Wake up where is the real church!!!

I feel led to share some thoughts do to the confusion of what church actually is. Our modern day understanding of church is is biblically incorrect. The word church in greek is the word ekklesia meaning a gathering of people for a purpose which in our case is to worship Jesus. I will remind everyone that their were no buildings in the early days of christianity they met in houses, or by the river or wherever they could. Instead of crying and complaining about not going to our precious little denonational buildings. Lets take this time to do things like the early days of christianity, and meet in houses of 10-12 people and disicple each other, and worship and grow in Christ. Whenever Paul addressed The Galatians or any other churches or group of churches he never wrote to the building he wrote to the people in the building. It is time to put denominations aside, and be disciples of Jesus, and multiply disciples. It’s time to repent, and turn to Jesus don’t just pray! Stop sinning intentionally, and pretending like everything is ok if you pray a little namby pamby prayer. Its time we get serious about dying to self, and living for Christ. Because, until that happens mark my words things will only get worse. The Lord is tired of all the sin, and lack of commitment. We must follow 2 chronicles 7:14 “If my people which are called by name will humble themselves, repent and pray and seek my face then will I hear from heaven forgive them of their sins, and heal the land.”

The real mission of Jesus

I have been thinking about the mission of Jesus Christ. The mission is clear to proclaim Jesus Christ and spread the good news to all people everywhere. So why is there not unified effort to share about Christs, death, burial, and resurrection and love to people all over this nation and others.

Why are there so many factions, and cliques, and denominations all doing there own thing not really acting as the body of Christ? I have come to the conclusion that churches and many christians have their own human agendas. Most agendas are hey come to my church, and we wind up being in competition with another.

This method a spreading the gospel is unblical, and also extremely ineffective. Our agenda’s is supposed to Christ’s agenda to love him to love others. And to spread the good news that Jesus is the way the truth and life without competition between denominations.

The world is confused by our disunity do we have a baptist Jesus, a pentecostal Jesus, a catholic Jesus, a Methodist Jesus. No of course not we only have a Jesus who is for the poor and the rich, he is for every race, every background, for democrats and republicans.

The beauty of Jesus is all may come to him, who believe him, and ask him into their heart, making him Lord and master over their lives. So the mission of continuing the spreading of Jesus’s message must also reflect who our messiah is. I don’t bring people to my Church(building), I bring them to Jesus and introduce them to their brothers who are the real church, not the building, but the people in the building.

What is the real church?

Yesterday, I shared about 3 things that have been on my mind. The first was who is the real Jesus? We of course know he was and is loving, caring, and kind. He gives access to all who come to him with their whole heart. The modern day church has unfortunately, and sometimes unintentionally, made Jesus accessable to only a select few, particularly in terms of who can and can’t engage in ministry. Jesus is clear when we follow him we are all servants and ministers. So why are their only oppurtunites for a select few who are specially educated? This boils down to the modern day question of what is a church?

This is the second thing thats been on my mind lately. What is the real church? The church has now become a building. When we tell our friends we are going to church, most people say we are going to the building to get with a group of people to sing songs, hear a sermon, and go home. How sad it is that church has be come a social club where we meet nice people. I like nice people, and songs are nice, but this is not the biblical meaning of church, which in greek is the word ecclesia.

Ecclesia means an assembly of people gathered together for a purpose. So if people gather to watch the New Orleans Saints play football and cheer them on, they have a church of Saints fans. Politicians have a church of people gathered for the purpose of bettering the lives of the citizens of the country (lol yeah not happening; they may be failing to do that it seems but, I digress). My point is churches in the biblical sense vary. For instance, the Roman idea of church during the time of Jesus was sending their representatives out to disciple the known world into thinking like a Roman. They used politics, drama, military, education, anything, and everything to achieve their goal of making the world look act and think like Rome.

So now when we see Jesus use the word church in Matthew 16 when he tells Peter “upon this rock I build my church,” the idea is that this is Jesus’s church; it belongs to him. And he builds his church not on ideology, not on might, not on propaganda, but on the shoulders of people. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians in chapter 4, talks about the unity of the body which is the church. Everyone is to be united together for one purpose: no agenda other then sharing the love of Jesus, doing good deeds through the spririt of God working in us, and having fellowship with one another. This causes the body, the true church, to work together in a unified effort to make the world a better place. And not just a better place, but a world that looks, acts, and thinks like Heaven. Which will then become a place where we love our neighbors as ourselves, a place where we put others first, a place where God, and his kingdom come first, a place where the hurting find healing, a place where the broken get fixed, a place where the lost get found. We must go beyond ourselves and meet in love and unity, and I believe fulfill the mission of Jesus together.

Who Is the Real Jesus?

I have been thinking about 3 important questions lately that have constantly been changing in terms of what people believe about them. Number one: Who is the real Jesus? By that I mean what was he really like? We know from scriptues he had compassion on the poor, the needy, the sick, and the hungry. He came to seek and save that which was lost, according to Luke 19:10. He had a tremendous burden in his heart for the oppresed, outcasts, and neglected. Where is this kind of compassion in the church as a whole? By whole I mean in the body of Christ, not just a few select “pastors” or special leaders. The fact of the matter is all Christians are called to display this same kind of love in both word and deed as Jesus did.

For the sake of time and length I will answer all the other questions in a later post. So my first question’s answer should cause a response in us. When we know who the real Jesus is, that knowledge should cause us to model our behavior after him, and love even our enemies. This love will change the world, and cause the believers to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, help the hurting, and minsister to and serve the oppressed in both the simple and ordinary things in life–from giving a loaf of bread to a homeless or poor person, to the bigger things like fullfilling the calling to preach, teach, dig wells of water in Africa, build orphanges, etc. We do all this out of love and understanding of who Christ is, and that love is then shown to other people, because his Spirit that lives in us causes us to walk in love and compassion for others. We must go beyond self, and put others first.