From the beginning, we were a Bible study group, a home cell, a prayer group, a praise and worship group or whatever other group. But You are not building any groups! You are not even building any congregations or communities. You are building only one thing – Your Body, Your Living Body.
Your Body is Your True Church without spot or wrinkle or any such blemish. Christian communities, congregations, home groups and any other gatherings are, as it were, “vehicles”, the means through which You are achieving Your purposes, even Your final goal – YOUR BODY.
Most of Your people walking on the broad way can at best have a mental concept of Your Body. They can have noble concepts based on the Scriptures but still only mental, intellectual concepts. They can have an appreciation for Your Body … but they cannot possibly see the spiritual Reality of Your Body and certainly not the Beauty of It.
Your people must be put on the narrow road and thus be transformed into living members of Your Body. Then, and only then, can they begin to witness how Your Living Body is formed. Only then can they begin to observe Its Reality and, later on, Its Beauty. There is simply no other way.
And so, our own group, being dead in the beginning, has been and is being transformed into a living body through the transformation of each willing member from the dead one into a living one! It is not a group any more – it is a body. It is being built into something we had no previous perception of, we had no true idea about. And this transformation process does not stop. It may take on a different dimension, a different quality, different depth and width … but it never stops. I dare to say, Lord, I am beginning to catch the first glimpses of the marvellous Reality and Beauty of Your True Body. It is beyond description! It is FAR, FAR beyond our imaginations as well as our most sincere and most theological concepts.
What shall we say then about congregations, communities, various fellowships and home groups? Are they not various parts of Your Body?
I believe the truth is simple and I would express it as follows. Any person who believes in You in his/her heart and so confesses, becomes a member of Your Body, Your Church. He/she is saved from the eternal damnation and receives the seed of a new spiritual man “which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph.4:24). Furthermore, this seed lives by Your Spirit which takes up His dwelling in every such new member of Your Body. He/she becomes the temple of Your Spirit (1Cor.6:19) and He seals him/her for the day of redemption (Eph.4:30).
Three most important facts are to be elaborated on at this point. The first one is as follows:
(A) Every member of Your Body without exception starts from being dead, blind, deaf, corrupt throughout, sinful, foolish … a bundle of vanity taken from the road that leads to eternal damnation and eternal death. This is the starting line for EVERY ONE WITHOUT EXCEPTION!
Let me now enlarge this point by repeating the aforementioned truth that at the conversion = salvation of any such above described pitiful creature, as we all were in Your sight, only the spirit is renewed – reborn (Jn.3:6), and nothing else. Only the first stage of Your Salvation takes place in us. But what does this mean? This simply means that immediately after our being saved, we still remained dead, blind, deaf, corrupt throughout, sinful and foolish … a bundle of vanity taken from the road that leads to eternal damnation … BUT with the stamp and the seed of Eternal Life within!!! THAT is the ONLY difference between a pagan and a newly born Christian! And unless that Christian begins to grow in that new man and later on mature through that transformation process, he will never be different from a newly born one. That also means, he will never be much distinguishable from a pagan. Furthermore, such a Christian has the shortest possible way back, the easiest conditions to backslide onto the road that leads to eternal damnation.
How many of Your people are in this danger? Only You know, Lord. And how many grow and mature, how many are in the aforementioned second and third group? Only You know, Lord.
But this is it, only our growth and maturing of that new spiritual man in us determines in what group we are, on which road we walk, how living or how paralysed we are (at least in Your eyes), with whom we associate and with whom we do not associate. Is it not so, Lord?
Now I must blow a trumpet and issue a strong warning. Everything You are doing, Lord, can be, and indeed, is faked by the powers of darkness! Even the gifts of Your Spirit can be, and indeed, are faked! This is the power of their deception. What does it mean? It means that there may be numerous groups, fellowships, home cells, communities, gatherings … who consider themselves the most spiritual, in fact, “holier than thou”. They are the “pinnacles of Christianity”, or they are on the “cutting edge” of spiritual happenings, and many of them are glad they left those “poor and blind and unthankful and unappreciative sheep” in their former congregations, fellowships, home cells, communities.
But these are mostly the proud and rebellious individuals whose OWN ambitions were never realized in their respective former congregations, fellowships or communities. Whose OWN plans and dreams never came true, whose OWN problems were never solved, in fact, they grew larger, whose OWN hot zeal was never quenched. No wonder, Lord, that such are always the prime candidates to be caught in the net of any dubious sect or group or fellowship, by any dubious doctrine, no matter how unscriptural, no matter how idiotic!
This is by no means limited only to “pew-sitters”, there is no respect of persons when it comes to unfulfilled ambitions or dreams! How many pastors change flocks for their OWN reasons and not because Your Spirit leads them? Only You know, Lord.
There are also people in every congregation who may not have great ambitions, who may not be seeking recognition or position or glory, but are plainly frustrated by many things. They do not see any corrective actions taken against certain evils, they do not see any solutions to their various problems, the “atmosphere” may be changing into an unbearable one, the leadership may be so busy that one has to be on a death bed to get a pastoral visit, and so on.
These people may also elect to change from one to another congregation, fellowship, community, or simply stay home or join a group. They also are in great danger of falling into the wrong hands, embracing wrong doctrines, wrong practises. They are in danger of hardening their hearts against the truth which so far they may not have heard nor seen nor understood. A root of bitterness may spring up in their hearts that could choke any spiritual progress they may have made, and many shall be defiled (Heb.12:15). In such cases, it would be better for such individuals to stay, if at all possible.
(To be continued next week in part 2)
brother Hanola
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