A powerful yet honest and fair man of God once said to his brothers and sisters, "I have secured the means for you all to gain great and everlasting treasure in a far off kingdom. I must go there now to prepare things for your arrival and the soon-coming reign of the King and His kingdom. Be of good courage and seek this kingdom my friends!"
His friends perked up and answered, "Tell us what to do to gain this treasure before you leave! Where is this kingdom and when is it coming?"
"I have been with you now speaking of these very things you ask for several years. I am in your hearts and you know the way. I will bring the truth to your minds again as you think on what I taught you," he replied, "And share this good news with others and invite them to learn of me, my works, my words and to seek this everlasting treasure of the coming kingdom of my God."
His brothers and sisters pondered this among themselves, trading glances, whispers quietly as their powerful brother gazed up into the clouds.
"It is time," the prophet-brother spoke.
They huddled tighter together looking at one another, even arguing over his comments. And when they turned back around to ask yet one more question, the small band of confused seekers noticed their humble but strong friend had left.
Over the years, they indeed remembered -- they shared, they taught and they waited. They loved one another and knew joy. Only the image of their vanished friend burning in their hearts remained. And that kingdom only came in subtle and invisible ways in lives they touched as it grew within and among them. The kingdom was so real, so fresh to them that many chose even death rather than deny their friend they now knew was the Eternal King over His Kingdom of Light and Love.
Through the years, the story of a loving and kind Prophet King and a mighty coming Kingdom repeated itself. The love and joy spread. The retold tales of great and everlasting treasure to be gained in the kingdom were told less and less. Stories of the Wondrous King's love and the joy of His love became the favorite part of the story. For you see, when the stories of those earliest seekers were read more closely and in quiet humility -- tears and pain were found. Suffering called out too.
It was known that the great King of Love had indeed suffered many deaths, sorrows and pain in His life. He indeed had called many brothers and sisters to His kingdom and prepared them each a place -- it was written. But this gaining of treasure of the kingdom seemed many times to be closely related to pain, suffering, death, sorrow, loneliness and isolation. In some of the old stories were found that even the King Himself spoke of these very things and he had accepted this hard road as a needed journey of great faith into obedience.
When did those that retold the tales of the King and the kingdom stop speaking of its costly treasure clearly? What caused them to focus on joy and love while avoiding stories of pain, suffering, enduring obedience and a treasure of rest. Even in one letter, one of the oldest brothers wrote to his friends, he clearly related of how some of the brothers and sisters would most surely gain the treasure while some might not! Why has this part of the story not been spoken of moreso over the many years?
The distant kingdom of promise loomed closer, the King eagerly awaited those who had lovingly and faithfully remembered Him, and in great faith, had won the costly treasures of His promised Kingdom of rest.
He arose, walked to the threshold of the Ancient Doors, and stood silently waiting. He wept.
The angels cried, "Holy is the Lord!"
This is so beautifully written and speaks of the overwhelming joy, excitement, passion,and sadness that is within me as God reveals more and more of His truth to this lowly servant. Amidst all of these emotions is the truest desire to be and receive everything that my Creator has for me, not the least of which is to hear those words in that Day, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord"!
ReplyDeleteI would like to discuss this sadness, as it is becoming a truer and truer fact that most of God's own people--those with the capacity for spiritual understanding-- do not want to hear of His incredible truths, nor do they want to contemplate the ramifications so clearly stated in His Word concerning those who do not take this race of faith seriously. Instead they want to argue, demean, criticize, and parade their ego to the increasingly ignorant "flock." The message of the gospel today has indeed limited its view to the love and the joy that knowing the Lord brings, conveniently forgetting the pain, the suffering, the loneliness, and the agonizing struggles that must accompany such a path. And even more so, forgetting the very warnings that God saw fit to record for us, upon whom the end of the age has come.
But has it ever been any different, really? Wasn't this Israel's fate, as they engaged in religious practices, honoring God with their mouths, but their hearts were so far from Him? And when the truth was spoken through the prophets, as God sought to turn their hearts back to Him so that He could embrace them once again, they killed the very ones that they should have heeded.
Personally, I wish to share this message with all that can hear, yet I know that it will be met with persecution and personal suffering. That is not what stops me, for what is our path but the one that leads to the narrow gate? This path is only for those who carry their cross, willingly and humbly crucifying their flesh while walking in the power of His resurrection. This I can do, for it is God's pleasure to enable me to do so by His power, not my own.
The question that I am seeking an answer to is, how do we share this message with the church (meaning the body of Christ, not any specific local assembly)? We are messengers of our Lord and we have been commanded to make disciples...yet if we were to follow in the footsteps of the faithful followers we read of in Acts we would inevitably find ourselves in the religious institutions of today (the 'churches'), crying out a warning and speaking the truth in love as Paul did. Didn't he enter into the synagogues FIRST, in every city he went to, speaking the truth of the coming Kingdom of our Lord? Is this the example for us? In my own flesh I am not at all eager to do this--I would much rather quietly study, grow in God's truth, and minister to the small group that God has placed in my midst. But if God calls me/us to more, then I would willingly choose the path that He places before me, regardless of the difficulties ahead.
The other side of the equation pertaining to my question is that Jesus said HE would build His church. He will do it. Not me. Therefore I need not worry. If I just pour myself out, empty out this vessel, then He can fill me up and use me in the very capacity for which He has called me, whatever that might be.
Our faith must always be put into action, but what that action looks like in this scenario is to me, vague. Do I/we seek out and speak out, initiating the topic of His coming kingdom...or do I/we wait for God to bring them to me/us, and wait for them to ask the questions? Yes to both?
I ask God these questions and He has yet to clearly show Me. That's okay, for I will keep asking Him and be faithful with what He shows me day to day. I am thankful for that. I also believe that He puts wise people in our path whom we are to heed if they speak His truth. I am seeking truth.
Thanks for your very insightful, "spot on" as the Brits say, comments. Yes, "they" killed the prophets and "they" killed the Lord Jesus and then "they" killed Stephen. Religion without Christ (w/o the leadership of the Holy Spirit) is very dangerous entity. It is motivated by the world, the flesh and the Enemy as he loves religion. Sadly, Christianity has turned into something called "churchianity" and has moved away from many truths of the Word. Instead, we now have a religious system (with all its variants) that calls itself Christian but in fact operates outside of the leadership of Christ. The mainline institution most call "church" has very little in common today with what Paul called the "ekklesia" or "the called out ones" -- now translated in our New Testament English as the Church. What we are left with now is a man-inspired, earthly government-modeled and non-scriptural perversion of what Paul's church was in the 1st century.
ReplyDeleteWhat does a believer do that sees this? And what does a believer do when not only is the system wrong but what the system teaches as the whole truth is again wrong? How do we reach out to our brothers and sisters w/o condemning them by our concern? When this "confrontation" of happens, many times the authority (authorities), of the church will ask that believer to either be silent, recant or leave. We are "dangerous, disruptive or disrespectful" of "God's order", etc., etc. . . . When one researches unfiltered church history, (not the one written by the church), you will find that throughout the past couple millennia, small groups left the organized church, (be it Roman Catholic or Protestant), and were severely persecuted as heretics and demonically inspired rebels. I believe many of these so-called "heretics" were many times devout people who refused the system to follow Christ alone.
As you said, "bluecollarchristian", not much has changed.
I too am in a quandary as to how we serve the Lord when we see a truth that our church-system refuses or rejects. I believe, that as a prophet would have done, we do this:
we pray
we wait on the Spirit's lead
we share the truth in love
we pray
we wait on the Spirit's lead
we share the truth in love
and in love I believe we eventually will become "called out ones" all over again, called out to Jesus, suffering outside the gate, outside the system but -- praise God -- WITHIN THE PERFECT WILL of God. There's no place I would rather be, actually.
My next blog here and at www.GenericChristianMystic.com will concern this idea of "going out" and it can be either leaving and/or standing firm.
I am glad you were ministered to by this tale of great faith. I wept when I wrote it and wept again reading it aloud to my wife. It really seems to be a heart-cry . . .
God bless!
As always, GMC, you are able to put into words many of my same thoughts and feelings. I particularly liked your blog on "going out" (on your website) as the Bible portrays it. We are indeed called out to be separate--not only separate from the world and its organized systems and rules, but separate from anything deemed "lawless," even if (especially if) this lawlessness be inside our organized Christian religion. It is up to each one of us to test the spirits in this regard and be aware of the truth so that we do not find ourselves stuck right in the middle of (and participating in, in the name of "the church") deception.
ReplyDeleteI so love the picture that God gives us of the early church! In those early days of the birth of Christianity we do not see the disciples gathering just once a week to hear a feel good message and then "business as usual" the rest of the time. Instead we see the complete dedication of individuals' lives to the message of the truth, complete dedication and outpouring of love to other members of the body, and a determination to live solely for God. Individuals were established in the different cities in order to teach and bring up the new converts, all with a view to a mature body, where all would be doers of the word and not hearers only, teaching others to do the same. The ones with wisdom and knowledge exhorted the many to stick close to the truth and not to be swayed, NO MATTER WHAT. Any other teaching that deviated from the pure, whole gospel was not tolerated. And, they gathered daily, they prayed daily, they gave thanks daily, and they suffered daily. It was a hard road for the early church, but it was the narrow road.
How do we get back to that? How do we emulate that pure form of the early church when so many of us have been indoctrinated into a system (as you so clearly put) that is "a man-inspired, earthly government-modeled and non-scriptural perversion of what Paul’s church was in the 1st century"? What would it look like today?
I believe we first try and reach out to the believers with any truth we have that may even counter what that particular denominational body offers.
ReplyDeleteWe wait on the Lord's timing and urgings (the Spirit moves) and the day will come when we must "go out" unto Him -- just as Rebeccah left her family & home (other believers of mainline churchianity not hearing/heeding the call to be The Bride making herself ready) -- and we gather with those the Lord sends our way. It is hard journey I feel but is an integral part of learning the voice of the Lord.
Like going out into the wilderness, (sensing a lack of what many feel is a "church home"), we hunger for that bread of fellowship in true worship -- we will be eventually ministered to by the Lord, just as the angels ministered unto Jesus as He was tested.
Hopefully, the word of our testimony will stand, as a clear word to those we "go out from among" and they will know that treasures of the Spirit given to the Bride-ones have left them. What is a clearer message that something is lacking or missing in our many varied church-like organizations when the seemingly "moreso Spirit-conscious servants" among them leave to find Jesus "outside the church buildings' doors knocking"? Since the powers that be in mainline churches won't allow THE LORD OF GLORY to rule them 100% with JESUS CHRIST as absolute Head, we that love and follow Him MUST "go out" unto Him!