THE CHURCH THAT GOD CAN NAME AS “HIS NEW VESSEL”

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By Mary Lindow

 

There are many things going on in the midst of God’s people. 

Yet significantly there are two things we need to speak about. 

One is a movement which is organized by man. And in this realm we find the organized church system with their planned programs, teachings and sacraments.  

The other is a movement of people coming into a frustration with those organized systems and coming out of those established order of things. 

So many churches have gone through pain and devastation because of uprising in their ranks.

Church leaders and members separate. Their unresolved issues and wounds infect others around them.  With their tongues and pen, (and emails and Facebook postings) their resentment and bitterness spread in uncontrollable proportions.

Christians in other Churches receive the bad report. They don’t even know the people involved but… because they have inclined their ears to hear them, the report poisons them like toxic waste in their souls. If unchecked, this becomes a hideous, malignant cancer cell eventually damaging their mind and attitude towards Churches or Christians. 

But the most sorrowful part is to see these believers drifting without any type of solid anchor to hold themselves steady

And that becomes another thing in itself.  The enemy quickly moves to make them into another established ‘independent group’, away from God’s original thought and purpose. 

The age-old serpent, the ultimate enemy of our souls, has not lost the art of deception even after centuries! He, even now, can cause God’s people, including the sincere ones, to miss the mark!

I believe that this touches the greatest widespread PROBLEM IN WESTERN churches.

The consumer culture has invaded the church.

Pastors and people are not united "for better or for worse" but just like it is practiced and encouraged in secular commercial organizations these days, until the pastor “fails to perform.” 

And “performance” is compared- even though unconsciously most of the time – with film and television performances!

 

Church goers in Western countries watch between 15-20 hours of television a week, AND UP TO 100 hours are spenT on mobile phone and social networks - and then THEY come to church.

They bring with them expectations of the pastor-as-preacher, pastor-as-counselor, pastor-as-comedian and all around nice guy! Which are in all roles, for 99% of pastors, unreasonable and totally impossible to ever fulfill.

Pastors are being asked to be a one man/one woman, three ringed circus act and need to jump through hoops of fire, be shot out of cannons, and get into a cage filled with lions and tame them, in order to somehow “Wow” the people, to convince them that they have a desire for them to stick around long enough to learn the basics of a godly life!

  

The consumer culture we all now live in and sadly…embrace, is less about serving one another, or encouraging one another, or …having patience with one another!

It is much more interested with getting  “top dollar value for tithes and time.”  “Or…I Pay - YOU pray!”

 

Today things have degenerated into vagueness, IRRELEVANCY and uncertainty. 

The real meaning of what God’s purpose in His people really is meant to passionately reflect…. is missing.   Things that ARE NOW being said and done… do not mean what they did mean originally in His Word. 

So many spiritual and scriptural terms are put into motion, but they are not in the same dimension and point of view, which are in the Divine plan! 

 

The tragedy is that so many welL-meaning believers have gone on with the outward appearance of searching for the will of the Lord and they fail to see that the power of His radiant life is missing! 

Well, the Apostle Paul warned us in his letter to Timothy about this….“This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come…Having the form of godliness (true religion) but denying the power thereof .”

 

My heart is really sad to see things as they are around us. 

Everything is falling short of its original design.  There is so much labor and “muster” being pumped out there and is being poured into the “church machine” more than any time in the history of God’s people! Yet the toil is ending in heart breaking disappointment! 

Nothing is fully and finally getting through to the end.  It is all stopping at some place.  Is that not what we read in the past moves of restoration or reformation?  They all stopped somewhere. 

Beloved, there is something that is missing and eluding. 

There is something that is absent which hinders the ultimate issue. Is there any one who asks,  “Lord, why is this thing happening?”  Sadly… The Majority is going on in their frenzy to find a place where they can dictate on their terms just how THEY have decided to serve Him.

  

Saints! only those devoted to humility and honor can be saved from this deadly poison that lulls those longing to be entertained and pampered, into apathy and spiritual paralysis!

 

God’s truly  DEVOTED PEOPLE in this hour should seek Him and that which is upon His heart. 

What the Lord is doing in this hour is so different …and we should be sensitive to Him!   He is looking for His New Vessel in which the power of resurrection may freely work. 

The Apostle Paul said “according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20b).  These vessels will have to be men and women who have “seen”!  They shall be like “a voice in the wilderness”.

It is becoming more and more clear that God must do a FRESH thing AMONG HIS PEOPLE! And that fresh thing is that He is drawing them to seek the Lord Himself and His manifested presence! 

The Psalmist said, “When You said oh Lord, Seek My face; my heart said unto You, Your face, Lord will I seek.”

  

Will you set your face to seek Him?

Oh that God may find His ‘Davids’ in this crucial hour that will set their faces towards Him at the command of His voice!

 

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Mary Lindow – The Messenger

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