Don't Tamper With the Mail (part I)

There is so much confusion in the body of Christ as to the purpose of the individual believer and the role of the Church here on the earth.  The message is simple and powerful.  God and man were in perfect harmony, and God gave man the right to rule over himself.  Man was taken captive and held hostage by Satan, and was now subject to a dictator.  God sent His Son, who won a decisive victory over Satan, stripped him of his dictatorship, and annulled his right to rule over us.  At that point all that was left to do was to go announce to man was that he was free!   The truth began to spread; men everywhere enlisted in the new Kingdom, and went forth as an army, to liberate all those that had been forced into slavery under the law of sin and death. 

The ruler of the slave kingdom feared the message of freedom and set about to sow seeds of confusion among the hearers.  The message took on a different tone.  Many were being told that their liberation hinged on certain requirements and standards that must be met.  This message was not one of hope, and freedom, but simply bondage to a new set of requirements, a message that said their freedom could be maintained by daily good works and behavior modification.   Many chose to stay and serve under the dictatorship of death, they had grown accustomed to the current workload, and the “good works” option seemed cumbersome.  Their hearts were darkened from years of indoctrination by their perpetrator, and only the light of the TRUE GOSPEL could free them from their chains.  Those that did opt for good works, were soon disillusioned, the freedom that was promised was impossible to maintain as this ruler seemed as hard to please as the last one.  

The Church should be an unstoppable force, moving en masse in one direction, with one clear objective.  Instead, we have turned our weapons inward and seem intent on devouring our self whole.   If the devil’s plan was to divide and conquer, we have walked unflinchingly into his trap.  Discipleship has become an assembly line where we stamp out Methodists, Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans and Charismatics, instead of as Paul puts it “imitators, and followers of me (Paul) as I am of Christ.  (I Cor. 1:11)  Paul had complete confidence in the message that was given to him by God.  Remember Paul was not a disciple of Christ while Christ was alive; the gospel that Paul preached was divinely imparted to him by the Holy Spirit.  It was not the teachings of Jesus and it was not the message that Peter preached to the Jews.  Much of the confusion in the Church comes from a “mashing” of the Word of God and not recognizing what it is saying to whom.  I call it the “gospel mash” it caught on in a flash, it was a graveyard smash.  

This is a whole kettle of fish I will not get into today, but I would urge you in reading your Bible, take the time, with the Holy Spirit as your teacher, to understand what role you are playing today as a believer, and the role of the Church.  If we call ourselves believers why are we at such odds with other believers?  How could ONE message with ONE purpose have taken on a life of its own?  Somewhere along the way, we stopped being the ministrants of the message and made it personal.  I am reminded of what my small group leader says frequently, “don’t tamper with the mail, just deliver it.”  I want to be on the earth to see the Church become all that Christ intended for it to be.  I want us to realize our purpose and the power that we embody with Christ as our Head!  I want to see this sleeping giant awaken!  I want the devil to be gripped with fear when he hears the rustling of the Body of Christ on the move.  Just as he was when he realized he had not killed the Christ but instead played right into the hands of the Living God.

As with most of my postings that turn into 2 and 3 parters somewhere in the middle, we will continue this train of thought next time.  In fact this does not at all resemble the posting I “thought” I was going to write this morning.  I love it when the Holy Spirit comes in at the last minute and says “Stop the presses!”  It keeps me weak, and dependent on Him.  After all it IS HIS MESSAGE!