Saturday, December 29, 2018

The "Let Us" series continued


Let us not also forget that when we come together to eat, we tarry for one another. Don't start the meal till every one arrives. Indeed, it would be good for the last to be first - invite the last in line to the head of the line. Also, invite the poor to your meals and honor them by letting them eat first. Our physical meals are an example of how we partake of Christ, how we eat of Him when we're together. Do we prefer each other over ourselves? The poor, the weak, the spiritually lame or blind or wounded among us should always be invited to His banqueting house, where His banner over us is love, first.
Churches are full of people stuffing themselves with God's love, gorging themselves with His word, growing fatter and fatter, week after week after year, yet never going into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature ( I once preached to a herd of sheep. They were great listeners!)
How many pew dwellers "Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you"? Wait, I forgot, if you stay put in your local church, you're exempt from this command. All you have to do is give money to and pray for, those who are obeying this command (and give money and prayers to your pastor, after all, you are there to support him and his ministry to you, which is to teach you the Word). Wait a sec, aren't teacher and pastor separate ministries in Ephesians 4? Anyway, we're told, we can't all go. Some of us need to stay and earn money to give to those who go. Wait a sec, didn't Jesus send forth His disciples two by two with no money in their purse? Does He want us to rely on money from home to do His will as we obey Him and go? Or can we trust Him to car for us wherever we go in obedience to His will? Hudson Taylor had it right "Where God guides, He provides".
My wife and I took our two young daughters and spent almost four years as missionaries to Ireland with almost no support from back home. Giving money to missionaries is well and good if God tells you to give it but we don't need it to survive because we have a generous, loving heavenly Father who sees our every need and HE makes sure  we are well cared for - our dependence is on Him, not man. If missionaries are looking to churches or people at home to provide all their needs then the won't need faith on the mission field.
Anyway, "GO" could mean, walk across the street to your neighbor's house or speak the words God puts in your mouth to share with the waitress at your next meal out, or with the stranger shopping at the grocery store with you. I've prophesied at least as much  to complete strangers in public as I have inside of churches. In fact, the Holy Spirit is more welcome outside of many churches than He is inside them. God, as it turns out, loves speaking to people. Good thing too because His words are spirit and they are life. A word from God can actually resurrect some lost soul from the dead. And someone's body too "Lazarus, come forth" My own faith in God was once restored by a word given to me by a precious brother that I still know today thirty years later (thanks Daniel).
Let us have no schisms in the Body but let's each have the same care and concern for every member of the Body we've come to know and love. Our flesh tends to pick and choose who we're comfortable associating with. Whites like to go to churches full of whites, blacks like to go to churches full of blacks. Koreans like to go to churches full of Koreans and Hispanics like to attend churches full of Hispanics. Rich people like churches with lots of rich people, poor people tend to gather in poor churches. Even within these various churches we tend to gather in cliques, we tend to associate with people like us, families with families, singles with singles, elderly with elderly and youth with youth. Churches even encourage this and cater to these subdivisions within the local Body. They form specialized groups where singles can all hang out with singles, seniors with seniors, etc.
Yet all of these many boundary lines we draw around each other are an affront to God - who obliterates fleshly boundaries and draws us all together as one, one body, and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, One faith, One baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."

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