Spectating or Serving

The church is the Body and Bride of Christ, commissioned to carry the gospel into all the world, and especially in our local community. We reach out with the gospel of Christ to friends, relatives, work and hobby associates and neighbors (Mark 16:15-16).

We serve in one ministry in our local church as the Lord calls us to assist, working in an area in which we are interested, and remaining faithful to that calling until God directs us to serve in a new direction in our church body (Romans 12:4-5).

When we see a need, or something that is blocking the growth of our church family, rather than complaining, ridiculing and looking for another church, we put our hand to the plow and help to change things for the better.

This may require that we increase our financial giving, spend more time supporting the church leadership and ministries, taking the initiative to ask the leadership the ways in which we can be the most help to the Body and allowing them to equip us for this ministry.

We do not expect our church to have the personality, ministries, outreach and worship identical to every other church in town, because God gives each congregation His own unique flavor to meet the need for which He designed our particular congregation.

We faithfully pray to the Lord of the Harvest to bring workers into the field; and we serve as an example of a loving, outreaching, soul-winning, hardworking member of the local church where God calls us.

When we do this, we see God's hand faithfully supplying all the needs in our life and in the life of that congregation; and we feel blessed to be a part of His work in our community as we partake in the ministries of the family of God meeting in the facilities which God provided and for which we care and contribute towards.

Prayer:

Father God, raise up congregations across the nation that are committed to one another as Your family. It is so easy for a person to divorce a congregation and go across town to find one that better suits their needs, with no regard to Your will for them in service to that original congregation. Help us to covenant together in faith and to fellowship around the Gospel instead of the worship or preaching style, the size of the bulletin or the amount of lights and instruments used on the stage.

Teach us to agree on the central truths of Your Word and to live by these truths rather than by our personal preferences and carnal desires. Inform us about the true meaning of our spiritual gifts and help us to find a place to use those gifts for the mutual edification of the Body in which You call us to serve.

Remind us that contrary to popular belief, the church is not a gathering of spectators called to criticize the music, minister and ministries of a particular congregation. Before we were even conceived, You called us and placed us in a certain church in order to serve the Body in any needed ministry to which you call us (Ephesians 2:10).

Thought for the Day:

We do not discriminate in the fellowship of the church, but we include every race, nationality, dialect and personality; however, we do insist on members adhering to the primary principles of the scripture and living according to its dictates rather than the liberal, all-inclusive attitude of the world today; everyone is welcome to attend, but God only offers membership in His family to adherents of Biblical Truth.

Emotional Disconnect during Holiday Celebrations

The first Mother's Day I celebrated after my husband decided that there was no option for us but divorce was the hardest day of my life. I felt a deep loss because I was separated from my children by hundreds of miles.

I went to fellowship with my church as usual, but did not celebrate, because I was too full of grief. I ended up leaving the service early, going to my tiny duplex and eating my homemade ravioli and marinara sauce to assuage my emotional pain.

Mother's and Father's Day, as we celebrate them every year, leave out those men and women who were not able to have children. They grieve this loss every day of their life, but especially on Mother's and Father's Day.

What about men and women who lost a child during pregnancy or maybe even at birth; or those people who chose abortion or adoption in a moment of crisis and are now full of grief, remorse and guilt?

There are people who came to Christ after a period of suffering through jail time, addiction, mental illness or estrangement from their mate; and now it is too late for them to bear children.

Other individuals lost their beloved mother or father through death, and many lost them way too early in life. Some have a parent drifting away from them through Alzheimer's, dementia, cancer or some other debilitating disease.

They are forced to put on happy faces during the hardest day of the year for them. Their grief is invisible to the rest of us, but it is eating them alive as the rest of us celebrate our children and our role as mother and father.

Then there is that percentage of people who suffered cruel treatment at the hand of a parent who was debilitated by health and psychological issues. Insecurity and the loss of their basic human needs, which were never met, affect every moment of their life.

These beloved persons suffered mental, emotional and physical abuse, deprivation, humiliation, degradation and belittlement as children and are still crippled today with physical, emotional and mental handicaps.

Many of us come to Christ and receive His healing, hiding our self with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-4). Some of us teach our self how to parent our self with nurturing, cherishing and constant care; and to come to God for His nurturing care (1 Peter 5:7).

Some of them suffer alone, because we no longer allow our self to get to know one another in churches. We smile at each other when we enter and leave the one hour service on Sunday morning, but we do not know one another's heartaches and trials.

Prayer:

Father God, help us to get to know one another in the church; so that we can support each other, especially those men and women who suffer silently with deep wounds that may still be raw and infected, or that created a gaping chasm in their life.

Remind us that as a church, we can make holidays less of a challenge and more of a blessing by celebrating all people, not just with those who actually bore children and have healthy and nurturing parents, but also by sharing in the loss and grief of every person in our congregation all through the year.

Thought for the Day:

Our church can have ministries that do more than celebrate or help spouses and parents, but that also minister to all men and women regardless of their marital or parental status. We can learn each other's stories of loss, grief and suffering; and support one another each day of the year.

Foundations of the Faith

Read: 2 Peter 1:5-8

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.” - 2 Peter 1:3

As a new Christian, I wanted to skip the milk of God's Word (Hebrews 5:12) and to move right along to the meat. I wanted to hurry through the first principles of truth, so that I could wade into the deeper truths of the Kingdom of God. God slowed me down, however. He showed me that I had to grow in grace and wisdom by first getting a good, solid spiritual foundation based on the basic doctrines of our faith (Colossians 1:9).

In these studies, I learned that I secured my salvation by repenting of the dead works of sin and putting all of my trust in Christ. I made a public profession of what happened in my heart by getting baptized. I started the discipline of daily Bible reading and prayer. I found a church in which to learn and to grow and to fellowship with other Believers. Then I started telling others about what Christ did for me. I also learned how much God loves me and that He has a perfect plan for my life. Little did I know that these simple truths would see me through some rough times ahead.

After this, I started listening to the Holy Spirit's promptings on a daily basis. I learned to discern which thoughts He planted in my mind, and which came from Satan or human reasoning. I started teaching little children the truths of God Word. Then, years later, God started using me to mentor younger women and to encourage people in all walks of life.

Now, I thank God for that solid foundation. It saw me through the trials of losing all of my worldly goods more times than I care to count, of being rejected by my husband and daughter, of having to support myself after 22 years of marriage, of meeting a new husband with young children, and of changing ministries and homes twice since then. No matter what life throws at me, the storms never affect my spiritual house, however, because it was built long ago upon the bedrock of Jesus Christ.

Prayer:
Lord, help me to continue to grow in Your grace and to never fail to show love to those You bring my way. Help me to ensure that new Believers receive the same solid footing in the doctrines of our faith that I did, so that they too may withstand any storm life brings their way.

 
Thought for the Day:
Salvation is just the beginning of a wondrous journey with God.