WELCOME HOME

Our family has been doing a lot of travelling this summer. One long trip via airplane to visit family in another State. One long drive to see the Grand Canyon with my parents. One short drive up to the mountains to camp out with some friends.

I hate long trips.

Oh, I enjoy seeing family and hanging out with friends. I love getting away from work and winding down and taking a deep breath of fresh air. Really, I do. But I find that leaving home stresses me out. I get concerned about the trip itself; being safe, breaking down, getting stranded. I worry a little about the trip home; being safe, breaking down, getting stranded.

The best part of any trip, for me, is coming home. The idea of home is a beautiful thing. The word itself. The way it sounds in my mouth. The way it brings peace to my heart. I love going home.

I love sleeping in my own bed. I love the smell of my own pillow. I love the feel of those cool sheets. I love using my own bathroom, taking a shower in my own house. I love drinking coffee from my own cup.

I love seeing the familiar sights as we get nearer to home; the landmarks, the horizon, the street signs, the favorite restaurants.

Home is where the heart is, some say, and I believe it’s true.

Do you know where God calls home? In Isaiah 66, God makes a revealing statement:

“Thus saith the Lord, ‘The heavens are my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house you will build for me? And where will my resting place be?” (Isaiah 66:1)

You might be tempted to say that God lives in a temple, or a church, but that’s not so. As Paul explains:

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.” (Acts 17:24)

No, God does not live in any building. He lives within His people. We are His Temple. We are His Home.

“But Christ is faithful as the Son over God's house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.” (Hebrews 3:6)

“Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16)

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you..” (1 Cor. 6:19)

How wonderful is that? God could dwell anywhere, and yet His choice is your heart and mine. He longs for home and His home is with you.

 

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THOUGHTS ON THE OLD AND NEW COVENANT FROM LUKE

Over the Christmas season, our church family took some time to read and discuss the birth of Christ as reported in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew.

Early yesterday morning as I was barely coming out of the cobwebs the following thoughts bubbled up out of my subconscious:

Joseph represents an Old Covenant form of righteousness. Mary represents the New Covenant form.

Example: Joseph is called a righteous man and according to the letter of the Law, he seeks to “put her away privately” when he learns she is pregnant.

Mary is filled with true righteousness because she simply submits to the will of God and is filled with the Holy Spirit and with Christ Himself.

ALSO: Zechariah and Elizabeth are examples of the Old Temple and the New Temple.

Zechariah is a descendant of Levi and a member of the Levitical priesthood. He enters the old temple which is a shadow of the real and true temple of God. An Angel speaks to him and he does not believe or demonstrate faith.

Elizabeth is a descendant of Aaron and of the bloodline of the Aaronic priesthood. In the temple of her body the Elijah that was prophesied to come dwells, and is filled with the Holy Spirit while still in her womb. She and her unborn son both recognize the Messiah (the Son of God) without the need for a miracle or a sign of God to convince them. The promise of God is conceived and matures in the temple of her body and she is filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

Mary also represents the New Temple of God: She allows the Messiah to come alive inside of her and her life and His life become forever intertwined.


Thoughts? Comments?

I also think it's interesting that John the Baptist was in line to take his father's place as a priest in the Old Temple system, and yet he forsakes this and preaches repentance and baptizes people outside the city gates. This is also a sign of the New Covenant where God pours out His Spirit and Mercy on all flesh - young, old, men, women, and it all starts outside the Old Temple, where everyday people live and breathe.

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For the Love of Your Pastor

In today’s Christian landscape the senior pastor has become the single focus of ministry and church life. This one man is expected to perform every wedding and funeral, to baptize every new believer, to preside over every Lord’s Supper, to teach and train and admonish and counsel and encourage every single member of his flock. He’s also expected to oversee the finances, preach every Sunday morning and evening, and to guide the Church through whatever challenge might be facing them. In effect, the senior pastor is carrying the entire weight of his church on his shoulders. Some are lucky enough to have a staff supporting them, but even these associate pastors are overloaded with the burden of doing all the ministry for the youth, or the seniors, or the college students, or the young married couples, etc.

In my own spiritual life I’ve personally been very blessed by many dear men of God who had surrendered to full-time pastoral ministry. In fact, I’ve been one of those who served as a pastor myself. I honestly believe that most who enter the pastorate do so out of a genuine desire to follow Christ and to use their spiritual gifts to edify the rest of the Body of Christ.

But as we examine the statistics for pastors in American churches the results are frightening. According to Focus on the Family, Ministries Today, Charisma Magazine, TNT Ministries, and other respected groups:

* 1,500 pastors leave the ministry permanently each month in America.
* 4,000 new churches start each year in America.
* 7,000 churches close each year in America.
* 50% of pastors’ marriages end in divorce.
* 70% of pastors continually battle depression.
* 80% of pastors and 85% of their spouses feel discouraged in their roles.
* 95% of pastors do not regularly pray with their spouses.
* 70% of pastors do not have a close friend, confidant, or mentor.
* 50% of pastors are so discouraged they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way to make a living.


These statistics mirror what Moses felt like when he was struggling with leading nearly a million people after the exodus from Egypt. He cried out to the Lord saying,

“I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin." (Numbers 11:14-15)

In response, God calls Moses to choose seventy elders from among the people, on whom He will pour out His Spirit and empower for ministry to the people. After this Moses says,

“I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!" (Numbers 11:29)

This prophetic cry from Moses is repeated when the prophet Joel reveals that God’s plan is to do just that:

“I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” (Joel 2:28-29)

When was this promise completed? In the book of Acts, at the feast of Pentecost God did exactly this.

Jesus was the fulfillment of the shadow found in the Old Covenant priesthood. He is now our only High Priest.

Jesus was the fulfillment of the shadow of the sacrificial lamb who takes away our sins. We no longer require a levitical priesthood to offer sacrifices.

Jesus was the fulfillment of the shadow of the temple. “One greater than the temple has come,” Jesus said in Matthew 12:6. At his crucifixion, God tore the veil in the temple in two, from top to bottom to signify the end of that old covenant temple system – the priests, the animal sacrifice, the temple itself are all now superfluous and unnecessary.

Why did Jesus do all of this? So that you and I could become the living sacrifice (Romans 12). So that we could become the priesthood of believers (1 Peter 2:4-10). So that you and I could become the new, living temple of the Holy Spirit.

“It was never in the mind of God that a privileged priesthood of sinful, imperfect men would attempt, following the death and triumphant resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, to repair the veil and continue their office of mediation between God and man. The letter to the Hebrews makes that fact very plain. When Jesus rose from the dead, the Levitical priesthood, which had served Israel under the Old Covenant, became redundant.” – A. W.Tozer

Actually, it was never God’s plan to have His New Covenant Church operate like a Levitical priesthood. Jesus commanded His disciples not to emulate the top-down organizational structures of either the Jewish religion (Matt 23:8-12), or of the Pagan authorities (Mark 10:42-45). Instead, He urged them to treat one another as brothers and as equals.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, outlines God’s plan for the Church to operate as a Body. In this New Testament model, Jesus is the only one in control and the people within the Church are empowered – each and every one of them – by the Holy Spirit to minister to one another.

“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” (1 Cor 12:7)

Notice how each of these various gifts are distributed to the Body, by the Holy
Spirit for a single purpose: “for the common good.” God does this so that everyone in the Body is necessary and so that everyone contributes and shares the burden of ministry.

“All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” (1 Cor 12:11)

Notice how it doesn’t say, “..he gives them to ONE PERSON” but that these gifts are given to “each one” of the members within the Body.

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.” (1 Cor 12:12)

Notice how the body is a reflection of Christ himself if we operate as a unit made up of many parts all working together under the headship of Christ. The implication is that if we do not function as God designed, we are not reflecting Christ to the world.

“For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Cor 12:13)

Notice how throughout 1 Corinthians chapter 12 the emphasis is not on one particular member but on the entire Body itself. This is especially significant when you consider that this church in Corinth was probably one of the most troubled and morally challenged churches in early Christian history. Even so, Paul never abandons the shared body ministry in order to correct these errors. He never commands their elders to take control and whip people into shape. He never addresses the senior pastor at all in this letter, or any other letter. Why? Because there wasn’t one.

The overwhelming evidence throughout the New Testament is that every baptized believer in Christ was automatically ordained by the Holy Spirit into the ministry of Jesus. There was no separation between clergy and laity.

Were there some within the Body who were gifted to teach and to encourage and to lead? Yes, of course. But the entire life of the Church did not revolve around these few. Instead, every single believer was empowered to contribute and to speak and to use their gifting as the Holy Spirit directed.

According to the New Testament, when the Church actually becomes a real Body, and when Jesus is really the only Shepherd, the entire Body will be healthy and operate as God actually intended all along.

How can we continually refer to ourselves as “The Body of Christ” if we do not actually engage in the organic form of shared life as described in 1 Corinthians 12?

If you really love your pastors, the best thing you can do for them is to encourage them to stop trying to carry all of the weight of the entire Body on their own shoulders. Pray that the Church will return to a New Testament model as God originally intended. Pray that we would affirm with Peter that God has indeed answered the prayer of Moses and the promise in Joel to pour out His Spirit on all flesh so that every member of the Body of Christ can serve and love one another in love.

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HEARING THE VOICE OF JESUS

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples that he is the good shepherd and that his sheep hear his voice and follow him, (ch. 10, v.1-27). In addition, he also says that they will not listen to others because they have discernment to recognize his voice and obey his teachings.

He also affirms, at the end of his ministry, that the Holy Spirit would come and speak to us and teach us.

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” John 16: 13-14

In the book of Acts, at the birth of the Church on the day of Pentecost, Peter affirms that the pouring out of the Spirit which Jesus promised was also a fulfillment of the prophecy in Joel which said,

“'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.” – Acts 2:17-18

From that day forward, the followers of Jesus became empowered to preach the Gospel, baptize new believers, plant churches, and share communion with other believers. Everyone who was in Christ was automatically ordained into the ministry of Jesus Christ, and every follower of Jesus was “...being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." – 1 Peter 2:5

Throughout the New Testament, Paul and the other disciples affirm this ongoing dialog between Jesus and His people.

“As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.” – 1 John 2:27

Paul says, "I myself am convinced, my brethren, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another." - Romans 15:14

"For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged". - 1 Corinthians 14:31

What I find fascinating is that, according to Jesus and the Apostles, every believer is capable of hearing the voice of God, and yet, in today’s modern church we typically find that only one, or perhaps a few, are expected to hear God’s voice and communicate His will to the Body.

Why is that?

Partly because we have created a false Clergy/Laity divide which falsely teaches (or at least models) the idea that only those who have attended seminary and/or graduated from Bible College are capable of hearing God’s voice or instructing the Body.

As one New Testament scholar, Howard Snyder, put it:

"The clergy-laity dichotomy is…a throwback to the Old Testament priesthood. It is one of the principal obstacles to the church effectively being God’s agent of the kingdom today because it creates a false idea that only ‘holy men,’ namely, ordained ministers, are really qualified and responsible for leadership and significant ministry. In the New Testament there are functional distinctions between various kinds of ministries but no hierarchical division between clergy and laity. The New Testament teaches us that the church is a community in which all are gifted and all have ministry.”

Essentially, in spite of the fact that the veil in the temple was torn in two “at that moment” when Christ said “It is finished” we have virtually re-sewn the veil and re-instituted our own levitical priesthood system.

Like the people of Israel in the days of King Saul, we want “a king like all the other nations have” – someone to rule over us and mediate for us. Like them, we have rejected God as our King and our Lord and have elected representatives who will listen to His voice in our stead.

Clearly, the New Testament reveals that Jesus, by His blood, purchased for us the right to become “a kingdom of priests to serve God” (Revelations 1:6) and also in chapter 5:

"You (Jesus) are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." - Revelations 5:9-10

Numerous New Testament scholars affirm that this man-made Clergy/Laity distinction came much later in the historical church and created a false hierarchy within.

“This (clergy/laity) structure does not correspond to what Jesus did and taught. Consequently it has not had a good effect in the history of the Church ...Among his disciples Jesus did not want any distinction of class or rank...In contradiction to this instruction of Jesus, a “hierarchy,” a “sacred authority,” was nevertheless formed in the third century - Herbert Haag, Upstairs, Downstairs: Did Jesus Want a Two-Class Church?, Crossroad, 1997, p.109.

"Our survey has shown us that no cultic priesthood is to be found in the New Testament. Yet we wound up importing Old Testament Levitical forms and imposing them on Christian ministry . . . Nevertheless in practice there is no denying that there has historically been a gathering into one person and his office what were formerly the gifts of many . . .[This practice] goes astray, of course, when it translates to mean that only ordination gives competence, authority, and the right of professional governance. It goes further astray when eventually all jurisdictional and administrative powers in the church come to be seen as an extension of the sacramental powers conferred at ordination. In short, there is a movement here away from the more pristine collaborative and mutual ministries of the New Testament." - William Bausch, from his book "Traditions, Tensions, Transitions in Ministry", Twenty-Third Publications, 1982, pp. 54, 30.

In spite of these man-made aberrations to God’s original intent for His New Testament Church, it’s still possible for us as the people of God to hear His voice today. Jesus promised that we, His sheep, were capable of hearing His voice. He promised to send His Holy Spirit to fill us and to reveal all truth to us, and we know that He did that – both at Pentecost and when we personally received Christ as our Lord and Savior.

So, what’s stopping us today from hearing God’s voice? Clearly, only our own lack of desire to draw near to Him and to listen. Of course, what’s also stopping us is the dominant Clergy/Laity system which forbids those designated as “laity” from sharing what we hear with our brothers and sisters. The life and ministry of the Body to “one another” is strangled by this man-made, unbiblical system.

Still, if there’s one thing I am convinced of, it is this: God is fully capable of speaking His will to His people. He has promised us that we – directly – can hear His voice without the need for any mediator between God and us. We can hear God. He can speak to us and we can know His voice.

May we draw near to listen to Him, and may His Bride make room for His voice to be spoken as He intended: Through the distribution of the Gifts of the Spirit, for the common good. (1 Cor 12).

If we are acquainted individually with the idea of submitting ourselves daily to Christ as Lord and Savior, let us carry that into our gatherings together and submit together to Him as our Head, our Lord and let Him lead our meeting and speak to us as we wait on Him.

If we truly believe that Christ is made manifest in our presence at the Lord’s table, and if we seriously believe that Christ is alive in each of us, then let us demonstrate this by acting as we would if Jesus were among us in the flesh. Let us keep silent and let Him speak and lead His people.

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TO PREPARE A PLACE

And Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3)

Jesus promised that he would go and prepare a place for us to be with himself.

He promised to send us the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth.

The Holy Spirit at Pentecost came and inaugurated the birth of the Church, which is the Body of Christ.

God poured out His Spirit on all flesh - men and women and children - on that day.

Jesus fulfilled the daily sacrifice in Himself as the Lamb of God.

Jesus fulfilled the Holy Priesthood when He became our High Priest.

At the moment of His death on the cross God the Father ripped the veil in the Temple from top to bottom.

Why?

To signify that an end to this old form of worship was fulfilled and had come to an end.

The Temple of God is now composed of living stones.

The Priesthood of God is now expanded to include every single believer in Jesus as the Messiah.

The blood sacrifice is no longer necessary. Bulls and sheep and doves are no longer laid on the altar. Instead, every single follower of Jesus is a living sacrifice to God.

Where is the place that God will prepare for us?

In Revelation 21:9-10 we see the Bride of Christ coming down out of Heaven like a city. This city is the Bride. In verse 21 it says, "I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple."

Within this city there is no Temple. Why? Because Jesus is our Temple. Yet, we are called the Temple of God where Jesus dwells.

"Behold, this is a profound mystery," Paul says in Ephesians. "I am speaking of Christ and the Church," he says when referring to how a man and woman will become one flesh.

In 2 Samuel God promises to send a Messiah from David's seed who will build a house for David, and establish a Kingdom which will have no end.

Instead of allowing David to build a Temple for God, God promises to build a Temple for David.

Yet, when Jesus came to this earth in fulfillment of this prophecy there already was a Temple in Jerusalem.

Standing in that Temple, after clearing it of the money changers, Jesus said, "Destroy this Temple and I will raise it again in three days". We know that he was speaking of the Temple of His Body.

We are His Body.

His Body. His Temple. A House for Himself. A House for us where we will be with Him.

What Jesus is building is His Church. A Bride for Himself. A Temple for God. A House for us to dwell with Him forever.

The Church, the Body, the Bride, is the promise of God fulfilled, and in process.

We are the place He is preparing for us to dwell with Him forever. He will purify His Bride until we, the living Temple, are presented holy and unblemished. Then, He will dwell within us, and we will dwell within Him.

What if the "many rooms" Jesus speaks of are the individual members of the Body? What if we are the rooms where Jesus dwells, and where we dwell within Him?

If we are the Body of Christ, and the Temple of God, and the Bride of Christ, then imagine how important it must be that we love one another.

Love is what holds us to Him, and it is what holds us to one another.

There is only one Bride. There is only one Temple of God. There is only one Body.

Let the Temple of God be built as we love one another and hold fast to Jesus, our Lord.

"As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 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." - 1 Peter 2:4-5

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." - John 15:9-12

My Fellow Athenians

I was reading Acts 17 the other day and was impressed by a few things I found.

As a backstory to the passage, Paul was in Athens and noticed all the idols around the city. He noticed that they even had an idol to the "Unknown God" and took the opportunity to reveal His identity to them, saying, "Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you." (v.23)

Paul's message to them is fascinating to me, mainly because of the details he chooses to reveal to them about this "Unknown God". He could have taught them about sin and redemption. He could have talked about grace and works. He could have preached about the Law of Moses. Instead, notice what Paul thought was most important to communicate here.

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands." (v.24)

Paul begins his message by affirming one of the central truths of Christianity - That God does not live in a temple made by human hands. If this is so central to our faith, then why do we put such an emphasis - and expend such obscene amounts of money - on building temples to our God?

The second point that impresses me is that Paul takes the time to stress that God has a purpose and a place for each one of us: "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live." (v.26)

Do you realize that God put you where you live today? God has a purpose for "the exact places where (you)...live" and that means that He had a reason for doing this. Your neighbors are your mission field. Your co-workers are your assignment. God has strategically placed each of us where we are today for the purpose of proclaiming - and living out - the power of the Gospel to those around us. "God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." (v.27)

I also love Paul's poetic, inspired statement in verse 28: 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

Finally, I am amazed that Paul hangs every single statement he makes on one, single fact: The proof of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. "He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." (v.31)

Do you see what a high level of confidence Paul has in the resurrection of Christ? He does not shy away from this, in fact, he is so sure of this fact that he appeals to this as a basis for everything he has said to them. If the resurrection is not true, then neither is anything else he has said.

I'm sad to admit that, sometimes, I am in need of being reminded just how solid the proof of Christ's resurrection really is. Once a year we may hear a sermon on the evidence for the resurrection, but the rest of the year we barely talk about it or meditate on the astounding reality of it all.

As I read this passage I realize that there are many Christians in America who need to hear this same message from Paul. God does not live in a temple made by human hands. He lives by His Spirit within each and every one of us. He has placed each of us as His ambassadors exactly where we live and work for His purposes. He is always at work in the world around us. In fact, God is everywhere. Every moment is sacred. Every location is full of His presence. And, best of all, we can have confidence in knowing that Jesus Christ is alive and well today. We are the ones who can boldly proclaim that "He is risen! He is risen indeed!"


Amen!

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A PROFOUND MYSTERY

When you consider that the Bible as we know it today was written over a period of thousands of years, by wide variety of authors, and assembled as a single document nearly two thousand years ago, it's fairly miraculous that the first three chapters of the Bible correspond so symmetrically with the last three chapters of the Bible.

In the first three chapters of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, we see a series of events that are mirrored in the last three chapters of Revelation.

First, we see the creation of heaven and earth. At the end of Revelation we see a new creation.

In the first three chapters we see Satan ensnaring mankind and in the last three we see Satan cast down and doomed forever.

In the first three chapters we see a garden, and in the last three chapters we see a garden city. Both gardens include the tree of life.

In the first three chapters we have a curse given to man for his sins, and in the last three chapters the curse if forever removed.

In the first three chapters God visits the garden once per day, and in the last three chapters God is at home with man forever.

In the first three chapters man and woman are cast out, but in the last three chapters they are welcomed in.

In the first three chapters a bride is created from out of Adam’s side, and in the last three chapters a Bride is ushered in for the Son of God and a wedding feast is celebrated.

In the first three chapters we have the beginning of Time, and in the last three we have the beginning of Eternity.

DEEPER THINGS
The Scriptures reveal the Church to be the Bride of the Lamb. It is one of the most common metaphors used by God to describe His people throughout the Bible. However, as I began tracing these threads between Genesis and Revelation I noticed even more about what Paul the Apostle refers to as "a profound mystery".

In Ephesians 5:25-33, Paul uses the metaphor of marriage to teach us something astounding about Jesus and about our identity as the Bride of Christ. I've edited the text to highlight the main thoughts:

"...just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." – Eph 5:25-27

"'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church." – Eph 5:31-32

Because this passage is so often used to counsel men and women in regards to the marriage relationship, I have removed those references so that we can see what Paul says he is actually talking about: "Christ and the church".

First, Paul tells us how Christ has given himself up for us (the Bride) and how he cleanses and washes us through the word of God so that we might be ready for our wedding day. Paul also quotes from Genesis chapter 2 in this passage and this reminds us of how God put Adam to sleep and made a woman for him because "God saw that it was not good for man to be alone". Notice it was God's idea, not Adam's, for man to have a wife. Somehow this reference points to God's plan for the Church. As Paul reminds us - "For this reason" the man is to "leave his father and mother and be united with his wife and the two will become one flesh". This is where Paul pauses and remarks that "this is a profound mystery". Why? Because he is not talking about Adam and Eve now. He's not talking about Christian marriage between a man and a woman. No, he is talking about Jesus and the Church "becoming one flesh".

THE MYSTERY OF THE BRIDE
We know from God’s word that we (the Church) are the Bride of Christ (Eph 5:22-33). But in Revelation we learn that the Bride is also a City:

"One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, 'Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.' And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God." – Rev 21:9-10

We are the Bride, and the Bride is a City.

THE MYSTERY OF THE TEMPLE
We also know that we are the Temple of God (Eph 2:21), but in Revelation we discover that it is Christ who is the Temple in us:

"The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." – Rev 21:21-22

So, we are the Temple where God dwells within, but we are also the Bride which is a city and in that city is a Temple which is the Lord Himself.

ONE IN CHRIST JESUS
Want to see how this is played out in the rest of the Scriptures? In the Gospel of John, beyond the prayer of Jesus to the Father that we (the Bride) would be one even as Jesus and the Father are one, Christ also prays:

"Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." – John 17:21-23.

In Ephesians 2:21 we are told that we are the Temple of God, as we have already seen, but look at what this passage actually communicates. Try to guess where God ends and we begin here:

"In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." – Eph 2:21-22

Here we see that we (the Church/Bride/Body/Temple) are being built to become a dwelling in which God lives, and yet the Temple is being built "in him". So, we are being built in Christ to become a Temple where God will dwell by His Spirit. Who is on the inside? Who is dwelling where? We are in Christ, and we contain God's Spirit all at the same time.

THE MYSTERY OF THE BODY
In 1 Corinthians 12, and in Ephesians 4:15, Paul gives us another wonderful illustration of how the Body is to function. He refers to the Church as the Body of Christ and explains that we are dependent upon one another for life, and yet that Christ is our Head and without Him we can do nothing (see also John 15:5). Here we have a wonderful picture of the unity which Jesus prayed we would have (John 17:21-23) and a fulfillment of the picture that we are "one flesh" (Genesis 2:24, Eph 2:21), with Christ since we are His Body and He is our head.

As I look at who we are in Christ, (His Body, Temple and Bride), and as I see God's sovereign plan from the beginning (to find a Bride for His Son, and a Temple for His presence), and as I hear the prayer of Jesus that we be in Him and that we be one even as He and the Father are one, I cannot help but feel an urgency to tear down our man-made divisions and embrace our identity as members of one Body, with one Head.

THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY OF GOD
This mystery is quite profound. One worthy of our awe. It is not my goal to explain or understand this mystery. One dear brother I shared this with recently said to me, "Let it continue to be a mystery in your heart" and that is my intention. This is a profound mystery and what we must contemplate is not how to make sense of it, but instead how to live out our part of it. How can we be one in Christ? How can we make Christ the head of our Body? How can we be the Temple of the Living God? How can we make ourselves ready for that glorious wedding day to come?

THE END IS THE BEGINNING
The last thing I see as I look at the symmetry between Genesis and Revelation is that all of History ends with a wedding. All that we have known, and all that we now experience is only the courtship. This is just the engagement phase of our life with Christ. One day we will become the Bride of Christ and be one with Him. Yet, a wedding is not the end of life, it is only the very beginning. God's Word ends with a beginning.

This is a very profound mystery, indeed.

**
kg

RESPONSE TO THE ACCIDENTAL ANGLICAN

Todd Hunter has been a mentor to me for several years now. I have known him for over ten years and I love and respect him and consider him to be a wise and sincere brother in Christ. My own personal epiphany concerning the Gospel of the Kingdom was the direct result of a series of phone interviews I did with Todd for an article I was writing for Relevant Magazine a few years ago. (These interviews are both on my main blog). Since that time he has encouraged me, and provided practical wisdom for me during times when I needed guidance or advice about matters of faith.

Todd was recently interviewed by Christianity Today Magazine regarding his newest spiritual adventure as a Bishop in the Anglican Church. Todd Hunter is someone who started out in Calvary Chapel, and who played an instrumental role in the formation of the Vineyard movement, and who left that expression to coach church-planters in the Emerging Church. For many who have called Todd their mentor, like myself, this new step Todd is taking towards liturgical, traditional church is a confounding one. I don’t think I can express that in terms that are strong enough to convey the real impact on people who have, like me, looked to Todd as a spiritual leader for all these years.

This article does a good job of addressing the question and Todd’s answers are clear, but there’s still a very real disconnect for why Todd would choose to abandon the more organic expressions of faith he's participated in previously for the Anglican tradition.

On some levels it’s really none of our business. Todd can do whatever he wants and, clearly, he feels a genuine calling from God to become an Anglican Bishop and plant liturgical churches in America. Just because I may not agree with him, or understand the logic, doesn’t mean that God isn’t actually compelling Todd to move in this direction. If we look at the Scriptures we can see numerous times when God asks men and women to do things that make absolutely no sense to those around them. I can relate to that as someone who felt called to leave the traditional church and plant a house church where 100% of the money would go to help the poor in our community. There were many who didn’t understand (and still don’t) and who openly opposed me, dared me to do it (and fail), and branded me a heretic for my actions and for my stand against hierarchy in the church. What matters is, “Is God calling?” and “Will you obey?” and in Todd’s case it’s all between him and the Lord. I for one am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

EQUAL TIME
Still, reading this article I cannot help but feel compelled to interject some thoughts into what Todd says about the liturgy and about the Emerging movement (of whom I am not a participant, although I am often lumped into this group due to the fact that I do not embrace traditional church practice).

As you read my responses to these quotes, please understand I do not intend these as criticisms of Todd Hunter, whom I love as a brother in the Lord. My responses here are meant to provide a counter-point of sorts to some of the things that are said, if for no other reason than to attempt something like “equal time” for those who find themselves on the outside of traditional church and have made a conscious decision to step away from any denominational identity or division in favor of following Christ alone. To quote Lance Lambert, “I could no longer be a Baptist. I could only be a Christian. Anyone who follows Christ is a member of me and I am a member of him because there is only one Body and one Family of God.”

TWO BIG PROBLEMS
In the interview, Todd Hunter mentions “two big problems” with the Emerging movement. (I have my own problems with the movement but we’ll discuss those at another time). Todd’s problems with the Emerging movement are:

“First, the emergents are so sensitive to issues of community, relationship, egalitarianism, and being non-utilitarian in their relationships, that evangelism has simply become a synonym for manipulation—a foul ball, relationally. If you and I were work colleagues and I built a relationship in which I could influence your journey toward Christ, that would be considered wrong in these circles. I cannot be friends with you if I intend to lead you to Christ. “

As Todd points out, the Emerging Movement isn’t something you can “broad-brush”. It’s much too slippery to get a handle on enough to make any real, substantial criticisms, (which is one of my problems with it, but I digress).

In Todd’s response I would tend to agree, as he states it, but I would also agree with those who feel it’s manipulative to make friends for the purpose of evangelism. I guess I would amend Todd’s statement to say, “I cannot be friends with you only because I intend to lead you to Christ.” It’s the recruitment motive that bothers me, and I think a few others, when it comes to targeting people as conquests rather than learning to love people no matter what their faith, or whether or not they eventually become followers of Jesus. I think what has to be intentional is our love of others, not evangelism itself. I believe in intentionally loving someone and praying for God to reveal Himself to them, but I do not believe in intentionally targeting someone simply to convert them to my faith.

One helpful question I believe we should ask is, “Am I willing to be someone’s friend for the rest of my life, even if they never convert to my faith?” If at any point in the relationship I would abandon the friendship and move on to a better prospect then, I believe, we’re not really fulfilling the Lord’s command to love others. Love isn’t conditional. It should remain and be sustained regardless of whether or not it is reciprocated. Love should continue apart from agreement on matters of faith.

Todd’s second problem is the one I take the most issue with.

“Second, after 10 or 12 years of the emerging church, you have to ask where anything has been built. Evangelism has been so muted and the normal building of structures and processes hasn't moved forward because there's no positive, godly imagination for doing either evangelism or leadership.”

Where do I even begin to respond to this? Perhaps I am misunderstanding him. I don't think I am but if so, I look forward to apologizing later. However, as I read this it seems that Todd’s second problem with the Emerging faith isn’t based on their lack of spiritual fruit. He doesn’t say that, “…after 10 or 12 years of the emerging church you have to ask where the fruit is.” Instead, he has a problem with them for not building structures. He says, “…the normal building of structures and processes hasn’t moved forward because there’s no positive, godly imagination for doing either evangelism or leadership.”

Really? What we should expect to see from a healthy understanding of evangelism and leadership is an $11 million dollar church building? Not followers of Jesus who make disciples of others? Not a deeper love for Christ? Not the fruit of the Spirit but….”the normal building of structures and processes.”

The Church in America spends billions of dollars on itself every year. Mainly on the building of structures and the financial support of leaders. I would hardly call that “Church for the sake of others” as Todd often refers to it. That seems like Church for the sake of itself, to me.

I want to ask, “Can the Church be the Church, in all of its’ original Spirit-filled DNA of love for others and mission to the least, without buildings, or paid clergy?” I believe that if we look to the first 300 years of Christian history we will see that the answer is a resounding, “Yes!” In fact, the Church in most of the world today is more vibrant and missional and evangelistic than anything we see here in the West without any “normal building of structures and processes.”

If anything, I would question the use of the word “normal” in Todd’s response. What is normal? Shouldn’t the definition of normative Christian practice come from the New Testament? Why should the definition of “normal” come from our man-made human traditions? Isn’t that part of what Jesus was critical of the Pharisees about? (Matt 15:3-9)

I’ve already written at length about how the New Testament expression of Church differs from our man-made traditions. Simply put, the Old Testament prophesies that the Messiah would build the Temple of the Lord. (Zechariah 6, 2 Sam 7, etc.) When Jesus came there was already a Temple in Jerusalem. So, what did he build? In fact, Jesus went to the Temple in Jerusalem and prophesied that it would be destroyed (and it was) and that he would build it up again (speaking of the temple of his body). This was fulfilled at the cross when Jesus laid down his life for us and then resurrected from the dead. However, it was also fulfilled when his Body (the Church) was built into a house of living stones and a new temple of God was formed-(Eph 2:20, Heb 3:5, 1 Cor 3:16, etc.).

In the New Testament expression of faith, the new Temple is the Body of Christ, the Church. We are the only building God is interested in building. We are the new priesthood. We are the fulfillment of the prophecy in Joel that God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh (men and women, Jew and Gentile, Slave and Free). We are now the place where the Glory and Presence of the Living God dwells. Not in a house of stone built by men, but in a house of flesh filled with the Holy Spirit of the Living God. We are the fulfillment of the promise that one day no one will ever seek for the Ark of the Covenant, because it is now only an empty box.

“And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more" - Jeremiah 3:16

Why is the Ark no longer remembered or visited? Because the presence of Almighty God now resides in each and every one of us.

Why was the veil torn in two at the moment Christ said, "It is finished"? Wasn't it to seal the end of one expression (a physical temple and singular expression of God's presence) and the beginning of a new one (a living temple of human followers with an exponential expression of God's presence in each one of them)?

Why do we continually go back and repair the veil in the Temple?
The Church is not a building and we do not need a building to be the Church.
I believe it’s one of the most powerful and liberating truths of the Gospel of Christ, that you and I are the Temple of God and that there is no longer any need for any man-made temple to be built.

ON LEADERSHIP AND PRIESTHOOD
Of course, my disagreement with Todd’s theology also extends to a difference of opinion when it comes to leadership and clergy. Again, I probably don’t need to repeat my arguments here, but in essence the early church had no clergy class of Christian. Every baptized believer in Christ was empowered, authorized and expected to baptize new believers, share communion, preach the Gospel, and actively participate in the function of the Body. The first letter of Paul to the church in Corinth is pretty clear on the fact that there are many gifts which are given by the one Spirit to the Body for the building up of the Church. He does not say that there are many gifts given to one man for the healthy function of the Body (which is what we have in our traditional church today).

So, I find a few things to disagree with in this article, although I still love and support Todd Hunter and I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that God has indeed called him to pursue this new direction.

I AGREE WITH TODD
What I agree with Todd about is that people today are looking for a faith to practice, not so much a religion to join or a church to belong to. Of course, not everyone feels this tug towards faith in practice, but I do see a large, and growing number of Christians gravitating towards the practice of authentic Christianity in their actual lives. As much as Todd fans that desire into flame I am with him and I support that activity.

I also agree with Todd on the concept of faith in Christ as the starting line and not the finish line. There is a very real need to change our culture in America away from salvation as a goal and towards salvation as the beginning of a life lived under Christ as Lord. For that I am with him as well and I applaud his efforts to change the way we think of evangelism, discipleship and the Gospel of the Kingdom.

I understand that Todd wants to use liturgy as a tool to help Christians understand how to live out their faith and practice following Jesus, however I think it’s better to allow them to understand their place as members of the priesthood of all believers rather than to be the one leader who does all the teaching, leading and modeling for them. At some point you have to allow the people to wear the vestments of a servant to one another – and even to you – in order to facilitate true discipleship and complete the circle of fellowship in the Body.

In the interview, Todd describes how he uses the liturgy as a tool to teach his church how to love and forgive- and this is helpful. (I think I was actually present the first time he did this). However, if you really want people to learn to love and relate to one another in the Body, I suggest that it’s better if everything they do is shared and relational, not just this one blip on the program where everyone says, “It’s time to be relational now”.

I also agree with Todd about the value of practical apologetics (our actual lives of faith in submission to Christ) versus verbal apologetics (engaging in debates with non-believers about who is more right or wrong). This is also something I can see we, as a Church, need to embrace more often. How we live our lives is very important. We are the “Proof of Concept” for the validity of our message. If we say, “Jesus loves you” but we’re not loving people ourselves, we make our message false. If we say, “Jesus can transform your life” but we ourselves are not any different from the world around us, we give people reason to doubt the validity of the Gospel.

I would also add that we cannot say to one another, “You are the Temple of the Holy Spirit” and then place so much emphasis on buildings and structures. We cannot say, “You are a member of the priesthood of believers” and then tell people they need a professional priest or clergy to embody all of the various gifts outlined in 1Corinthians 12. We cannot say, “Go into all the world and make disciples of all creatures, teaching them to obey all that (Jesus) has commanded” and then tell people to coerce their unsaved friends to come to us so that the Pastor can make a convert out of them. We cannot say, “Jesus is the head over all the Church” and then say, “Submit to the authority of your Pastor” when the New Testament tells all of us to submit to one another out of love and that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all Truth.

CONCLUSION
This article was sent to me by someone who has looked to Todd for spiritual direction, like me, for many years. He has also expressed confusion over these new developments in Todd’s life. My response to him was that I have ceased looking to men for spiritual wisdom or guidance and I have begun to seek the wisdom of Jesus and to re-discover the New Testament.

I am still blessed and inspired and encouraged by many brothers and sisters in the faith, including Todd Hunter, but these days I’ve begun to understand that God really is capable of revealing His will to me, and to His Body, apart from special, holy men. God is powerful enough to guide us Himself, and I am very interested in being part of a Church that embraces Him as the Head, and the actual leader.

-kg

Why I Will Not Attend A National House Church Conference

Even though I've been involved in the House Church movement, and have been hosting a church in my home for over three and a half years now, I have never attended any of the various National House Church conferences. Nor do I have any desire to do so.

Why?

Because they all deny the very things we say we hold most dear. They are celebrity-driven gatherings where we sit in rows and listen for hours as our own brand of "Special Clergy" dispense information while all of us sit quietly and listen.

What sort of House Church conference might I be interested in attending? Maybe one like this:

*Shared meals.
*Emphasis on gathering with other brothers and sisters who are also doing house church around the nation.
*Emphasis on the ministry of the Body to the Body by the Body (not trained professionals attempting to sell their newest books).
*Spontaneous worship times.
*Smaller, practical discussions on various subjects and relevant themes (i.e.- "How to handle Children", "What is Leadership?", "Serving our Community", etc.) lead by the Spirit of God (not one "expert" on the subject).

Anyone else interested?

Sure, we'd invite people who have written books and who speak on national conference circuits to join us, but we won't use their celebrity to drive ticket sales. These brothers and sisters will be treated as our equals, not as those with "special revelation" and they will be free to share along with the rest of the Body as we share together openly.

Better yet, we won't sell tickets. It will be free or "at-cost".

We could meet at a campground and invite whole families to participate (yes, even children).

Wouldn't it be amazing if our National House Church Conferences were actually modelled after the pattern we say we believe to be Biblical and born of God?

-kg

DOES IT REALLY COST $11 MILLION TO BUIILD A TEMPLE?

Today I ran across an article that made me sick to my stomach.

Templo Calvario, a local Christian Church, unveiled a new $11 Million Dollar Sanctuary yesterday.

Read full story
HERE

Reading this article I couldn't help but question the judgement of God's people - and what's more their lack of understanding God's design for His Church.

"For Pastor Daniel de Leon, the idea and inspiration to build a new worship center for Templo Calvario came from God himself.
The pastor often tells his story of how in 1997 "God spoke to my heart and told me, 'Build me a house.'"

When it comes to "building God a house" God clearly says in Isaiah 66:1 - "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?"

God Himself has already promised to build His house, His Temple. He does not need our help to do this.

When King David wanted to build God's house God's response was:

"I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?" - 2 Sam 7:5-7


Why are we still building Temples to God when we already have the Spirit of the Living God living within each and every one of us who follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?

In all fairness, perhaps Pastor Daniel simply misheard His Lord? God didn’t say, “Build me an $11 Million dollar Temple” did he? No. He said, “Build me a house” and according to the Bible, the only “House” God wants to build is made up of living stones and a Kingdom of Priests.

In this article one member of this church says, "I can't believe this is now our temple," said Marielena Gonzales, 21. "I can't think of a better place to come each week to celebrate God."

What makes me sad is that God already commissioned a new temple over two thousand years ago. It was also very costly and was purchased at the expense of the God’s own Son. On the cross, Jesus destroyed the temple of His Body and fulfilled God’s promise to pour out His Spirit on all flesh. God Himself tore the veil on the old temple, even as the foundation was being laid upon the Cornerstone of the New Temple of God.

What’s more, these people still believe that they must come each week to a certain place in order to worship and celebrate God. Yet God’s design was to expand His worship to cover the Earth, and to become a daily, living act of praise and surrender and worship to His amazing and Holy name.

It also saddens me to know that this church, (which has become known in the past for her concern for the poor), has wasted $11 million dollars on a cold, empty building and that they have burdened their congregation with a loan payment of over $90,000 a month. Imagine how many of the poor in Orange County could have been fed and clothed for this amount of money? What’s more, this building could have provided shelter for the thousands of homeless who spend each night in the cold and the rain due to our lack of affordable housing and shelter beds.

“The pastor told his congregation to work to recruit new members in order to maintain a strong church community.”

Their solution? Use evangelism as a method of generating enough income to afford the building. Now this church exists to recruit people – not so much as brothers and sisters who are loved and embraced for who they are- but targeted strategically to help afford a building which should never have been built in the first place.


As my friend Mark Main has said:

“Churches have spent more money just on buildings in less than twenty years than it would take to eradicate hunger and many diseases from children in Africa. Add in salaries, utilities, and all the other things churches spend money on and I can only guess how much money has been spent simply on 'the faithful'.

‘That is why I am so frustrated by what I see marketed as Christianity in this country today. Is spending 28 billion dollars on nice buildings for our Sunday morning meetings more important than showing grace, mercy, compassion, and love by helping those in Africa who are dying at a rate of over 25,000 a day from starvation and preventable disease? Obviously, for American Christianity the answer to that question is a resounding YES. You can claim that isn't the case, but the facts are undeniable. American Christianity has basically said that the sickness and starvation of others isn't nearly as important as it's need for bigger, nicer buildings. Do you realize how perverse that is?"

Reading the comments below this article it’s plain to see that most do not believe that this building was worth the cost, nor that it will magically attract new congregants with open wallets and bountiful checkbooks.

People do not want a building. They want to know a God who loves them. They do not want an impersonal club to join. They want to be embraced into the loving Family of God. They do not hunger for giant screen televisions and professional sound systems. They are yearning for an intimate relationship with Jesus.

As Jesus said, "I tell you that one greater than the temple is here." (Matt 12:6) and when Jesus had fulfilled the role of the High Priest and offered himself as the final Lamb of God, and the veil in the Temple was ripped in half, from top to bottom, He made a way for us, the people of God, to become the new temple, not made with human hands, but spreading out over the whole earth, and living as the new priesthood of believers, to make known His Glory among the nations.

We do not need a temple because we are the temple. We do not need a priest, or a pastor, because we are all priests of God, empowered and filled by His Holy Spirit. We do not need an animal sacrifice to be made, because He was our final blood sacrifice, and we are now the living sacrifice, daily dying to ourselves and carrying our cross to follow Him.

Let us not return to the rubble and rebuild the man-made temple. Let us not take up needle and thread and repair the veil that was torn. Let us not commission special priests and clergy who will stand before God in our place.

Our identity, as followers of Jesus, runs deeper than brick and mortar. It transcends a building. It goes beyond ceremony. Our identity as disciples of Christ is defined by a relationship between a Loving God, and a Living Temple made of people who love God, and love others.

You are the only Temple God has ever wanted. He has already bought and paid for this. Let us focus our time and energy on "being the Church", not attending one, or building one ourselves.

**
Keith

Are We (Really) Practicing Christianity?

According to the New Testament, the Christian faith was inaugurated at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit, in fulfillment of Joel 2:28-32, was poured out on all flesh. From that day forward, the followers of Jesus became empowered to preach the Gospel, baptize new believers, plant churches, and share communion with other believers. Everyone was in the ministry of Jesus Christ. There was no distinction between clergy and laity because in their minds, every follower of Jesus was “…being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." – 1 Peter 2:5

When the Spirit of Almighty God was poured out on all flesh at Pentecost, those first Christians got it. They understood that the same Holy Spirit of God that once rested over the ark of the covenant behind a 300 pound veil in the Temple of Jerusalem was now living within their own hearts. They were excited beyond belief and consumed with a fire and a passion to share this living presence of God with everyone they knew.

The original Christian church was one “not made with human hands”. Rather than following “the pattern of this world” the Biblical Christian church was birthed by the Spirit of God, empowered by words of Christ, and under submission to the Father. Simply put, the Christian church we read about in the New Testament was something that God was doing, not men. In contrast to our Church today, the first Christians were ordained by the Holy Spirit of God Himself and sent out to proclaim the Gospel, the Good News, that the Kingdom of God had come to every man, woman and child.

The artificial, man-made hierarchy we see in the Christian church today is not what the Church practiced under the Apostles in the New Testament. Instead of a Body made up entirely of Spirit-filled ministers of the Gospel, the Christian church eventually surrendered this heavenly model for a more top-down approach.

As one New Testament scholar, Howard Snyder, put it:

"The clergy-laity dichotomy is…a throwback to the Old Testament priesthood. It is one of the principal obstacles to the church effectively being God’s agent of the kingdom today because it creates a false idea that only ‘holy men,’ namely, ordained ministers, are really qualified and responsible for leadership and significant ministry. In the New Testament there are functional distinctions between various kinds of ministries but no hierarchical division between clergy and laity. The New Testament teaches us that the church is a community in which all are gifted and all have ministry.”

I believe this is partly why Jesus strategically chose his disciples from among the most common and ordinary strata of society. He wanted to make sure that when a run-of-the-mill fisherman stood up and proclaimed the Gospel no one would bow down and worship him. Instead, the people saw ordinary men and women just like themselves, uneducated, dirty, and painfully normal, who had been caught up into the eternal purpose of God.

When Peter spoke under the power of the Holy Spirit, or when Paul prayed for people to be healed, or when any of those unnamed disciples ministered to one another in the Body, everyone knew it was God doing the work, not the people themselves.

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” – Acts 4:13

When they gathered together it wasn’t to hear words of “eloquence or superior wisdom” but to experience Jesus in their midst as the Head of the Body and to share Him through a communion that went beyond bread and wine. The original, New Testament Christians were empowered, “not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power” (1 Cor 2:1-5).

The Church is what God is doing, not what we are doing. We are living stones, but only because we are filled with the Life of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Gathering apart from that is just a gathering. When we come together, to the Living Stone, we also like living stones are built up into a holy priesthood, offering sacrifices of praise to celebrate our Risen Lord who is present with us in the meeting.

Can you imagine being in a room with Jesus and allowing someone other than Him to speak for over an hour? Can you imagine experiencing the awesome presence of the Spirit of the Living God and reading announcements?

The Body of Christ is an expression of the tangible, resurrected Christ. Have we settled for less? Have we become comfortable listening to the wisdom of Men rather than waiting quietly for the whisper of our Eternal Creator?

As I ponder these questions I am left with an awful question: Am I really practicing Christianity or am I practicing Churchianity? Because the more I read the New Testament the more I see a people who were caught up in something beyond themselves. They were the most common, uneducated, normal people you can imagine. Even their leaders were humble, ordinary, everyday men and women who saw themselves as fortunate participants in the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy and the heart’s desire of Almighty God to reveal Himself to the World.

Is that how I see myself? Is that how I practice my faith? If what I am practicing doesn’t resemble Christianity as the New Testament reveals it, then what in the world am I practicing?
**
kg

Re-Empowering God's People

Over the last few months I have been personally challenged by the study of the New Testament in regards to who we are as the Body of Christ and the Priesthood of Believers.

According to the New Testament, the Body of Christ was empowered to minister to one another by the Holy Spirit. Every baptized believer in Christ was "in the ministry" and capable of planting a church, baptizing new believers, and teaching the Gospel.

Today, only trained professionals with seminary degrees are allowed, or expected, to start churches, baptize new believers, teach the Gospel or minister to the Body.

By complicating the message and placing obstacles in the way, the average follower of Christ today is not empowered to actually behave like a member of the priesthood of believers, nor are they expected to.

A few weeks ago I attended an evening service where a well-known travelling preacher exhorted us all to be more active in sharing our faith. He told us why it was important. He made us feel inadequate for failing to be more evangelistic. He prayed for us to become more active in our faith. But what he didn’t do was to affirm our identity as priests in the Kingdom of God. It was insanity: To berate us all for not behaving as members of the priesthood while denying the priesthood every step of the way.

For us to fully become the people God made us to be, we have to understand who we were made to be. For us to be the New Testament church, we have to embrace our identity as living stones, living sacrifices, and priests of the Kingdom.

Most of us really have no idea what it really means to be one of the priesthood of believers. We’ve never heard it taught, or preached and certainly we’ve never seen it modeled for us.

Lately I’ve been trying to really practice the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The reality that God is as much with me, even within me, as He is when I am in the act of corporate worship or prayer is powerful. God is here with me now. His Spirit is alive within me. His voice is whispering to my heart. His power to love and heal and forgive and transform lives is as close as my own fingertip. What does that mean? How does that affect my interactions with my co-workers, my neighbors, my children, my wife?

I fear that the Church today has largely forgotten who she is. We do not live daily in the awareness of God’s empowering presence. We do not think of ourselves as priests. We do not behave as if our lives are living sacrifices to Christ. I include myself in this group, by the way. I know I need to fully grasp who I am in Christ and to start living every single day with a greater awareness of my identity.

I believe it is vitally important for us to become the empowered Body of believers who behave as a Spirit-enabled priesthood.

According to Revelation, our identity in the priesthood of believers is part of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross:

"You (Jesus) are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth." - Revelations 5:9-10

From now on I intend to center my life on the practice of the presence, the reality of the priesthood and the daily, living sacrifice of my life to Christ. After calling myself a Christian for nearly 34 years, I think it’s about time.
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