Do Not Settle

How Are We To Be Church?

During a recent prayer-Zoom our lovely Lord Jesus gave our group further answers to the questions: "What are you saying Lord God?" and "What are you doing Lord?"

Our group were praying about a local house church where discipleship of the "younger" Christians is a priority, and everyone is committed to Jesus and also ready to contribute in ministry and to grow in Christ ..

We had also been discussing and praying about how we are to be church once the Covid-19 pandemic is passed.

Then a voice said: "Do not settle". Immediately we knew that this was Jesus' thought for us all.

The coronavirus lockdown is easing in Western Australia and we are thinking of our lives now returning to "normal". We are also aware that in so many countries things are still very difficult, not just with the illness, but also with the massive unemployment, and economic, social, health and ethical changes the pandemic has brought to our societies.

We cannot begin to know the extent of the changes which are still before us.  People are talking about a "new normal" saying that "things will not be the same", but no one tell us what the "not" will be like ..

I, and my prayer partners, believe that "church" will change too. So many people are saying how blessed they have been over the past months to share very simply with other Christians, one-at-a-time or with small groups, over the phone or on the Internet. They have learned to be "church" in a new and deeper way. Their times together have been precious and filled with worship; Jesus was in the midst during the sharing and prayer and as they helped one another.

Here is my note-from-memory from that prayer-Zoom meeting; Jesus said to me:

"I want you to be totally available to me and to be ready to be radically obedient. I want you to love the brothers and sisters I have put you with, to be discipled by them, and you in turn to disciple them. I want you to go about doing the works I set before you. I want you to look beyond one church or group, rather to be a part of a number of groups each with its own focus; that way you will get to know many people and be close enough that you can love them.

Beyond this, I want you to look outwards, to always remember that my focus is the whole world; I desire that the whole world will hear my gospel (Isaiah 52:7) and know that I came to set everyone free from their sin, their rebellion and disobedience,  and that they may look forward to eternal life with me. And that everyone can grow into fullness in me (Ephesians 4:12), that my church will grow in unity (John 17:21), and that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9), but come into the fullness of life in me (Romans 6:23, 1 Corinthians 4:17, 2 Timothy 3:12) and be free (Galatians 5:1)".

Paul reminds us that the Church is Jesus' body, "the fullness of him who fills everything in every way" (Ephesians 1:23) and its members are "Christ's body" (1 Corinthians 12:12). We are those members.

Our primary responsibility as Jesus' people is to put God first always, and to put our neighbour next (Matthew 22:37-40).  By the time I put Jesus, then my Christian brothers and sisters and my family ahead of me, and do what I do to look out for others including strangers (Matthew 22:39), and do any work I'm committed to do, I find myself well down in my priority list for my love and care .. it is very sobering for me to think about this ..

Jesus wants us to gather around Him as our Shepherd; to find places where He is Head, where He is Centre and the object of our worship, where there is the intimacy of a big Brother and His siblings, all looking to our Father for active guidance by our loving and caring Holy Spirit.

One of my prayer friends often refers to "the aroma of Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:15), how lovely it would be to be surrounded by Jesus' aroma!

We know that we are to love one another and even to disciple and help one another as we make room for them to love, disciple and help us (John 13:34-35, Acts 5:42, Romans 12:7, Romans 15:4, 1 Timothy 4:13). Growing in love is a slow processes, so Jesus must mean that we are to call one group or fellowship or congregation "home", but we are also to involve ourselves well beyond that one group.

In Bible times Christians met in one another’s homes and at the Synagogues where the Jews would have been conducting their liturgies, (there were no buildings set up specially for Christian meetings). There is a sense of Jesus' people being "one family"; they were very generous and shared much. They knew one another as brothers and sisters, and together they cared for and nurtured all the children, the old folk and the disadvantaged, and their neighbours too.

When Peter, Paul or Timothy, or any mature teacher (1 Corinthians 2:6-7) came to a city, Jesus' newly formed church would gather in all its variety to hear from them, this would add another and precious dimension to their Christian walk and give opportunity for Jesus' Way to be taught (and doctrinal error to be rectified). The apostles' letters would have been handed around and read aloud much as we use the Internet today, so that good, clear teaching could reach all the "ecclesia", all the "gathered ones".

What Does It Mean? "Do Not Settle"?

Whatever else, Jesus is telling us to not become too settled where we are planted. Scripture makes it clear that we are to form bonds with other Christians. This means to help, form relationship and share with each other, and to "love one another" .. this takes time. But we have been given enough time to do even more .. 

Jesus and Paul often spoke or wrote about these things: Scripture shows everybody ministering, love in action, unity, making room for one another, compassion, mutual growth, humility and service. And most of all, there was a focus on Jesus, and our Father and His Kingdom. Jesus asked Abba Father to send us Holy Spirit so we would be equipped and strengthened to do all this (John 14:26)!

I hear Jesus saying: "find groups of believers where you see lots of wheat and few tares, where the people are more committed to Me and My Kingdom than to the world and its culture".

The name "Christian" was not given to Jesus' people for almost a generation after that amazing Pentecost when Holy Spirit came with tongues of fire and Jesus' church was born (Acts 2). The early believers were mostly Jews and still attended Synagogue. But they also began to follow Jesus' teachings, alongside of their Jewish religious life. They were initially called "the followers of the Way" (Acts 24:14).

This reminds me of Trish's and my early Christian life. We came to Jesus during the Charismatic Renewal in the early 1980s. Although we still went to church in the regular way, we Charismatics also met where and whenever we could. We never thought of our meetings as "services" because we all contributed, even newcomers! We had prayer, worship and teaching meetings, mostly these were small but we communicated with other groups and sometimes gathered in big numbers. We did get to know and love one another, we knew that Jesus was growing all of us, and we all learned to use the spiritual gifts Holy Spirit had blessed us with, and to minister and grow in these, within the body of Christ and in the world. We understood what "freely give" means (Matthew 10:8).  There was much joy and there were many miracles. We knew that we were being fed.

How Well Am I Doing Now?

If Father God is asking us to come into line with His will in a way that is going to help the world, then am I doing so? What am I now doing better or more truly? With whom? When? These are tough questions!

Am I living as though I am "God's temple" (2 Corinthians 6:16) and Jesus and Holy Spirit live and minister from inside me (Colossians 1:27)? Are there "rivers of living water" flowing from my spiritual belly (John 7:38)?

I think a lot about being a "living stone" (1 Peter 2:5) .. how well am I doing this? Am I allowing Jesus to chip away at me and shape me to conform to His will? Am I where He wants me in His "house of God", or do I just go where I like and am comfortable?

Do I bring "salt and light" (Matthew 5:13-16) to people and situations? Am I one who builds "hope and faith" (1 Thessalonians 1:3)? Do I encourage others with true testimonies (John 19:35, 2 Timothy 1:8) of God's "grace" (Romans 5:2), "love" (1 Corinthians 13), "salvation" (Romans 13:11), “compassion” (Philippians 2:1-2), "power" (2 Timothy 1:7) and "kindness" (Acts 4:9)?

I do not have answers to these questions but am grateful to our lovely Jesus for asking them; just thinking about these things helps me to focus more on His will and less on mine, and to encourage me away from my comfortable or lazy habits. Trish and I both think that these times are critical for the world, and require us to re-commit to Jesus and to be sure of our duty to God and to our fellow humanity.

The Father's Heart

Trish and I have six children. We are so grateful that we all live within a few suburbs of one another in the same city. How lovely it is when we all get together with wives and girlfriends and grandchildren too, we often have more than a dozen of us sharing a meal! How saddened Trish and I are when a rift develops between some of the kids, or anything disrupts our harmony. We worry and pray until relational healing comes.

How much worse it must be for our Abba Father God. He loves us so infinitely more than we do our kids, and He has seen such lack of unity in His body for so long, (for all of my life and more). He constantly sees critical judgments, mistrust, isolation, and broken fellowships besides the materialism, pride and seeking-a-name-for-our-self, greed and the abuse that we Christians are so publicly accused of .. How His heart must ache ..

Time and again in Scripture Jesus calls us to unity, it is one of the great themes of the New Testament. In the church today there is often much talk of unity but sadly, not much of it to be seen ..

"Do not settle" has much to say to this state of affairs, as we meet, worship, pray, fellowship and work with others, unity will grow as love grows, then the world will see Jesus.

(John 4:23 NIV) "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks".

(John 4:23 Message)  "But the time is coming - it has in fact already come - when what you're called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter. It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship".

Praise Jesus. Amen.

Favourite Bible Verses

"So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,  to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up  until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-13).

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,  that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,   I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me" (John 17:20-23). 

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14). 

Amen.

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Praise Jesus.