January 2024 Christ Talk

Wake up! It is time to stop doing Church and start being the Church. God has given us a great mission, and our unwillingness to accept God’s lead affects our ability to impact our community and the world for the kingdom of God.

Allow me to share two passages of Scripture that may provide a basis for my wake-up call. The first is from Ephesians 3, verse 10, where Paul tells us about God's purposeful assignment to only one organization, the Church; “through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.” I cannot overstate the fact that this privilege belongs to the Church alone. Knowing this fact compelled me to go on assignment with a simple goal: to spend some time viewing the witness of the Body of Christ.

I spent some time visiting churches and was honestly surprised by what I saw. At a Church service in Georgia, I was present on the Sunday when approximately twenty-five people joined the Church. I thought for a moment that this Church was on fire with the presence of God; after all, so many people were pursuing membership. I later learned that this was a calculated effort to break the Church from its larger denomination and allow them to refuse to affirm Christians who were also gay.

I later visited a church in Florida where someone stood outside of an affirming church with a megaphone heaping condemning comments on people who had come to worship. The thing I failed to see in these places was evidence of the love of God spreading abroad and our mighty witness of God’s wisdom! Instead, both groups were pursuing what makes them feel comfortable, which led me to examine the Church I both pastor and attend.

Our likes, dislikes, and wants cannot overtake our purpose in Christ, yet both Churches moved toward what they determined was in their best interest. Do we fully understand our purpose in Christ as individuals and as His Body and move in it? If we spend hours in Bible study and workshops but have not learned to forgive others who offend us, we are not His body. If we are motivated by what we like and not who God is, we have missed our calling in Christ. If we need to manipulate situations to obtain our way, we do not understand our authority in Christ and God's wisdom to work for our good despite how things appear.

Body of Christ, I love you, but have a greater love for Jesus. He has proven that he loves us; now it is up to each one of us to show our love for him, not in mere words but in action, by demonstrating that we are His Body.

As I visited, I remembered 2 Timothy 3 verse 5, which implies that “people have a form of godliness but deny its power.” That passage again forced me to look at myself and ask: As believers, are we impacting the heavenly realms, demonstrating the varied wisdom of our God? Are we busy doing what Jesus did or complaining about what we don't like? Have we chosen to post on Facebook rather than pray to God about issues of concern? Church, my call to the Body of Christ is simple: that we are deliberate and sincere in our turn toward God and away from what I have dubbed the “I likes.” My heart is not to insult us but to remind us of our unique call and position in Christ.

We demonstrate that we are His body when we remain attached to the vine, yet many of us fail to stay attached. I saw people banding together in their effort to denounce gay Christians. I saw people shouting their disdain for people who had come to worship the Lord; it is time for us to band together using every strategy God has given us to bind workings in the heavenly realms against people whom God also loves. Church, we must wake up. God has endowed us with purpose; we should show others our mighty God's varied wisdom. Our God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; God chose the unconventional by the world’s standards (Samaritan and not the priest) to demonstrate what true love and compassion look like in God’s Kingdom in Luke 10. What will God use today if we banished the “I likes” in favor of what God says?

Let us work to fulfill our purpose in Christ. The way to that purpose is rooted in the love of God and allowing that love to lead us as we love ourselves and others. If we begin hanging up judgment and earnestly pursuing God’s will for us, we will impact the world for the kingdom of God. Wake up, for we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. That work is best demonstrated in our walk and not just our talk. Let’s be the Body of Christ, focused on love, moving in our purpose, and revealing the varied wisdom of our awesome God.