2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
Our congregation just completed a three year search for a new Senior Pastor to replace our beloved one who is retiring. What a difficult task! However, MT 19: 26 reminds us that “with God all things are possible.” The call has been put out for Pastor Dean Nadasdy, and our prayers are needed for him in his all-important time of decision. I mention this because I can testify that I have seen first-hand the principles God teaches through Paul in RO 12 at work in this process, and that they actually produce the results promised. This matters tremendously to me and the others in our congregation, because it is the Senior Pastor who sets the tone for a congregation. Every member of our congregation was welcome to participate in this process all along. Those on the Transition Committee and in the leadership kept the congregation informed each step along the way. This was a refreshing change from our experiences in some of the congregations we have belonged to in our past. During such an experience, a congregation is very vulnerable to attack by the adversary. That is why it is so important to put RO 12’s principles into practice.
Romans is not the only place in the Scriptures where God reveals His will for congregations. Two places in 1 COR 1 have important messages for us. 1 COR 1: 10, “By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, I appeal to all of you, my brothers, to agree in what you say, so that there will be no divisions among you. Be completely united with only one thought and one purpose.” This is easier said than done. However, when the decision that a congregation must make is clear, its members keep in mind the purpose (unity and edification of the Body of Christ), and they practice the attitudes taught in RO 12, it can be done. It is only when we put our own individual human agendas ahead of God’s that dissension and political wrangling occur. Accurately understanding the Scriptures is an understanding that can only come through the Holy Spirit. Putting God’s teachings into practice is the only defense against the desires of the adversary to cause trouble. This is a reason why we need to study the Scriptures directly and have an active prayer life without human intermediaries putting their spin on them.
Further illumination on this point comes in 1 COR 1: 17, “Christ did not send me [Paul] to baptize. He sent me to tell the Good News, and to tell it without the language of human wisdom, in order to make sure that Christ’s death on the cross is not robbed of its power.” The last phrase of this citation is huge in its implications to us both individually and collectively. There are cults and religious groups that have based their whole philosophy on taking citations out of context and placing them in a man-made construct. This is the work of the devil. Too many souls are lost this way. It is a great tragedy. The bottom line comes in deciding whose agenda should be superior, God’s or man’s. Just as each individual must decide this in his life, each congregation must decide this in its. When we consider the enormity of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we can only begin to imagine God’s frustration when its power is wasted. The only way we could approximate an understanding of this would be if our only child was killed fighting a war our side lost. While our faith teaches us that the war between Christ and the devil will ultimately be won by Christ, there will still be many souls lost. Because our Lord is compassionate by nature, He will feel the pain of those losses. When our Lord sees a whole congregation being lost, it must be very painful to Him.
When we look at Christ’s relationship to the Father, we see in it a model to follow. The connection between these two persons of the Trinity is real and personal. There is nothing ephemeral about it; it is consistent and constant. Let me go back to David’s relationship with God first to demonstrate the nature of this. Then we will look at the one between Christ and the Father. PS 69:9, “My devotion to Your temple burns in me like a fire; the insults hurled at You fall on me.” Now look at RO 15: 1-3, “We who are strong in the faith ought to help the weak to carry their burdens. We should not please ourselves. Instead, we should all please our brothers for their own good, in order to build them up in the faith. For Christ did not please Himself. Instead, as the Scripture [PS 69: 9] says, ‘The insults which are hurled at You have fallen on Me.’ ” I have cited JN 14: 9 & 11 many times to show the unbreakable connection between the Father and the Son. That connection, that oneness, is the reason why an insult against the Father is also an insult against the Son. It is my profound belief that once a person is “in Christ” through his repentance and faith in the Son, then the same connection exists between him and the persons of the Trinity. When you put a group of people together who are truly “in Christ” into a congregation, then the same connection exists between that congregation and the Trinity. It is precisely this reason why we can look forward to the wedding feast of the Lamb, the marriage between Christ and His church [REV 19: 5-9]. Dear Ones, it is my fondest hope that we will all be there together for the biggest celebration that has ever happened!
RO 15: 4-6, “Everything written in the Scriptures was written to teach us, in order that we might have hope through the patience and encouragement which the Scriptures give us. And may God, the Source of patience and encouragement, enable you to have the same point of view among yourselves by following the example of Christ Jesus, so that all of you together may praise with one voice the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is a glorious picture of a healthy, dynamic congregation. It’s the kind of congregation in which I wish every one of us can be. Someone in the midst of a dysfunctional congregation or lacking in faith might read this and say, “oh, she’s living in a dream world. We all can’t be that lucky.” Well, please believe me, this is no fairy tale. Congregations like the ideal described here really do exist. We are called upon by our loving Abba to take the time to find them, join them, and nurture them by accurately following the teachings He has given us in the Scriptures. This search can be tedious and frustrating at times, but it is truly worth our time and trouble.
PRAYER: O Lord, we approach You in humility with the desire to know you through our experience obeying You. You have given us the ability to pray, the Scriptures to guide us, and the Holy Spirit to explain them to us. We need to accurately apply them to the conduct of our own lives individually and collectively as a part of a congregation. When we do this, we will put Your agenda, the unity and edification of the Body of Christ, first over our own human ones. We praise and thank You for giving us the hope of joining together with Christ at the wedding feast of the Lamb. Help us to have the endurance and courage of faith to weather the attempts of the adversary to thwart Your purpose. We dedicate ourselves to acting with the love Christ has for us toward each other in our congregations. In Christ’s name, amen.
Let me repeat how honored I feel to be equally yoked in the Body of Christ with you. We can bask together in the love our Father has for us and be encouraged together in our faith. Peter and I also send you our love.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn