What is a Christian? 

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4).
What does it mean to be a member of Christ’s body?

 

First of all there is vitality. The believer’s union with Jesus Christ is a living union. The Spirit of God lives in the believer. We are baptized into the body of Christ. It is God who does the work and it is God who gives life.

 

Secondly, there is unity. We are members of His body. The members of the body work together. They maintain the peace within the body. There is only one body (Ephesians 1:22-23). The church is more than an organization. The church is an organism.

 

Thirdly, the church has diversity. Though we are one we have different parts to play and to function in the world. The church operates together to build up the body of Christ. When one part of the body separates from its rightful position and place there is a cancer that develops.

 

Fourthly, the body of believers deals with maturity. We mature in Christ by demonstrating our love for Christ, for each other, and for the lost. I Corinthians emphasizes love while I Corinthians 14 shows how that love should be exercised in the practical activities of the church.

 

Fifthly, there is ministry. The Lord Jesus works through us, his body, to accomplish what he desires. He ministers and serves as we surrender to Him. We are his spiritual body. The birth of His physical body is found in Luke 2. The birth of His spiritual body is found in Acts 2, both written by Doctor Luke.

 

We speak of church membership as if it were only a matter of joining the church and supporting the church with our money, attendance, and occasional work. But membership means more than that. We are a part of a living body. We contribute to the strength and growth of that body, the spiritual body of Christ on earth. Membership in the body of Christ means much more than what most think about. May we today wake to the awesome joy of living in Christ.

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    What do you do when you find yourself in the midst of pride and disobedience?  You get on your knees and pray.  We are not looking within or without as we should.  We have too much of the world in our view that is blocking our AWE of God.  Can you imagine the heartbreak of God to look down upon the ones He created who do not realize how good He is?  And we continue to do what?  To take God for granted and tolerate the only One who is able!

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  • Why Do We Mourn? 

    “Can the sons of the bride chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast” (Matthew 9:15).

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    What a day that will be! What a glorious day when we shall see Jesus. What a wonderful day when all we have lived for, yearned for, longed for – when Jesus shall return. What a great getting-up moment that will be. Loved ones will return with Jesus. Their bodies will be raised from the dead graves from all over, and the power of the resurrection will reverberate throughout all the kingdom of Satan, and the bodies will be released.

    We mourn when the Bridegroom is not here. But one day we will be joined to Him. The older I get, the more I see, and the better I feel about the coming of our Lord. The sin I see, the unfaithfulness that surrounds, with the nations becoming more and more like Sodom, God’s bride yearns for the coming again of Jesus.

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  • Wealth: Is It Worth It? 

    “There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt” (Ecclesiastes 5:13).

    There have been many that have made it big with their money. They have worked hard and spoke loudly of the way they live by the money they make. Maybe the words aren’t loud, but the spending is.

    After a certain amount of time the money flows and the items are bought and the road continues…until. It looks as if all is going well. Then it happens. Darkness falls. The children grow up. The dad and mom have done so much together, but the grave calls.

    Now the children are seated in a funeral home, alongside their dad. The mom is gone. The aged father is not thinking of their gain. The hurt is very real. Time is gone and nothing seems the same. The things accrued, the times spent, are a distant memory. What are we to do to ensure we feel fulfilled and contented when the time comes and death beckons?

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  • Near But So Far Away

    “Righteous art thou, O LORD…Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root; they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit; thou art near in their mouth, and far from their heart” (Jeremiah 12:1a,2).

    We are living in a day of cardboard Christians, pseudo saints, and plastic preachers. Far from being true in the innermost being to God there is falsehood and deceitfulness. Any nation that finds itself in this position is a nation in great decay and headed for destruction.

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  • Making Mistakes Work

    “And the children of Israel journeyed, and came into their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Bibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjathjearim” (Joshua 9:17).

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  • Today Matters

    “And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today” (2 Chronicles 18:4).

     

    In a day of rush and hurry up, with a mindset to have plenty of leisure so that we may do what we desire, it is good to learn a great lesson. That reminder from the Lord Himself is to “Inquire at the word of the Lord today.”

     

    The Lord Jesus said that we are to learn to lean heavily upon Him. And we lean hard upon Him by relying upon His Word so that we may learn to pray His heart and will. Today is the day of salvation. We need Him to save us and dismantle us from our sin and ourselves.

     

    “The glory of the Father must be the aim and end, the very soul and life of our prayer”, said Andrew Murray. God wants us to be in on what He is up to. Prayer becomes transformational when we embrace the enduring context for all praying.

     

    As we fix our eyes upon Him we will be transformed by the majesty of our great God, the person of Christ, the purity of His Word – and will excite within us an appetite for Him. Oh may we be renewed with a longing for His glory! Inquire of Him.