Christian Living
Multitudes are catching wind of the concept that “The Church” is the
people and NOT the buildings or the Institution. While 80% of the
Christian world – those who are NOT English-speaking Westerners –
have embraced this concept, teaching their disciples, as John G. Lake
did, to “run and pray,” the majority of elitist Western Christians have
hunkered down in their sanctuaries and are making man in their own
image, teaching new converts to find a seat (long as it's not THEIRS),
carry a Bible, learn the songs, attend Sunday School, sing in the choir and,
if you’re a good man - and in some cases, a good woman – maybe someone
important will notice you and promote you to Deacon. A select few may
Teach Sunday School. Even fewer may become an Elder, that is, if you
endure long enough or make enough money. If you’re REALLY something
special, you’ll skip eldership and become a Pastor. Do that long enough
and you may become a Prophet, then an Apostle…then what?
God?
God is doing an old thing. Let me re-phrase that: for most of US, it’s
new. He’s motivating more and more Christians into BEING The Church,
not merely on Sunday’s and Wednesday nights, but all the time. Every-
where I look these days, I see this “Army of Ordinary People” involved
in doing the works of Jesus wherever they see a need. They are BEING
rather than merely GOING to Church. They're asking the question, “How
do we GO to something we ARE?”
You see, we are Human BE-ings, NOT human DO-ings. Whereas the
Institutional Church world exemplifies an hierarchical system of ladder-
climbers on a corporate Pyramid, Jesus modeled the system of an
INVERTED Pyramid with Himself at the bottom, setting an example
for all others to follow.
What’s happening? An a nutshell, Christians are turning from
Christianity to Christ, rejecting the systemization of The Church and,
instead, seeing themselves as a living, breathing entity; not a cyborg
but the beautiful Body of Christ following the leading of our beautiful,
Anointed Head.
Listen…if God Himself has taken up residence in your life, you can
hardly be thinking more of yourself than of Him. Anyone, of course,
who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the
Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you
who welcome Him, in whom He dwells—even though you still
experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life
on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-
present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life,
He'll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus, bringing you alive
to Himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as
surely as He did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With
His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!
The preceding paragraph was actually Romans 78:11 as written in
"The Message."
I like that version.
In Luke 4:18-19, we see where Jesus was reading about Himself from
the Book of Isaiah. He read: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has
sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are
oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
Christians are beginning to ask themselves, “If Jesus Himself was
anointed by the Lord, making Him The Anointed One, "The Christ," as
we say…if the Holy Spirit now abides in me… if I am REALLY the
Temple of the Holy Spirit, making me, literally, the Holy of Holies…
if I am REALLY a co-laborer with God…maybe, just MAYBE, I am
well able and equipped to do more than merely sit and listen! Maybe
“spectator Christianity” really CAN be a thing of my past! Maybe the
Book of Acts really IS still being written and God wants to include a
few paragraphs about the mighty exploits He’s doing in MY meager
life!”
Is that YOU?
Pastor…is that YOU?
Christianity is not a religion, yet that's what we've made it into. It's
our nature to do so. We really are a royal priesthood of believers.
We really are priests - yes, YOU - representing our people to God,
lifting up sacrifices of praise and making petitions on their behalf.
First Peter 2:5 reminds us, “you also, like living stones, are being built
into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” In verse 9, Peter adds, “…you
are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging
to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of
darkness into His wonderful light.”
Revelation 1:6 says, “To Him who loves us and has freed us from our
sins by His blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to
serve his God and Father…”
Chapter 5:, verse 10 declares, “You have made them to be a kingdom
and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."
See, Christians are FINALLY getting a hold of this stuff.
Hebrews 7:12 tells us that, “…when there is a change of the priesthood,
there must also be a change of the law.”
There HAS been a change! The shed blood of Christ at Calvary changed
EVERYTHING forever! Jesus became the bridge that gave us all access
to the Father. His bloody death set us FREE from the law of sin and death
and the legalistic tendencies of religious humanity. Millions are FINALLY
beginning to believe it. We’re beginning to get PAST the UNBIBLICAL
“Gospel of Salvation” mentality and are beginning to wrap our minds around
the excitement that comes with the Gospel of The Kingdom which Jesus and
His disciples preached. These five points are beginning to ring true with more
and more of us humanoids:
1) There is a King.
2) He has a Kingdom.
3) He wants us in it.
4) He will provide for His subjects.
5) He wants to work with US to make it bigger.
As I see it, we cannot GO to that which we are. The only place we
are GOING to is a wedding!
Yes, there’s GOING to be a wedding and the Groom’s Father wants
everybody in attendance.
So, let’s start inviting them!
Every blessing,
Michael Tummillo
a servant of God
www.YourTown4Jesus.com
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