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Date: Monday, November 22, 2010
Today: Stay connected with the Head
Passage: Mat 16:18-19 NIV
18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[c] will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.”
This is the first instance in the Bible, where we see the word Church (Ecclesia)
The only time God’s gets kind of possessive, is when He speaks about His people
Jesus was telling Peter (Petros-masculine) that He will build the Church on the rock (Petra- feminine)
God is not concerned about the material riches or anything that is important to us
God is all about us-the Church and about all the spiritual blessings He has reserved for us, in/through Christ (Eph 1:3)
Christ is our connection to heaven; other than through Christ, we are disconnected
He (Christ) is the head; what can a body do, without the head?
We feel and know anything in the body, only because of the head (brain)
The head is the command-center. The head makes the decisions
When we see something that is dangerous, our eyes sent that picture to the brain, the brain discerns it and sends the message to our feet and to the rest of the body to run and escape!
Today, the Church, in many cases, is so much disconnected with the head
It has gone so far, leaving Jesus at Jerusalem, thinking He is with them
Joseph and Mary left Jesus at Jerusalem, once when Jesus was twelve
They went for the festival and walked back with the crowd, thinking Jesus was with them
That is a good picture of what the apparent Church is doing today, in most cases
The crowd gives us a feeling that Jesus is with us-our church (es)
The (big) number of people is not a sign of any church being the true church
Now, as they found out that Jesus was missing, they had already walked one day’s distance. They had to walk back three days, to get him (Jesus)
As somebody was recently saying: “you walked one day’s distance away from him; it will take you three days to get him back”
The church as well as Christians better check if they are with Jesus or not
Jesus wants to be with us all the time. He said, “my church”
The church belongs to Jesus; everything must be done according to His will and not according to the will of anybody else
When Church continues its journey without Jesus, it is going far from Jesus
The more it continues without Jesus, the difficult it is to come back
Yesterday, I was watching a documentary on a false messiah named Jim Jones
He was leading a congregation of more than 900 people- lead them into death
He made them commit suicide, and killed some of them with guns, also killing himself, making them believe that it was the right thing to do (Nov 18, 1978)
Most of his followers believed his lie
Even today, there are many leaders, who are able to drag the crowd along with them
The Florida Pastor who created an issue with the Koran, had a group of followers to support him
The church should not support anything that the leadership is doing, outside of that which is Biblical
Finally, we all will be judged according to the word of God- not according to anything else or what anybody else said
Leaders will rise and fall, but Jesus and his word will never fall or fail
Let us look at Jesus alone; there is no mediator between us and Jesus (1Tim 2:5)
He wants us to continue in relationship with Him
God bless your week
BG
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for the Church and for making me part of you. Help me to continue and grow in you and to discern anything that is not from you. Help me to join, building your body up. Amen
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