Friday, Jan 23, 2009

TWG - January 23, 2009 - Why go to Church?

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TWG – January 23, 2009
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com
Joshua 7; Psalm 130; 3 John 1

Today is January 23, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. TWG is a complete turn of events; it is a 180 degree turn around. God is changing us and turning us around as a community. This is not business as usual, this is life transforming, this is spiritual, this is essential.

Yaaaawwwnnn… Yesterday I was a bit overtired. I slept in until 7 AM and did not publish TWG. I’ve been a bit tired for a week or so, so I thought it was important that I got some needed extra sleep. It was a busy day. John stopped in to pray. Alberta dropped by to talk. Bill was in the hallway working. Ben wanted to see what was going on so Bill and I gave him a tour of things. He’s supposed to come by and finish taping today! Thanks Ben. With all that activity, I suddenly looked up and the clock said 5:30 PM! I was an hour late in leaving! What happened to the day? I rushed off to Bible Study where we talked about Stewardship. I put a picture of me driving down the road on the blog at http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com. Check it out. One of the Awana boys took it of me.

Today’s thought comes from Ephesians 4:11-14 He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,

Some of us wish we could be children again. Little children are so carefree. They don’t have all the worries of life that we do. They are young, healthy, smiling and untouched by the experiences we’ve had. But little children are vulnerable. Left to themselves they are helpless and lost. They can be deceived without much effort and easily exploited. I really wouldn’t choose to return to my childhood if I could. I would rather be grown up. I don’t like being lost. I don’t enjoy being exploited and I don’t like the feeling of helplessness. So how do you “grow up?” Among a host of Spiritual Secrets God has given us is one we call “the church.” If you want to grow to maturity you must regularly, consistently and as often as possible take advantage of the teaching and equipping ministry of the church. God has a plan for your growth and it goes like this: Jesus gave some men special gifts of teaching and equipping ministries. These are Pastors and Teachers and Evangelists. Their gifts have a dual purpose in the church: #1 to Equip the saints so they can do the work of the ministry, and #2 to edify the body of Christ. Some people come to church only to be edified or built up. And teaching and preaching does that. But that is only half the story. You really won’t grow up until you are equipped and serving. Some of us don’t want to grow up that much! We’d don’t want commitment! We don’t want to have responsibility! We want to be free from the constraints of responsibility. You can’t have it both ways. You either choose God’s path to maturity or you stay immature, easily deceived by the trickery of men and tossed about by every wind of doctrine. To grow up you must develop an insatiable appetite for the edification & teaching ministry of the church and you must be willing to be equipped for service and then put that into practice. If you will “sit at Jesus feet” and be edified AND equipped, you will grow up to a mature man and become more and more like Jesus.

Dear Lord Jesus: I want to be like you. I want to sit at your feet and learn, I want to be with you and follow your example. And then Lord, I want to go and serve. I want to put into practice what I have learned and pass on the faith. Help me to grow up to be just like You!

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 9:53 AM |   

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