Two things are changing our tribe of believers. Each is welcomed.
First, praise of and to God is increasing. Second, Jesus is becoming more prominent. These have not always been our practice.
What has been our mode of operation past is that all eyes have been fixed upon the church. In other words...US.
Little was attributed to the lavish works of God. Our doctrine minimized His activity to keep us from shifting into a perceived error which, interpreted, meant we don't want things in the church that we can neither control, manage, nor explain.
To follow Jesus as a living being was basically a courtesy call. The church was what we were all about. In other words....US.
I don't mean to imply that God was never praised and that Jesus was never noticed. We legalists referenced both when needed. Yet, even our fundamental question to strangers if we were so inclined to reach out was, Do you go to church? What church do you attend?
My mission--and I believe to be so of many of my colleagues--was to de-church and re-church the pre-churched. Possibly many of you just don't relate to my mindset in those days; but my goal was to see that they did church right.
I know this. Such fruit has prompted a significant number among us to approach the eleventh hour with great fear that I haven't done enough. How many times I have been called out in the night to hear this verse. The cure for it is found in two things: (1) praising God, and (2) making Jesus more prominent.
Those two directives shift eyes from self to Father and Brother. These two put hearts at peace. Our works won't. Our church organization won't. Our piano-less singing won't.
God will. Jesus will. And they gave us Their Spirit to bear what we can't possibly on our own; love, joy, peace, patience, etc.
The very good news among us is that we are growing in both accounts. This change is surely necessary.
1 comment:
We used to see God working but always kept our eyes on "the brethren" to gauge whether or not we could accept His direction. I think we always knew that being a believer was more than we were allowed to show in order to remain proper in the church.
Your correct Terry; there was and is more, and God has been patient with us even in our timid human fear of not being accepted.
Even if is is the 11th hour, we still have an hour!!
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