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Have you ever
noticed that when anyone talks about the problems in the
church it is usually received as a rebuke to every
OTHER church - but, "...not MY church - I go
to a good church."
This reasoning is based, almost
always, upon that particular person's level of comfort,
familiarity and nearly never upon how closely their particular
church resembles what Jesus proposed over two millennia
ago.
How important is it to you to get
this right?
There are a number of
identifying points to recognizing a "True" (by
that I mean Biblical) Church.
The red ink in the Bible give us many of
these points.
1. There is no hierarchy
(bosses). Matthew 20:25-28, "...Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles
exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise
authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you:
but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your
minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him
be your servant..."
Matthew 23:8-10, "But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your
Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call
no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father,
which is in heaven. Neither be ye called teachers: for
one is your Teacher, even
Christ."
2. There would never be
heard a pretentious public prayer. Matthew
6:5-8, "And when you pray, you shalt not
be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in
the synagogues ... But, when you pray, enter into
thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy
Father which is in secret; and thy Father which sees in secret
shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain
repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall
be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore
like unto them: for your Father knows what things ye have need
of, before ye ask him."
3. There would
never be a public offering. Matthew 6:1-4, "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men
... But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know
what thy right hand does: That thine alms may be in
secret: and thy Father which sees in secret himself shall
reward thee openly."
How
are we doing so far? Not so good.
The
truth is that we are a sick and feeble generation of believers
who cannot make it through a day without some reinforcement,
support or, as some say, "getting our batteries
charged". Therefore we don't care that the steeple is a
phallic emblem of our "church's" pagan past - as long as we
get our assurance fix.
Is this crippled and powerless
replacement for the kingdom of God, really worth attempting to
repair? Are we even supposed to? |
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