The Church at Powai

What is church?  Now that is a loaded question for many.  I recently read a post on one of the social networking sights which said, “We need more Christianity and less Churchianity.”  It seems like many within Christendom today are trying to create a doctrine that one can walk with Jesus and yet not be a part of a local church.  Many who subscribe to this doctrine are usually people who have been hurt within a church or have seen or been a part of church splits.  Anytime one gets hurt within a local body of believers it can leave a bad taste in one’s mouth and yet the Lord has chosen the assembling together of believers to be that avenue to manifest His presence and bring healing and wholeness into the life of a believer. 

Many would like to relegate the Church to simply being the Universal Church and hence there really isn’t a need to belong to a local assembly.  That view goes contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ because at the very heart of our faith in Jesus Christ is our relationship with each other.  When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, preached the very first sermon, we see a Mega-Church of three-thousand souls birthed in one day.

What made this more unique was the fruit of Pentecost.  When the Holy Spirit came upon all those who put their faith in Jesus Christ what resulted was not only salvation but a revelation of being born again into a family of faith.  This family of faith couldn’t get enough of each other.  They would meet together in homes during the week having a meal, talking about what the Apostles were teaching and praying together.  Scripture even says they had all things in common and were selling their property to help each other out financially.  

The very first church in Jerusalem wasn’t a perfect church.  They had disagreements.  There was partiality concerning which group of widows were served first and yet they continued to seek the Lord’s leading through the Holy Spirit in working out their issues.  It is in working out our issues with each other that makes church purposeful and relevant because Christ is at the very center leading us into unity.  This kind of unity causes the world to take notice.

As Jesus is praying to the Father before His crucifixion He compares the unity that exists between Him and the Father with the unity that is being perfected within His church.   John 17:23 says, “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

The way the world comes to know that God sent His Son Jesus as an expression of His love for us is through the relationships that exist within His Church.  They will see people from various cultural and economic backgrounds  humbling themselves, forgiving each other when a wrong has been done and helping one another when there is a need.  That is something not of this world but is other than.  It takes on the air of that which is Holy, something set apart, revealing Jesus Christ working in the hearts of His sons and daughters.  Beloved, let us seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit knowing that we are a part of a family of faith and it is within this family that the Lord reveals Himself to the world.  Let us not forsake the assembling together but encourage one another all the more as we see the day drawing near. Heb.10:25.

 Praise be to Jesus!  Amen!

Pastor Lonnie

G.K.Chesterton once said: “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”  How true!  If the fire is not preserved, mindless, empty tradition results.  It’s about “form and meaning.”  Today, so many “forms” remain with “meanings” long since forgotten.  And so, within Christendom itself there is confusion.  What is “Ash Wednesday?”  Is it Biblical?  Why “Lent?”  Is it part of those pre-reformation rituals?  Is it still relevant?  And so on and so forth…  And in the process we lose sight of the main thing:  which is, post getting to know the Master, we are being changed into persons who reflect everything that is good and noble and beautiful about God.  Isn’t that exciting?  But, for that to happen, introspection must be the mechanism.

Solitude is a choice; loneliness is not.  Solitude discourages company; loneliness desperately seeks it.  And solitude was what HE chose.  The venue was the garden--thick brushes, tall trees, and Morning Glories shut down for the night.  The subdued hues of the moon dancing off the undulating slopes of hillocks created a perfect environment for prayer and solitude--one last questioning cry, one anguished soliloquy from Son to Father, encapsulated in one poignant question: “Is this Your will?” 

Christmas day 1864, at the height of the American Civil war, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned these lines: “I heard the Bells on Christmas Day their old familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth, good will to men.”   Amidst canon ball fire, the wounding of his own son and the recent death of his wife, it seemed absurd for church bells to peal out “Peace on earth, goodwill to men.”  And Longfellow wrestled with this contradiction when he wrote: “And in despair I bowed my head: ‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said, ‘For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.’”  And how many men and women would have joined in the cynicism of that moment, during those four bloody years of the civil war—questioning the existence of God; His role in peace and equality, right and wrong, war and peace.   And, of more relevance, if His birth could make any difference to the violent paths that humanity had chosen.

It’s thanksgiving time again this year, and how fast this year is going!  But we can’t let it go without stopping our busyness, our preoccupations, our forgetfulness or anything else for a brief while and say “Lord, how you’ve blessed me through this year, and I just want to say ‘thank you!’”

William Arthur Ward, one of the most quoted writers of inspirational maxims once wrote: “God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you?”
 Well, this Sunday let’s devote more than a few seconds to say that much to Him in a variety of ways; let’s approach this Sunday with joy, singing: “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever!”