The Organic Church III
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Important messages
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| This article taken from chapter 16 |
THE CHURCH – A LIVING BODY
“(The Father) put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.”
Ephesians 1:22-23
A Christian of German descent in Wisconsin was reading a small-town newspaper from North Dakota. His eyes scanned the church announcements and suddenly he felt a compulsion to pray for one of these churches. It seemed strange to him, because the church wasn’t of the same denomination as his own church and he had never visited it. Every year he drove 500 miles to North Dakota to help relatives (who sent the paper to him) with their harvest. Months later, during the next harvest season, in his curiosity to discover the reason behind the strange desire to pray, he walked into the little church in Finley, ND.
A Puzzling Phenomenon
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Important messages
It is a phenomenon these
days, I think, that men of God can be lauded, quoted, and used as examples from
many pulpits, while the experience, which they themselves credit for their
success, is heatedly denied and rejected. I don’t know what you call this, but
I see it as somewhat hypocritical; certainly something that lacks consistency.
These outstanding men are like David in Saul’s court, appreciated for their
usefulness, but feared, because of the powerful anointing of God that rests
upon them.
Puritans, Edwards, Spurgeon, Moody and
Tozer
How many read Puritan literature
and quote the Puritans from the pulpit? Allow me to quote a famous Puritan,
John Owens: “(The Holy Spirit) so sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts…
by an immediate act… filling (the soul) with gladness, exultations and
sometimes with unspeakable raptures of the mind.”
It is the Spirit of God, who
takes the things of Christ, and reveals them to us. Jonathan Edwards spoke of a
walk in the woods: “The Person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent with an
excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conceptions, which
continued, as near as I can judge, about an hour; such as to keep me a greater
part of the time in a flood of tears, and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of
soul… to be full of Christ alone; to love Him with a holy and pure love, to
trust in Him; to live upon Him; to serve Him and to be perfectly sanctified and
made pure, with a divine and heavenly purity.” For her part, Mrs. Edwards,
meditating upon the virtues of Christ, would at times be so overcome, that
someone would have to help her to her bedroom.
Combating Cessationist Theory
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Important messages
Is the doctrine of the cessation
of spiritual gifts
biblical?
The doctrine of cessation of
supernatural gifts has become popular among many evangelicals these days. I could
wish that I had the audience to effectively combat it, but at least, I will do
what I can on my blogspots, Spanish and English, on Facebook, and through my
radio broadcasts and live radio programs in Spanish. I believe that this doctrine
is contributing heavily in guiding the church on the road to apostasy.
Unfortunately,
the doctrine of the gifts of the Spirit, as it is presented in the Bible, does
not receive much help from those, who argue in its favor, but have very little personal
experience in the exercise of these gifts (with the possible exception of
speaking in tongues). They also have become accustomed to move within the realm
of human possibilities in the day-by-day walk of life, as well as in the issues
of the church. In meetings, everything is well-organized by men and follows
traditional rituals in a totally predictable fashion. Of course, it does no
good to vary the order of service, but what is sadly lacking is the direction
of Christ, as the Head of the church. We see little evidence in practice of
Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 14:24-26.
Do
we understand that, when we are expressing a desire to be a witness, in order to win people to Christ, we are speaking of the
life of Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever, being manifested
through us? Jesus prayed to the Father: “As You, Father, are in Me, and I in You;
that they also may be one in Us, that the
world may believe that you sent Me” (Jn.17:21).
The
love that is seen through that life is not human love, but the same that is
seen between the Father and the Son. I can't tell here the whole story of Jake
DeShazer, but as a prisioner of war in a Japanese prison, he hated the
Japanese. He was converted and, overnight, love took the place of hatred and,
after returning from the war, he became a missionary to Japan. He said that the
love of God is miraculous. His peace and His joy are to be seen through our
lives. After our daughter was crippled in a car accident, her doctor asked me, "Explain this to me: When I told your
daughter, she would never walk again, she smiled at me." I said, "Jesus lives in her. That's the peace
of Christ." That's a miracle. And the joy of Christ is joy unspeakable and full of glory. It’s all
supernatural!
The Organic Church II
Labels:
Important messages
“You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual
house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ.” 1
Peter 2:5
Oh, Supreme Moving Cause
"Who has
cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, to
bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man,
to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with
grass? Job 38:25-27
Synchronized water ballet
Years ago during the
Olympic Games, I walked into the room of someone watching a performance of
synchronized water ballet on TV. Sitting next to him, he expressed to me that
he didn’t like the individual efforts of the various athletes, because they
tended to exalt one person, but he enjoyed the perfect unity of the team
events, such as water ballet. It didn’t take much discernment to see that he
was spiritualizing what he was watching, comparing it to the intentions of
believers to carry out the will of God.
I didn’t respond to
the comment at the time, but that rather poor example gave me much to think
about and I really have meditated over the matter. I would like to share the view
that I have of Christians involved in fulfilling God’s purposes on earth. In
doing so, I am considering Christ’s Church, which He said that He would build
(Mt.16:18) and, according to Paul, Christ would give gifts to men to equip the
saints for the work of the ministry and to build His body (Eph.4:8,12). I will
make use of the same water ballet analogy.
Eliza's Testimony
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personal testimonies
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| Eliza Șerban |
I have known Eliza for
a good, many years from meetings in her church and in youth camps in Romania.
She was a Christian girl, very pleasant with a wonderful sense of humor. On the
other hand, she was thin and sickly, having to be very careful about her diet.
She was also plagued with fears that tended to cloud her life and keep her from
enjoying the tremendous blessings of the gospel.
She married Sammy Șerban, a friend and also
brother of a missionary. They honored me by asking me to speak at their wedding,
but to my great embarrassment, I forgot to bring my passport to the airport and
consequently, was denied my flight to Romania. Someone else took my place at
the wedding. Sammy got a job as an engineer in London, but I would see them on
rare occasions at a family camp, when they came to visit Romania. They have two
sons, Luca and Patrick.
While living in
London, Eliza became sick and went through surgery. It was after the surgery
that she had several brushes with death (I can’t
recall how many times, but there were several.) and actually had to be revived by CPR on one occasion. In
fact, the doctors told Sammy that it was over. One night,
before the CPR experience, they said definitely that she would die. I think Eliza would agree that, in herself, she was not yet ready to face death.
At this point, we will
begin to read her letter and learn of a continued illness and her deep,
spiritual needs, and then… we will see how the Lord intervened and turned her
life right side-up. I bring this letter before you, in order to show you the
joy, power and blessing that there is in the promise of the Father, given
clearly in His word…
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