THE BEAUTY OF AGING

To love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, means we align our heart with His heart… His will, wanting nothing more than to be with Him. Aging is a part of God’s judgment: “It is appointed (by God) for men to die once.” Aging is the dying process... death its culmination... time its yardstick: From the moment of birth we are aging toward death. Aging is not our enemy but rather God’s will... a process to be embraced. Our culture tries to reverse the aging process, tries to defy God’s will. But the sooner we age and die... or fly, the sooner we are with the great lover of our soul… forever. And… just how long is forever…

Every wrinkle has a beauty all its own, mile markers on our journey home, the tracks of time and a reminder that in the next life -- our real life -- there will be no time.  We recognize the aged saints among us because we can see the marks of long life on their face. We should honor and esteem them for the spiritual wisdom each wrinkle represents, the overcoming testimonies filling each sanctified heart. And besides, the decay of all the things of this pseudo-life is necessary, lest we get caught up in loving what the world loves, loving the very things our Lord warned and commanded us to avoid. Lest we stumble at the stumbling stone of life -- Pride of Life in this world. Lest we fail to “consider the work of God; for who can make straight what He has made crooked”? Who indeed…

The God who collects our tears in His bottles and counts the hairs on our head also knows and cherishes every wrinkle on our face. He has a plan for our wrinkles... it is called restoration. God commanded the children of Israel to take stones from the Jordan River as a reminder attesting to God’s miraculous intervention in bring about His promises to them. Saints, the wrinkles on our face are our stones… living stones, taken from the River of Life to remind us of God’s faithfulness and our soon coming Blessed Hope of forever with our Daddy.

“I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread”:

WRINKLES ARE THE TESTIMONY OF GOD’S FAITHFULNESS

(Ecc. 7:13; Heb. 9:27; Ps. 37:25)

GUILTY OF FEELING GUILTY

Entertaining guilt over confessed sin is equally sinful... equally wrong, for we are, in effect, questioning the efficacy of the blood of our Lord. His blood either cleanses us from all unrighteousness... all, not some, or it doesn’t. Why do we allow guilt to take our mind captive? The short answer is “works”! Self is punishing itself with guilt in order to feel worthy of God’s forgiveness, attempting to earn forgiveness. Guilt over confessed sin is a slap in the face of God, demonstrating our unbelief, ignorance or both. God repeatedly tells us our sins are completely... instantaneously, forgiven and forgotten when we boldly confess them before His Throne of Grace. Guilt over confessed sin must likewise be confessed! We must be absolutely clear on this; we either believe God or we don’t...                                   

And, to those saints who are so righteous they never sin: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Anyone who walks in the light that God has revealed to them cannot fail to recognize their own sinfulness. We can easily fool others but we can’t fool God who knows what is in the heart of man. Although we walk in the Light... Christ, we will occasionally stumble over our carnal fleshly nature. God’s provision is two-fold for restoring sin tainted saints: Jesus is our Advocate pleading our case before the judicial bar of God, clothed in His own righteousness, assuring our pardon. Jesus is also the Propitiation for our sins... all sins before and after the Cross. This word “propitiation” means in the Greek that Christ not only propitiates but offers Himself as the propitiatory sacrifice: He is both the sacrifice and the officiating High Priest. By becoming our substitute and assuming our guilt He reconciles us to God with His own blood, covering and atoning for our sin by the vicarious sacrifice He made on the Cross – the only sacrifice appeasing God’s wrath against sin. God is truly a just God in that He never forgives any sin without full payment of the penalty for that sin. So we come boldly before the Throne of Grace where Jesus, our Advocate and Propitiation awaits, ever ready to plead our case and apply His blood afresh to our life. Herein we see the scandal... the disGrace of allowing guilt over sin confessed...

“IN THIS IS LOVE, NOT THAT WE LOVED GOD, BUT THAT HE LOVED US AND SENT HIS SON TO BE THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS”

(Jn. 1:9; Heb. 4:16; 1 Jn. 1:8; Jn. 2:24-25; Rom. 3:25; 1 Jn. 4:10)

THE REALITY OF INSANE LOVE

Saints, we must not be deceived or disillusioned: Everyone we know who has not submitted to the Lordship of Jesus is, at this very moment, lost and hell bound. Our life, to serve its divine purpose, must be the light and salt of the unabridged Gospel of Jesus Christ, if it is to drive away the darkness of life in this fallen world and flavor the lonely hearted with the love of Jesus. We cannot... we dare not, soften the hard truth of people standing on the precipice of hell’s fire – in grave danger of eternal separation from God -- thinking an abridged gospel will be more readily received. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the reality of insane love enduring horrendous judgment to make available an indescribable gift for the few who are willing to give up what they cannot keep in order to acquire what they cannot buy. The Holy God of Justice and Love has done His part: He has purchased us with the precious blood of His Beloved Son… blood of incalculable value. But God has placed freewill in the deal, taking possession of only those purchased possessions who want Him above all... want to be His children... want to be possessed... want to obediently serve Him in this life and the next. Few will accept this free offer of God’s great grace. Our job is not to reason with the lost, thereby attempting to bring divine understanding to the natural mind, for this is utterly impossible. The natural mind does not and cannot understand the things of God. No, our job is to make clear the unconditional love… the indescribable love... the relentless love demonstrated by God on the Cross of His Beloved Son. God became man for no other purpose then to draw men into Christ... into Himself, through this ultimate sacrifice, for “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.”  We must share the horrendous sacrifice of the Cross and the free gift of eternal salvation it entails at every opportunity, allowing the Spirit of the living God to do His job in drawing people to the call of the Father, “For the love of Christ compels us…”

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him (Jesus) should not perish but have everlasting life … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me ... No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him … unless it has been granted to him by My Father … And I, when I (Jesus) am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself … If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Father God has “granted” salvation to “whoever believes in Him”, whosoever believes and confesses Jesus as their resurrected Lord. God draws us to Himself… to His Beloved Son, through the Cross of “No Greater Love.” It is how we are called into relationship, made a part of His royal family, and given the opportunity to live with Him forever. It is the power of insane love…

“THE LOVE OF CHRIST COMPELS US”

(Jn. 14:6, 6:44,65, 15:13; 12:32; 2 Cor. 5:14,19; Rom. 10:9)

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“I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH”

This thought is dedicated to the Ekklesia... the called out ones... the mystical assembly of all the redeemed...all who have been purchased with the Blood of the Lamb… the members of “His Body which is The Church.” Ekklesia must be understood two ways in scripture, The Church “big C”, just described, and the church “little c”, the individual assemblies of the redeemed gathering together at any point in time. These churches make up “The Church.” The Church is the leaven of the Kingdom of God, ceaselessly spreading God’s Kingdom through the dough of humanity. Stripped to its spiritual essentials the church functions as a purveyor of God’s Kingdom through “the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry”, which builds up the Body of Christ – The Church. “Equipping”, translates the Greek word katartismos which means to make fit, prepare, train, perfect, and was originally used for setting a bone during surgery. God does not want His Church to be out of joint! The “work of ministry” is the enterprise of each member of the church who are “joined and knit together by what every joint (i.e., person) supplies” to work effective when “every part (i.e., person) does its share”, growing spiritual maturity as it builds itself up in love. Equipping the saints covers a lot of ground including teaching/mentoring spiritual growth, empowering to minister, encouraging ministry, providing a forum for ministry development, and providing essential help including facilities, equipment and resources. Individual ministry is identified, developed and released within the nurturing environment   of the church sanctuary, moving out into the marketplace as spiritual leaven when it has matured.

 Every blood bought saint of God has a personal ministry... something to contribute to the Kingdom of God, for we were “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” When these personal ministries are quenched and grieved rather than nurtured, ignored by a misplaced focus on rigid liturgy and the “One Man Show” syndrome, spiritual growth of the church ceases as an attainable reality. Notice the key adjective modifying growth... “spiritual”, we are not just talking about getting people into a building here. The real measurement of church effectiveness is not church size... quality trumps quantity every time in God’s Kingdom, but rather the effectiveness of the equipping of its saints for the work of ministry. Why do people become so prideful and elated simply from getting humans into a building?  Man driven church growth becomes a stronghold that burns out pastors while filling the pews with lukewarm Self-centered “Christians” that God has already said He will spew out of His mouth. God’s mandate to the church is to “go and make disciples” – spiritually mature Christians – not go and make converts. Focusing on church growth... size, rather than growing spiritual maturity through the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, is simply a prideful form of godliness that denies the power of equipped saints to leaven the world.

GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES

(Matt. 16:18, 28:19; Eph. 2:10, 4:11-16; 2 Tim. 3:5; Col. 1:24; Rev. 3:16)

THOUGHTS ON CHURCH FAMILY

God’s grand plan is for believers to love and relate to each other as spiritual brothers and sisters -- as sons and daughters of the living God – doing life together with Him at the center as the core that holds the spiritual family together. A quick read of Acts chapter two through four sheds light on the relational dynamic of an organic body of believers -- the first century church -- doing life as a spiritual family. These saints were experts at sharing life, sharing God, sharing their “stuff”, demonstrating their faith through love for their brethren, worshiping God in the unity of the Spirit.

1Cor. 14:26-33 from The Message translation  paints a picture of this “participative” church family: “When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight ... Take your turn, no one person taking over. Then each speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all learn from each other ... When we worship the right way, God doesn’t stir us up into confusion; He brings us into harmony. This goes for all the churches—no exceptions.”

This sounds good, but taking on a real extended family is costly, both literally and emotionally. Hear these commands of scripture:

*Sharing our stuff and our life.

*Loving others as we love ourselves.

*Rejoicing with those who rejoice and mourning with those who mourn.

*Praying effectual fervent prayers for one another.

*Humbling ourselves toward others.

*Extending compassion and mercy.

*Forgiving faults and transgressions.

*Loving in deed and not in word.

And this is just a partial list! Love, Sacrifice, Passion, Obedience, and Humility, the things that bring a twinkle to our Father’s eyes, were the cornerstones of the first century churches. What they lacked in luxurious facilities, creature comforts, and choreographed assemblies was dung... as Paul would say, when compared with the experience of living life as God intended, as a real family of brothers and sisters in Christ. Remember, we can’t love the back of someone’s head… though we will try. And love… well, it is paramount, both our love for God and our love for others, birthed in us as we become what we behold, beholding God’s relentless love for us. Our love is demonstrated in sacrifice, passion, obedience, and humility, Christ’s nature flourishing in us fertilized by love. We need to emulate the first century saints in their desire to love as God loves…

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity will one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah they'll know we are Christians by our love

(Peter Scholtes’ lyrics)