Do You Have Your Part?

Ephesians 4:11-16 tells us that the LORD gave to the church five gifts to build the church up to do the work of ministry. So what is the work of ministry? Every saint using the grace and faith that God has given to build up the church, people, one another, etc. Verses 13 & 14 reveal the reasons why each believer is to constantly function by grace through faith building up the church. If believers are not being built up or if the are but will not do their share then we must assume that verse 13 & 14 will take on a different bent.

In other words if each believer does not take the initiative and responsibility to do the work of ministry individually and corporately, then it stifles the entire church from coming to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ and keeps the church from maturity. This then opens the door to being tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. This translates into believers accepting high minded theologians promoting the wisdom of men over the demonstration of spirit and power, which we see in many sectors of the church in the USA today.

The Old Testament provides a wonderful example of God's people doing the work of ministry, per se. Nehemiah is known for having a heart for Judah's political and geographical restoration. Jerusalem was in fact the spiritual and political center of Judah so the first order of business was to rebuild the city walls. In the same way that Nehemiah pulled together a remnant to rebuild, believers must purpose in their hearts and minds to exercise faith, walk in Gods grace and say and do what the builders of the wall all said and did, “Let us rise up and build.” "Then they set their hands to do this good work”. (Nehemiah 2:18)

So let's begin to yield more to the Holy Spirit and see "God's Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven", for His glory. This will be accomplished through faith in Christ "from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in LOVE.

I Won't Grow Up

The character of Peter Pan is most remembered by his constant attitude of wanting his own way. He verbalized this by saying "I won't grow up". The writer of Hebrews sternly challenges the church to "grow up" in Christ. He tells them that enough time has passed and they should be mature believers and yet they seem to be having difficultly moving beyond elementary Christianity. The Apostle Paul tells the church at Corinth that a time came in his life when he "Became a man and put away childish things".

When raising children, parents are to bring correction and direction to their children for the purpose conforming to a standard of right and wrong as well as to bring them into maturity, that is, to "Grow Up". But why does it seem to be the opposite in the lives of many believers in the church in the USA? Why do we read scripture that challenges us to maturity, yet act childish by rejecting correction and direction? Could it be that maturity is based on ones own standard and not the Word of God?

This appears to be one of the problems with some of the churches that the writers of the New Testament seemed to be dealing with as time progressed. Today we have God's Word to draw from to show us what we should do, how we should live and who we are to become. The book of Acts paints a wonderful picture of how the church should and can be in Christ when believers give up their ways and by grace through faith live in Christ.

The early church was a unified body of individuals; individuals sharing common interests, characteristics, policies, activities and joint ownership.To the early church, their Christian faith was a day to day reality not a once or twice a week routine. This was because the risen Christ was a living reality to them and it was evidenced in the resurrection power at work in their lives through the Holy Spirit.

“With one accord” speaks of the same mind or with one mind. The early church seemed to have an entirely different perspective of God's Kingdom than the church seems to have today. To them Christ is King, they were under grace not the Law, they lived through faith not feelings, were directed by the Word of God and continuously witnessed a demonstration of spirit and power. The very things that gave the early church unparalleled success are the very things that liberal theology and the wisdom of men have rejected as not for today. The same grace that was available almost 2000 years ago to save, heal and deliver, comes from the same God who DOES NOT CHANGE, and is available today for everyone who believes.

Today the USA has a president who has said that the USA is NOT a Christian country. Millions of dollars are spent each year to support missions abroad and yet the USA is deemed "NOT CHRISTIAN". (Selah) It is time for the church in the USA to put away childish things, grow up and be of one mind. The church is to turn the world upside down but is failing to do so in a country who believes (or maybe one time believed) that the USA is "One Nation under GOD"!!! Just think how powerful the church would be if we were more concerned about Jesus and His Kingdom than us and our kingdoms...