SEE the Big Picture.......
......of why all of this "church" stuff matters!
8/17/2009
He is Cody. Your neighbor, and mine. Four years old, then.
CUTE! Whew! Aren’t all four year olds cute? Innocent. A fresh yet-unpainted canvas for the future!
At the time these pictures were taken by one of his neighbors, he was singing, uninhibited, while digging in the mud with his finger. He was looking for bugs. True story. : )
So what is the reason that the Kingdom of God descended with Jesus from heaven, and His Church was born to be His Bride?
What does that have to do with Cody?
It matters! It couldn’t matter any more than it does!
All this “church” gobble-dee-gook, and the billions of dollars in the book-of-the-month, and debate club fodder about this and that—
How has that helped Cody??!!
The “follow the bouncing ball” singing and sunday speeches... is that really what Jesus came to offer our little planet?
Why does defining “Church” properly, as Jesus and the apostles did—and living it that way—why does it matter? Why are some willing to be mocked, lied about, threatened, attacked, defamed, harmed, and stolen from—over this “small matter” of what “Church” is in God’s Mind?
Cody grew up a few years ago. I’ll leave it to you. Did he grow up being mocked and cursed at in his home and in the street? Was “Cody” beat up and screamed at, abandoned by his father—and left often by his mother to be raised by his peers and their older brothers on the street? Is the Cody you saw sitting in the grass, singing and poking his finger in the mud at age four—is he in a gang now? Does he have two guns and a knife in his bedroom, buying and sometimes selling drugs?
What happened to the “fresh yet-unpainted canvas” of a future that this sweet little boy had in front of him?
This beautiful new addition to our earth, Cody, living in your city and mine—why did it come to this AGAIN?
Why CODY? And why all of his friends?
It came to this, again, because they never met Jesus as they could have, in His Body! They never had the chance to escape the ghetto life of sin, pride, selfishness, anger, vice, hatred, prejudice, and the darkness that satan sells everyone who doesn’t meet Jesus.
It’s that simple. That’s why “how we have ‘church’” matters! For CODY!
That’s the BIG PICTURE. That’s why it matters “what church really is” in the Bible.
Jesus said THIS is “why it matters” what “Church” is:
John 13:35
NET Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.
NIV By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
NASB “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
NLT Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.
MSG “This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”
BBE By this it will be clear to all men that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.
NRSV By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
NKJV “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The purpose of Jesus’ Body, daily living in His Life Together, is to show the world Jesus!
By their visible daily Love for each other in their neighborhoods—and workplaces together—and in the marketplace together,
CODY AND HIS FAMILY CAN SEE JESUS IN HIS BODY!
And Jesus can change their lives and families, and save them.... from themselves and the devil’s culture, forever.
That’s the BIG PICTURE and it is WHY it MATTERS what “Church” is (daily LIFE together in Jesus) and what Biblical “church” is NOT (merely attending a weekly ceremony or program filled with leaven, with automatic “leaders” and speech makers and music meisters, pre-programmed, calendarized, and therefore unwilling to allow Jesus to be Head).
It matters.
For Cody.
For the Cody’s in the neighborhood, in the gangs, or in the pews—whose lives and families never are really Touched and Changed beyond this fallen world’s ways and catastrophes—because they never met Jesus rather than words, ideas, books, songs, programs, and gimmicks.
It is God who says,
“The LIFE becomes the Light of men!”
For Cody.
Consider “why” we are here, and why we were born, and what the Purpose of God is here? WHY stand up for “what Church IS” in the Bible? What difference does it make? Why oppose what the (living room or cathedral) machine that wears Jesus’ name stands for and does, without daily Life?
Because CODY DESERVES TO SEE JESUS IN HIS LIFE TOGETHER.
No Cody will always be four.
Satan takes what he can—when Jesus Life is not VISIBLE and real.
Acts 2:36-47 (NKJV)
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
The Jesus Life Together—The Church—The Big Picture of Jesus LIVING Through His Body:
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
So continuing daily with one accord on the Temple grounds, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
FOR CODY!! He deserves to SEE JESUS!
“The Good News of the Kingdom shall go into every nation, and then the end shall come.”
“The Good News of the Kingdom shall go into every nation, and then the end shall come.”
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