to do good to all men (Gal 6:10), are what God has saved us for (Eph 2:10). Doing the works of God is not to be left until we are or think we are, ready. They are not to be left until we are trained, or qualified. Doing the works of God is an activity of Today When we wake up in the morning and think, "What shall I do today?", Today answers by saying, "The works of God!".

4. Psa 118:24 says "This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it". Our rejoicing is not to be left until that 'notable' event takes place, or until we are encouraged on a Sunday morning. The first thing Today calls us to is to rejoice. Today is a product of he creative activity of God, and every morning heralds a new creation of God - a day he has made. The fact that God has today and given it to us to fulfil so much potential is a worthy reason for joy and gladness. No miserable faces Today, please!

5. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 6:34) that we are not to be anxious about tomorrow. Anxiety is possibly the most unfruitful activity of today. It is always geared towards tomorrow, or the future, and is a total waste of today's potential. Jesus says that being anxious is a total unfruitful activity - it simply gives us ulcers!! Jesus says that we have enough on with today's activity. Let tomorrow's energies be spent tomorrow.

 

So let us take stock of our Today activities, and restore Today to the valuable and beautiful God intended it to be. Let us show forth in all we do Today the glories of God!