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Category:
Religion
Publisher: Essence Publishing
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 120
Copyright: 2001
Written for believers who desire to press their way outside the box of form, fashion and staleness of religion toward an invigorating, exciting relationship with God.
This book is a challenge to the Body of Christ to examine our motives, commitment, and passion as we work in God's Kingdom. It is my prayer that this book will not only motivate and encourage, but also leave you sobered and focused once you are finished reading. God bless you!
Excerpt
Vain Imaginations
Try to imagine how effective the body of Christ would be if we all felt like Paul. Instead, when I look around, I see ego raising its ugly head. In our ranks are pastors and leaders who want to control and manipulate “their” people. I see those who God has gifted parading in the flesh as though it were their own ability. We get saved and find our niche in the church and take a superior attitude. Saints are stepping on and over other saints in their efforts to be noticed, accepted, and used in a ministry. It has lead to a spirit of competition in the church like I have never seen before and it grieves me. We have cliques, and cliques in the cliques. We segregate by our various talents, by those who we like and dislike, by income, race, and by level of spiritual maturity.
We become judgmental of people in the world, totally forgetting that the world is precisely what we were delivered from! We seem to forget that we had another life and that we were not always saved. Even people raised in the church have done their share. How is it that we can turn around and condemn people for doing the same things we did ... or are still doing? It is time to get real. We put so much energy into selecting who we want as members of our church, and use the balance of that energy deciding who looks saved and who doesn’t, or who fits in and who doesn’t. The church is not some exclusive club or fraternity, and we certainly don't have the right to choose who is admitted. Didn't the Lord say:
“You have not chosen me, I have chosen you.” John 15:16
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to
the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he
called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” Romans 8:29-30
How have we come to the place where we decide whether or not people “belong” in our church based on their appearance or background? How can the church take a vote on a candidate to be accepted? A long time ago my husband told me that the true Church, God’s Church was not an organization but a living organism ⎯ how true. And God, not us, chooses the true Church. Our responsibility is to love, encourage, teach and preach Jesus Christ to whoever wants to hear. Since the wonderful grace and blessings in our lives are God's doing alone, we must stop lording that over people as if it were our own doing. How dare we ever try to take credit for what almighty God has done! He said he would not share his glory with another; it all belongs to him.
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