The Church

Over time things start to get comfortable and normal.  People get set in their ways.  Everything gets familiar and relaxed.  What if that is happening in God’s church today.  I believe it is.  I come to this conclusion because I have been dwelling on the church and the purposes of its creation.  I really do not think the average church-goer understands why he’s in church.   Don’t feel guilty about an obligation or routine; just understand God’s heart and word.  

Church is not a building.  There are not churches scattered about the globe.  There is one church and it is THE Church and it is the body of Christ.  Every building called ‘church’ contains parts of the one church that God created for His purposes.  God didn’t create church so that parents could have free childcare for an hour or so every week.  It was not created so that single people could find their spouse.  It was not even created so that we could go feel better about ourselves each week.  These reasons sound silly when I think of what The Church actually is.  God’s Church is 24 hours a day every day of the week.  We all exist in a unified form that is tied together by our cornerstone, who is Jesus.  As the Church we are to worship, pray, love each other, study His word, evangelize the world, and have baptisms and communion together as one body.  Geographically we are all in it together for one purpose.  Jesus.  That’s it.  There is no other reason to be a part of The Church.

We come together in buildings because that is most convenient and efficient.  It’s once a week because we live seemingly busy lives.  The truth is this: Our agenda has become more important than God’s agenda.  Why aren’t we being taught that the most important aspect of our lives is our identity in Christ’s church?  This is not something to get comfortable about.  This is not something we as The Church should take lightly.  This is a mission and it’s real.  Let us understand God’s purpose for The Church and let Him have His way with us.

I’ve had some time to step back from college work for a short while this week.  I’ve been reading through Psalms and listening to sermons.  And how about the new ‘The Bible’ short series on the History Channel?  Pretty fun.  I love the Old Testament.  I love the stories.  I could read them over and over.  I get really invested in the characters.  [Confession: If God blesses me with children, they will all have such biblical names.]  Ya know it’s interesting; I find this fascination with the men and women in the Bible.  But I think it’s because they are not characters in a story.  They were real people in history.  Joshua is as real as Abraham Lincoln.  

I think, and correct me if I’m way off here, but could it be true that we are still in biblical times?  It is easy to look at the Bible stories and see ancient history that has no connection to today’s world.  However, when I read the Bible I see that ‘time’ is disrespected.  It’s definitely not true that time has no significance, but it seems that time has a different measure or purpose.  You see, the events I read about in scripture are a few thousand years ago.  So then in Genesis chapter 5 verse 5 I read “Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.”  Just like that 930 years is covered in one sentence.  So I ask: how far away from the life of Adam can we really be?

Sodom and Gomorrah.  Those people were super sinners.  I don’t know what you know, but I am pretty sure the US of A has some pretty wicked stuff going on inside it.  Possibly even worse than Sodom and Gomorrah.  They just happened to be around before Jesus and received immediate wrath.  We are currently storing up wrath.  This reminds me of childhood discipline.  I remember a time my brother and I got in trouble for disobeying an important rule.  We were given the options of an immediate paddle or a week of being grounded.  My brother chose the paddle and I chose the grounding.  He had a moment of pain and I had a week of suffering.  I even missed the fall festival for that year.  Look God’s wrath is God’s wrath and I’m not claiming that it is harsher now than thousands of years ago, but I do think there is still that element of fear and urgency that we are clearly missing today.  I don’t believe Revelation was a final story of the Bible.  A forecast of the final story to come perhaps, but the history of the church is still being written and we are the main characters God has chosen.

Outside Hillsong City Campus