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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     1. Knowledge of God. We learn of who God is by His Word taught to a surrendered heart by the Spirit of God.

     2. This persuasion of God leads us to agreement with God. Emotionally we are in agreement.

     3. Now motivation is given to us to embrace God. The will of a man is enacted and now faith says “yes” and acts to embrace Him.

     This faith is a whole-soul movement of intelligent, consenting, and confiding self-commitment to God. True faith involves the intellect, emotions, and volition wherein all three converge into Christ. The heart is fully functional in Christ.

     What does it mean to be unfaithful? When the soul is fragmented, broken, then we are not in tune with God and true faith fails because we fail to see God for Who He is.

     

    When a child of God is torn between the glory of Christ and something God has made (creation) then we are fragmented. True faith is not choosing between good and evil but to act fully, joyfully, and enthusiastically toward Him because our eyes have been opened to the glory of Christ.

     

    This is how to be firm in faith. We unravel if we are not firm in faith. If we are not firm in faith then we are not firm at all. Everything in life, not just religion, flows out of our whole-soul movement toward Christ.

     

  • Either Change Your Message or Change Your Address

    “But first must he [Jesus] suffer many things, and be rejected by this generation” (Luke 17:25).

    The prophets of the Old Testament met great opposition. Ministry is nice when it’s a suburb and, manicured, quiet, well-kept place to come and wash feet. It’s nice when there’s fruit. When there’s encouragement. When there’s hope. When there’s appreciation. When there’s spiritual hunger. When there’s a readiness to change. When there’s a passion for Christ. When it’s yours and God blesses and blesses and blesses. It’s nice, isn’t it?

    Jeremiah was told by Jehovah God, “Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee; thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee” (Jeremiah 7:27). Jeremiah was told by the people to either change your message or change your address. They would not hear or listen to his warning.

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  • Courage

    “Now it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth” (I Kings 18:1).

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  • Autonomy

    “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

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    If we walk according to the flesh, our old unredeemable nature, then we are walking alone and making decisions without God’s power and presence. Yet, God has prearranged for His children to abide in His Son. Therefore this abiding assures us of God’s mighty work through us by His Spirit.

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  • A Revival of Repentance

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  • The Greatest Message to the Lowliest of Messengers

    “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 61:1).

    It is an amazing feat to see a child of God go backward and downward away from the Father’s love and care. And yet each has the potential to back up and back down from the amazing grace and capture of our Father in heaven.

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