JustJeff

There can be no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends, how much greater than to lay down one's life for an enemy? Such is the love of the Son, ordered by the Father and to embrace this is to learn God's love. This lesson, to be an enemy, still to be loved is the soul, the heart, the essence of our faith. Nothing that we can learn is of more importance than this. Our victory over the Adverary is complete and we are forgiven. It is made so by a love that will never die or fade away. When we were at our worst Jesus gave His all. Now that we are His, covered by His blood, the devil can have no part in us and we are always the Lord's and always forgiven. That is a "Blessed Assurance".

By perservering, going through the fire, we are purged of our old nature. By sticking to the word of God, prayer, fasting, praise, worship, works and more we are able to replace the old person's character with a Christlike character. As we become like Him, the clearer our hope of beholding the glory of the Father and eternity with Him becomes.

Abraham was justified by his faith in God. We, on the other hand, are justified by faith in Jesus, who presents us to God. In either case, our righteousness is of God. We are all guilty of the most heinous of crimes, sinners against God, most certainly condemned to eternal damnation. Through a faithful witness, or perhaps the prayers of righteous people, we meet Jesus at Calvary. It is there that we accept Him as Lord and Savior and it is then He brings our case before God. Because Jesus attests that we have proved our faith in Him it is then that the Father declares us redeemed, free of sin and shame. We are righteous, justified.

The bible study on Ephesians has prompted me to be a better member of the body. As an elder I feel the importance of stressing unity by encouraging everyone else to work as one. I can also say that I see myself more as another part and can work harder at keeping myself in my place that is, humbling my thoughts of me. It is now a prayer that as a church we recognize ourselves as a part of the whole, casting aside all thoughts of what other denominations agree or diagree with in terms of doctrine. The only way to defeat the enemy is together.

In every way the church is who we are, a body of believers as one, many members harmoniously operating to glorify God. As we treat our own person we are to do so to the church body. This activity will lead to a significant and meaningful relationship with one another and be well pleasing to the Lord. It will produce good fruit and flourish. The church represents Jesus' own body and when we hurt the church we are sinning against the Lord. We are bound to repent of all sin.

The church is made glorious by the Word which is the process of sanctification, rendering us acceptable to God. The present age is the time between the Lord's last visit and the visit forthcoming. The scriptures are always present tense.

The Word of God is what cleanses us by convicting us of our sin and leading to repentance, for those so willing. Preaching and teaching the unaltered Word will allow the Holy Spirit to do His work within the body. There is no need to try to scare people with threats of going to hell. God's Word will stand on His own merits and accomplish what He intends for it to do. Those who believe will receive.

The church, which is the people in the building, are sanctified in three ways. 1., by the blood of the Lamb, 2., by the Holy Spirit and 3., by the Word. Sanctified is to be set apart for God's purpose and we are made holy by Him as we cannot attain holiness on our own because of our sinful nature. Our job is to stay in and abide by the Word which allows the process to grow. By doing this we will avoid carnal or religous interpretations. It is the way to maturity and takes us through the stage of judgemental and legalistic battle.

Submission in this context is equated with humility. The church must be able to give itself over to the leadership that the Lord has put in place. By doing this the church is harmonious, working together as one. In this way we are a body ministry with Christ as the head. By submitting myself to Christ I am agreeing that He, by His Word, has rule over my life. An entire congregation that submits itself to Christ would be like the New Yoyrk Philharmonic Orchestra lead by a great maestro. Oh, the harmony! When Christ is the head the whole body is as He.

Constructing a healthy congregation means that we all work together to grow together in unity, to learn the same doctrine as one with the One. We are to mature together in love to perfect the ministry to edify the saints which will enable to fully exercise our gifts to the glory of the Lord. We are to become soul winners!

1 Peter 5:1-4 clearly talks about the behavior of the elders, pastors, teachers, etc. The message is that they are not to be stimulated to perform for money. They (we) are to walk as Christ walked when He did with the disciples as a perfect example as to how we should live our lives and sit at His feet for instuction. As elders, we are His conduit to the flock and we are to remember that at all times. By this we will successfully equip the saints for ministry.

Pastors and teachers are to work as a cohesive unit, as we all should, that they are on the same page. Pastors preaching should edify the body while the teachers convey understanding of what is being said. While there are those who may be called to preach or teach who are clergypersons those gifts should be nurtured but not given the leeway to do what is not their job. This causes divisons. If it be God's will they will develope a ministry of their own, whether it be an outreach or perhaps even succession. This applies to the next question as well as these are positions that could be filled by the wanna be's.

An evangelist looks like you or me, going about the community and being a witness for the Lord. This is sowing seeds that will lead to increasing church membership and building up the body of Christ.

Simply put, an apostle would be the glue that holds the various churches within his or hers jurisdiction together by ensuring that they are all on the same page concerning doctrine and adherence to it. Prophets are to relate divinely inspired messages to the church to edify it by speaking the Lord's intentions.

By God's grace He has delivered to every person spiritual gifts. Like sleeping seeds, they lie in wait to be activated so that their glory made be made manifest to all of mankind. When we wash ourselves in the Holy Spirit and fertilize our minds with the regenerating Word these seeds in us will soon flourish. If we are neligent not only do we deny ourselves the full blessing of grace but, we deny the body the benefit of each part working to glorify the Lord as we hinder everyone's growth.

The key word is one. To God we are all one and that is the approach we must take if we are to please Him, which is what we are here to do. The Spirit of God in us is the tie that binds. If we are in the Spirit there can be no discord, no acrimony or strife, period. God cannot deny Himself so if we are prdejudiced against another member of our church or another denomination we are carnal, not Spiritual. Because our ministry caters to the homeless we have visitors to our services from every denomination and religion. We have learned by the school of hard knocks that it is better not to offend with caustic criticism of one's faith as you can win more souls with sweet water rather than bitter. James chapter 3 talks about the use of our tongues which is totally appicable here. Besides, in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 we're told that we only know in part and will not get the whole story until we are with the Lord in glory. Whose to say that the part he gave me is supposed to agree with your part anyway?

One body, one Spirit, one Lord, one a faith, one baptism, one God and one Father = 7. The most compelling two are that God even cares about a wretch like me and that He is my heavenly Father which is too awesome for me to fully appreciate. I cannot give Him the love and care that He has given me which is humiliating and yet, draws me closer to Him.

By the Holy Spirit we are bonded together in unity. It doesn't just happen. We must keep our flesh under subjection and submit ourselves to the will of God by the Spirit. In order to know the perfect will of God we must study, study, study His Word. Only then can the Spirit remind us how to apply the Word to situations that we will encounter within the body. We can only stick together by the bond of peace (shalom is the more complete word for this) via the love of God, once again by the Spirit. Our ability to survive as Christians is only as strong as the body as a whole. I would suggest then that unity would be a primary goal.

To maintain unity we are required to be humble, gentle and patient which are integral to manifest God's love. To be humble is of the most importance and for me, the most difficult to obtain.

In order to maintain unity each member of the body must strive to walk as Christ walked. Because it is not possible to maintain a constant spiritual unity (we are all at different stages of growth) the elders should be a constant example to the younger. It is in unity that we experience "the fullness of the Godhead bodily" that is we are of one mind and one accord which is a prerequisite for the operation of the Holy Spiri in the church (see Acts 2:1-4). As we are called to walk as did the Lord we need to bear in mind that the only time He was alone was in His time of "closet prayer". Otherwise, He was always with the body of believers. There is nothing worthy of be a lone wolf.

The Spirit of God dwells in believers individually and corporately. When we assemble together in unity we become a spiritual household for God, His Temple. As a single unit or as a number of brothers and sisters we should recognize our duty to walk in the Spirit, especially in church, in order that we may receive the fullness of the Lord's glory.

The thing that impresses me about the apostles and prophets of old is that they were simple men, not well educated yet used by God in a mighty way. For our ministry and our congregation that is a very effective witness as we are the same. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. It is He who we are most interested in being like and pleasing. Our pastors recognize this and preach He alone. The more you learn of Jesus the more you grow in Him. As you grow the Holy Spirit continues the sanctification process which is how we are made holy. The entire congregation, or at least those who are serious about their walk, grows together into a holy temple, a body of believers with Jesus as the Chief Cornerstone.

As members of God's household we are clearly His family, His children and He is our heavenly Father. He is strong yet loving, firm but giving, powerful though merciful, wrathful and forgiving. He is Lord. In our congregation we are family. We should not be disjointed cliques but all in one as in Christ's body, perfectly joined with one head, that being Jesus. Those who do not regular attendees of their congregation are as a branch broken fron the tree, soon to wither and die.

By being born again and filled with the Holy Spirit we are members of God's family of Jewish believers and of His household, citizens of the Kingdom. In the same vain, we are sanctified by the Lamb, the Word and the Holy Spirit made holy and saints.

Access to the Father is the only way that we can have our prayers answered and it is by His Son, Jesus, that we can do this. He is the only way. He is our "ambassador", the One who keeps the lines of communication open between ourselves and the Father. This is as would be the ambassador between one country and another. We are ambassadors for Christ, between sinners and He. Matt 22:36-38 requires that we love God with our all and this we can only do by direct access. Similarly, we can return His great love to our neighbors by channeling the Holy Spirit which He gives, through our hearts to them.