Church History - Church outside the system

Throughout history, from the beginning of the church of Jesus Christ till today, there has existed those who yearned for two things. One is a passionate love for Jesus Christ that puts Him far above all things in this world or the world to come. Now the Father has already raised Him to this place of course, yet it must be worked into our inner man fully and completely.

Secondly, there has been the desire that the Christ be revealed in His people, not in a man-made system created from blending into the world system, but a living expression of this risen Lord. An exact representation of Him on the earth through His people.

When a person studies church history, we who have done it and live outside the institutional church system, notice a very interesting thing. There are always these things called footnotes that mention these little-known groups of people that wanted to take things further on into Christ than they currently had. They wanted more of Christ and got it. Untold numbers lost their lives as a result of this hunger and as a result of their response to that hunger. 

The reason for this bit of  history is to show you that there are many similar things that numerous of these people up to this day have had in common and have built upon in continuous pursuit of the Lord.

Below is a list of the things that happened and continue to happen up until this current moment in time.

While we need to learn the things that have existed from the past, each generation needs to take things to a new level.

But first we must learn the things of the past so that we do not have to start over from the beginning.

One of the reasons this is hard is because many of those outside institutional religion were slaughtered and their literature destroyed so that there could be no rebuttals to the “official” version of what happened.  Always remember one thing, history is written by the “winners.” Not the winners from God’s point-of-view, but winners in the sense of “exterminators.”

First they must exterminate then they write their version of what happened. That’s a great deal of what history is. Thankfully a lot of those who murdered these great saints, were so full of themselves that they wrote diaries and accounts of their persecutions to justify what they did.  Unbelievably to this very day I hear wicked men defending the actions of these butchers in the name of protecting the church. It will be very interesting after the resurrection to see these men in the fiery light of the judgments of the Lord.

Anyway, we do have enough things to get a good idea of what the lives of these saints were like. Specifically how they lived, which is what I want to concentrate on today.

Community

One of the main things that is always mentioned is that they lived in community together. I mean in close, physical quarters. Today we would call it a neighborhood. Some even built or settled areas and lived in cities that they built. The cities basically being the church. Ever since I became a Christian I have found that for the most part, many of those outside the church system do the same thing today.
I have lived and worked among a number of churches outside the system and each one had the desire to live close to one another.

Centrality of Christ

Another thing that always was part of who they were was the centrality of Jesus Christ. He was everything to them. He was their doctrine, their life, and their purpose. Jesus was far above everything else in this life to them.

Jesus being a part of their life 24 hours a day was another common part of what these believers always lived. Thinking of Christ as someone you met for an hour or two a week wouldn’t have fit into the matrix of their thinking.

Jesus was always more than a biblical doctrine to them, He was a living reality. He was deeply interested in every area and moment of their lives, and they relied upon Him in every way. These same characteristics have been part of those I have lived among and close to over three decades. 

Church is not a System

There was always a fervent rejection of the church being some type of system among us throughout history. It was always something alive and vibrant, not overly doctrinal in a way that systematically revealed Christ as some type of robotic creation that moved only within the confines of man’s personal interpretation.
 
Deep Inner Work

The deep inner working of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the Christian was one of the most continuous aspects of life of these Godly believers. They believed that Christ was very close in them, no, not only believed it, but practically lived it.

This inner working always challenged them to become more Christlike, to have more of the cross of Jesus Christ worked into their lives, so that the life of Christ could be shown forth.

Corporate Living

That brings us to another extremely important aspect of these brothers and sisters. They never only thought in terms of individuality, they thought corporately just as powerfully. What do I mean? They realized that they were a many-membered body of Christ. There was a strong brotherly love for one another that came about from daily living and working with one another. It was real and worked into their lives in every way.

They knew that God moved among them individually for the purpose of building up the corporate life. Like the Godhead, they were one but have various and diverse ways of showing Him forth. They were not lone rangers out there by themselves, rather they had a deep commitment to one another in Christ.

This doesn’t mean that there wasn’t uniqueness. Just that they used that uniqueness for the common building up of one another in Christ. Like Paul reveals to us, they were many members but one body. In their case it was true and practically real.

Conscious of God’s heavenly realm

The last thing I want to mention is that these brothers and sisters always had a sense of God’s spiritual realm. They understood that God was Spirit and they had that sense of otherworldliness that all Christians desperately need.

I don't mean by that the strange type of people that have glazed over eyes and appear outwardly to be in a trance-like communication with God. Rather I mean, and the Scriptures mean, that it's a people that have their hearts and minds set on the things above, and not the things on this earth.

There is a sense of the fact this world isn't all there is, and that there is another world entirely different from this one that represents God in another realm. It's a higher way of life and living, which is why we are taught to ask God for His will to be done and kingdom to come in earth as it is in heaven.

It's a realization that His world of heaven has come down to earth to dwell within us by the Spirit in a real and living way. That we can fellowship and enjoy His presence in peace and joy with one another.

That this great God of ours wants to share the fellowship of His son with us. That’s what truly eating and drinking of Him means; the great eternal purpose that He wants to share of that greatness and glory that He is with His created people.  There is nothing in the world that can compare with this.

What is fantastic about this is this is the just the beginning place of the legacy that has been left for us to continue on with.

Some of you fret about the fact that many of us want to live close to one another so that we can be together in Him on this earth as close as we possibly can. While it is definitely challenging, it is also more than worth it.

Pioneers must do these types of things. Maybe in a couple of centuries there will be neighborhoods all over the world living in this way so that no one will have to move more than a few miles or less to be part of this wonderful way of life. That’s the price many of us must be willing to pay now if we want to leave a true legacy to the next generation. We must think and live beyond ourselves. The early church did, as did many throughout the ages, so must we.

Church History - Peter Waldo

There are many who feel that Peter Waldo had a direct hand in helping to found that group of people that history has labeled the ‘Waldensians.’ While others believe that they existed long before Peter was born.  

None of this really matters, for there can be no doubt that he played a part and had an influence upon them no matter what stage their existence was at.  

I think that one of the characteristics that set Peter apart wasn’t so much what his doctrine was as the way he lived. There came a time in his life that he believed God had called him to sell all that he had and go and preach the gospel. After doing that and leaving enough for his wife to live on, he obeyed and went and did it.  
At a time when the love of money was so part of the religious system, this was quite a step to take.  

While at first this was embraced by the religious leaders, eventually they grew quite uncomfortable with his way of life. Not so much that he went about poor, but rather that they didn’t have a say in what he did.  

What is tremendous about this is that in his own fellowship with the Father and Jesus, he was given instruction to do something and he obeyed and did it. Now this was something that the religious leaders couldn’t and wouldn’t tolerate. After all, what would God be doing talking to someone like Peter without consulting them first and getting their approval?  

So with the consistent monotony of the religious system, they attempted to shut him up. As usual it didn’t work. When God wants to do something, He just doesn’t like religion getting in His way.  

Like others, Peter and those who participated in these things went out and preached the gospel to those who would hear them. They went out by twos and had a huge impact on the world of that day.
 
Because he refused the popes admonition to stop preaching, he and others with him were excommunicated. This did nothing to deter them from continuing to do the Lord’s will as He moved within their spirits and reached out to a world desperately in need of a real testimony of who Christ was.  

Again, to me the significance of Peter Waldo was that he showed forth the ancient unction to fellowship with Christ and the Father outside of any human mediator. This inevitably rubs paganistic, religious systems the wrong way. Somebody always wants to try to manipulate and control what they think God should do within human beings. This will always fail as history has proven.  

Peter Waldo, and those with him, have shown us that actions and practices that come from fellowshipping with God has always been the result that comes from His eternal purpose.  

It is that fellowship that the world and religious systems and power seekers hate. After all, where is the need for mediators when we can know Him directly ourselves? This is the testimony that Peter Waldo left us.

Church History - John Wycliffe

Before we get into some of the importance of Wycliffe, it will be interesting to note a similarity that existed in his time that also existed in the time of Martin Luther.  

Both of these men have been given great importance in playing a role in the reforming of the church. Yet, interestingly enough, none of this could have happened over a normal lifespan if they hadn’t received help. What am I talking about?  One of the most interesting facts that link the two of them is that they had physical protection from civic rulers of their day that protected them from harm by the religious authorities that wanted to kill them.  

This gave them enough time to repeatedly get their message across in a way that has lasted throughout the centuries.  

Why is Wycliffe so important? He is one of the few, which over a lifetime, were able to challenge the absolute power of the existing religious institution without being martyred.  

This gave him time to not only write against the errors of the day, but to train up others that went out all over to show forth the ways of God more clearly. These that inherited this ministry were eventually called ‘Lollards.’  

One of the things that Wycliffe did was to point out that there was only one mediator between God and man. While this may not sound too radical by today’s standards, back then it was not only revolutionary, but considered heretical.  

Back then it must be remembered that for the most part it wasn’t doctrine that was what people thought of when they heard the word heresy; rather it was whether someone went along with the notion that the institutional church leaders had absolute authority. Challenge that authority in any way and you were considered a heretic and worthy of death.  Versions of this continue to this day.  

Another one of the important things that he accomplished was that he oversaw and participated in the translating of the scriptures into the language of the common people of his nation, which was English.  

As throughout all of history, this was hated by those who loved absolute power over men. It went against the concept of centralized power. It affirmed the reality that Christ was to be the center of all things.  

Wycliffe began to see the church in a light that many in our day still do not understand fully or live out practically. He talks of the church not being an institutional organization whose leaders are ordered in some type of power-based hierarchy. Rather he was seeing it as many today have, in the light of being a body, the bride, a living organism being filled with Christ through the Spirit.  

He saw that salvation came through Christ and Christ alone, not through some type of official connection to an institution.  

While there were others before him that saw these things and lived them, Wycliffe was able to survive long enough to show forth some of these things and to pass them on to others that took them up and ran with them for generations to come. He was truly a remarkable individual.  

Church History - Silvanus - (Constantine)

In writing about Silvanus, I want to mention first that his original name was Constantine, but so you don’t in any way confuse him with the pagan emperor Constantine, I will call him only by the name he adopted after going through a strong experience from God.

What began his life’s work was a providential meeting that was set up by God. A man journeying on his way back home was entertained by Silvanus and taken in to his home. The traveler had with him the four gospels and the letters of Paul. They began reading and sharing them together. As a result when the guest left, he gave them to Silvanus.

The continuing seeking and entering into these scriptures brought around a dramatic transformation within him.

It was at this point that he changed his name and began to share with others the tremendous things that were happening to him. He and others began to reject the worship and superstitious adoration of icons and images. This brought about a strong response from the religious authorities.

The great contribution that Silvanus gave us was the passion to go back and see how the early church lived out their lives in Christ and then he would take those things and impart that to others.  

Another terrific part of what Christ was doing in him was the desire to return to the simplicity that is in Christ. The religious behemoth had become so worldly that it was incapable of imparting any type of life to others in any way. The politics of religious power and devious stratagems permeated the institutional religious organization.

This simplicity in Christ and passion for doing things as Christ would have them started to spread everywhere.

One of the other great insights that Silvanus entered into in practice was the work of planting churches like the original apostles did. This was a tremendous, powerful concept that shook the world of that time.

In a tremendous display of spontaneous life from Christ and reaching out to the spiritually starving, one of the great moments in Christian history began to unfold.
The powers that be couldn’t allow this to go unchallenged, so they eventually got hold of Silvanus and made him stand in front of some his fellow believers and they were ordered to stone him. They were offered pardon by the authorities if they would do it. Only one complied, and unfortunately this killed him.

Yet, as always, the testimony goes on. There were those who the Lord raised up afterward and continued on in the purpose of God.

Silvanus is one of the great men of Christian history. Far before most believers saw the need for change, God raised up a man who few have compared with since. His insights were so far ahead of his time that most even today have a hard time grasping and moving into this way of Christ.

We need and must take heed to what these godly pioneers of the faith partook in. We not only need to enter into all of these ways, but then we must go beyond further up into the ways of God that we may pass the testimony to those who will passionately follow.

Church History - Priscillian

Priscillian was one of the early, great Christian men that emerged out of the paganization of Christianity by Constantine and his band of power-hungry men.
 
As typical of the lies that are always spoken of by those who have hungered for control over those who are Christs' throughout the ages, they leveled the ubiquitous lie toward Priscillian that he was guilty of Manichaeism.  

This instance was one of the first creative applications of ‘heresy’ by pagan Christians. What was their interpretation of heresy? It was those who didn’t agree with absolute power and with men having absolute knowledge of God.

In other words, it is expected that one must do exactly what is told them, without challenging what is being said. Of course this is the result of taking on the characteristics of Constantine, who was one of history’s great megalomaniacs.  What is really amazing about all of this is how quickly this adaptation of worldly power was infiltrated into the church.  

So in the midst of this marriage of paganism and Christianity, Priscillian was born.  

What were some of the ‘errors’ of Priscillian? He called Christians to be holy which could only come about through a deep communion with Jesus Christ. This could only come to pass through an experiential faith that was alive unto God.  Another one of the things they hated him for was that he didn’t believe that there was any distinction between a regular believer and the ‘clergy.’  He saw the truth that Christ lived in all believers and that they had no need of a special class of people to stand as mediators between God and man. As we all know there is only one mediator between God and man and it is Christ Jesus.  

He knew that there had never existed such a thing as a special brand of believer in this type of authoritarian role. This concept of ‘clergy’ came straight out of paganism.  Of course the real underlying threat to the religious authorities was that it undermined their foundation of power. They had to stop him.  

So along with the charge of Manichaeism, they also accused him of sorcery and witchcraft.  

He was condemned by the religious authorities and turned over to the state for execution.  

He, along with several others, was among the first Christians murdered by the new pagan, ‘Christian’ religion.  

Now was the beginning of those who would kill others in the name of Christ so that they could exercise unlimited power. Priscillian’s battle against this cost him his life, yet he still speaks to us today in our battle against those who want to put themselves in the place of Christ in the life of the church.  We could do worse than take heart and follow his example.

Centered in Christ

One of the most important characteristics of the early church was their life being centered in Christ. You cannot read the New Testament without encountering this reality over and over again.
 
When the believers were first called “Christians” it was done as an attack upon their way of life. Of course the word Christian basically means that those who it was directed at were Christ centered. Those who first applied it to the believers at Antioch did so for the purpose of mocking them.  Their lives so lived for and from Christ that those who did not believe scoffed at their passion for Christ. This is not a problem that exists among believers too much in our day.  

There is an absolute call to return to this fervor for Christ again. When I say the word fervor, I am not referring to some emotional high that goes up and down with the events of life. No I am referring to a daily, moment by moment fellowship with Christ that depends upon Him for all things.  

Since all things have been summed up in Christ, when we are in Him, we have all things. While all who believe are in Him, I am talking about the practical, daily outworking of this reality. When we truly believe, we have all of Him, not just a bit and a piece here and there.  

When you read the account of the early church, you get a glimpse of the practical reality of being centered in Christ. You see the outworking of the spirit through Christ’s body, giving and sharing Christ with one another, building one another up in love.  Their entire lives existed for Christ and Christ alone. Oh it included the many aspects of everyday life as Paul reveals in his letters to the churches. For example he speaks of work, marriage, children, loving one another, among many things.  

The point is that none of this existed outside of the person of Jesus Christ. It was showing forth who Christ is to the world. They saw Christ as the resurrected, living Lord and then responded to one another as a result of this reality. Christ was their truth, He was their reality. There was no other truth or reality.  

This is the most needed thing that any believer throughout history will ever need. Nothing can be right if a person isn’t living a life that is absolutely centered in the person of Jesus Christ. You can do all sorts of external things and look good to man, but you will never be able to enter fully into that great eternal purpose that has existed from before creation to live a live that is totally in Christ Himself.  

When you commit yourself and ask God for this privilege, He will more than answer your hearts request and bring into all that the Father has prepared for you before the foundation of the earth.  

God’s Invisible Realm

One of the aspects of the early church that was emphasized and lived out from day to day was the realization that there was another world that was much higher and more real than the one that we could interact with concerning our senses.

As we all know our Lord dwells in heaven. His will there is done completely and perfectly. He reigns there with complete and total response to His desires.

I want to touch on a couple of aspects of where He dwells. First, it is the real world. This world that we can see with our natural eyes and interact with from our senses is only a shadow of that realm. When people many times tell us to live in the real world, they don’t really know what they are talking about. The real world is a spiritual world, a land of spirit. The physical world is the world that is secondary.

That is why when Jesus responds to the request to teach His disciples how to pray, one of the things that He tells us is to ask that His kingdom would come and His will would be done on this world in the same way that it is done in heaven.

Jesus didn’t come to take dominion in heaven, He came to take dominion of earth. Heaven is perfectly executed in His rule and reign. It’s the earth that He has purposed to reveal Himself in.

When I say the earth I mean that inner work in the hearts of brothers and sisters. Jesus revealed to us that it is what is inside of us that needs the cleaning, not the outside. If we clean the inside, the outside will take care of itself.

This is why when He reveals the pattern of the tabernacle and the temple to us in the Old Testament, we always have the inner place that moves out to the outer place. This is that inner work that Christ does within us through the Spirit. This is heaven coming down to earth.

Again when we look at New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, we see that river flowing out throughout the city, this is the Spirit of God moving from within to without.  

The point is that God brings this world into the spirits of believers. This world is none other than Himself living in the very recesses of our beings.

Heaven itself, in the person of Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit dwells within us in a most real way. Nothing anywhere in earth or in heaven is greater than this reality. Nothing is more intimate or transforming.

Yet few really comprehend what this amazing Christ within us means. We are told that our hope of glory is Christ within us, and that is very true.

We need to embrace this with everything that we are able so that Christ may have His way in the earth.

Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God does not come with observation. That’s because of the truth that His kingdom isn’t of or from this world.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were flustered by not knowing where Jesus came from. They saw the kingdom of God being revealed within their midst and yet quibbled about what city He had been born in; like this had any relevance to heaven coming to earth right before their eyes.

The first Adam was from the earth, the second Adam was the Lord from heaven. His roots were in another realm, and so are ours. That’s why Jesus says of His disciples that they were not of this world either.

When you believe you are born from another realm, another world that is different and greater than this one, you will cause great offense to some people, including other believers. Whether you know it or not this offends many of you. You are trying to please those in this world rather than our Lord who is from heaven.

We must understand that our roots are in heaven and this is what we pray will come down and expand into this tragic world.

We must learn to love this deep, inner working of the Spirit of God within us as He shapes and forms us into the image of Jesus Christ.

We live in this world but live from another. We will never be able to respond to our Lord’s desire if we don’t hold close the reality of a world beyond the one we see with our natural eyes.

What real body life is!

We have heard this term before under this name and also under the phrase of 'priesthood of all believers.'

These types of words or phrases hardly exist among institutional Christianity. Why? Words follow ways of living. The reason that you don't find one-man ministries called 'pastor' in the New Testament story is because they didn't exist. You can't talk about something that isn't a part of your everyday life. That's why a physical structure being a 'church' isn't biblical. It didn't exist in the practice of the first believers. It was made up about 250 years later. 

So how did the early church experience Christ in their lives? What is body life?
 
As with everything concerning our walk, it is all centered in Christ Himself.
 
Now we’ll look at the end result of body life so that we can examine its purpose. We are told several things concerning Christ in Eph. 4 that shows where we are going.
 
We are to grow up into Him in all things. We are to mature to the point of reaching His stature; becoming like Him - expressing the fullness of Christ. This is a corporate thing here; together we will express who Christ is and mature into being like Him.
 
When Paul starts talking about these things he begins with all of us being one. There is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all.

He begins the talk about the body this way because there were times when the individual parts of the body started to develop certain uniqueness and diversity. This at times put a strain upon the oneness of who we are.

So Paul begins with how we are all one in spite of our diversity. This all comes from the Godhead of course where we know that He is three and yet one. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have diverse operations yet are completely one. The church in following the Lord is the same.
 
Again Paul tells us some of this in I Cor. 12 where we are shown that we are one body but have many parts. From there he reveals to us that this is what Christ is like.
 
He again goes on to tell us that we are baptized into one body by one Spirit, and drink from that one Spirit. Yet we are tremendously diverse in our oneness.
 
That’s the beauty of this diversity; we see a portion of Christ in others that we lack, and from that other brother or sister, we grow more into being like Christ.
 
The whole key to this is that we are to build one another up in love. Each of us has something that the other needs to be matured, unto the measure of the fullness of Christ.

To experience this in its fullness means that we can no longer embrace the religious system that started to be developed during the compromise with Constantine.
 
You know, that system where people sit in some type of ‘special’ building and listen to a ‘professional’ deliver speeches for the rest of our lives. We have seen the result of 1700 years of that nonsense.

Body life is nothing less than growing up into Him in all things. It can only happen with a group of believers living together and meeting together under the headship of Jesus Christ alone.
 
This is the fulfillment of the priesthood of all believers. Only as we hold to the Head and give Christ and Christ only to one another, will we grow into the end of being conformed into His image.
 
That is part of the eternal purpose that has been in the Godhead from before time.

God Doesn't Dwell in Temples made with Hands

If God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, then what are you doing there.
 
This article deals with the foundation behind that question. 
 
To begin our investigation of these matters lets go to the end of the scriptures. In Revelation 21:22 we are told that in the bride, the lamb's wife, there is no temple. For the bride is that city that is coming down out of heaven from God. There is no temple here because our Lord and our Father are that temple.  
 
Then in Eph. 2:21-22 we are shown that we are joined together in Christ and are growing into a holy temple where God can dwell in by His Spirit.
 
When you read these things, think back to the gospels where Jesus is talking about Him being in us and us in Him etc. These scriptures give us a good picture of how these two things work together. He is our temple and we are His temple. We dwell in Him and He dwells in us.
 
Paul asks us the question in 1Cor. 3:16 - Don't you know that you are the temple of God? You need to ask yourself that question. Do you know the answer?
 
Most will answer this question with a yes; the problem is that when we take this to its conclusion, the great majority resist the implications of what the scriptures teach us.
 
Let's now look at an example in Acts where Stephen is confronting a crowd of Jews. Stephen is telling them that David asked God if he could build a dwelling place for Him. Yet we are met with the powerful statement that God does not dwell in temples made with hands. In other words: physical temples made by men. 
 
Then Stephen reminds us of what God spoke through the prophet when He asks the question: "What house or temple could you possibly build for me?"
 
Solomon also says this when he mentions that the heaven and even the heaven of heavens can't contain God, let alone the little temple that he had built.
 
The church of Jesus Christ were the first people serving God that didn't have some type of special building built for serving God. They were the first people on earth that worshipped God in their simple homes. The reason why was because believers were now the temple of God.  

It wasn't until the pagan Constantine came and a number of compromising Christians forsook the ways of God and cooperated in Constantine's building of the first buildings on the planet that were used to meet in by Christians. The church has went downhill ever since that time, adding all other types of pagan rituals to this terrible error. 
 
The building of pagan-inspired places for Christians to meet was the foundation of the ensuing centuries of unbelievable pagan mixture in the church. 
 
The other things that were soon added that were pagan to the core, couldn't have been added except these pagan buildings were added first.
 
It was a disaster of the highest order.
 
The temple of God had reverted back to what existed in the old testament times as a type and shadow of what was to come. When that which was to come became real, the physical type and shadow was no longer meaningful.
 
This is the same principle as the blood of the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament. Once Christ came and His blood was shed, the use of animal sacrifices among believers was meaningless. 
 
Types and shadows existed for the purpose of pointing to a coming reality and fulfillment. Once the reality emerged, the type and shadow is discarded.

The implications of this is so powerful that it is one of those things that most Christians like to shrug off and continue on with things as they are.
 
If you deal with this one reality, everything else that has been built upon the false concept of bricks and mortar being the 'house of God,' would collapse. That is why many fight this with a vengeance.
 
All of the types and shadows still operating to this day collapse under the revelation that the church is a living, breathing people of the Spirit. The false terminology of `going to church' becomes as meaningless as it was in the early church. The first and early Christians would have given you a blank look if you were to use that type of weird language back then. It didn't exist in their mindset or way of life.
 
Today we must re-examine this backward step. Applying something as spiritual or holy to an inanimate object is bizarre at least and most definitely pagan. This is what idolatry has always been: the applying of godhood or holiness to an object. For example the making of a golden calf and saying that that is the god that brought you out of Egypt. 
 
Another example would be the worship of materialism. Many in our generation love their things. While these are inanimate objects, we apply prestige and success in the eyes of man to them. They are 'symbols' of our accomplishments. Rather we should care more about what pleases God than what pleases people.
 
This is what has happened with the inanimate 'temple' worship of our present day. People really believe that it is a sign that they are pleasing God and a reward from Him when they build these pagan-inspired temples and then apply the name 'church' to them. 
 
What it really does is take away everything that Christ wanted the church to be. It takes away the unseen nature of the spiritual way of life that is Christ. It hides the real work of Christ that centers on Christ being formed within us; that deep inner work that has always been how God shapes Himself within us. 
 
It distorts what the body of Christ really is. It destroys the true practice of being a priesthood of believers. 
 
We could go on and on. 
 
The key here is to turn from these things. Why? For God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. And I'll ask the question again: If God doesn't dwell there, than what are you doing there?

Union with Christ and the Cross

In this article I want to take a look at one of the major implications of what it means to daily take up your cross like Christ admonished us to do.
 
To be more specific He told us to take up our cross daily and follow Him. The implication here is that to truly be able to follow Him we must continuously deny ourselves. That’s what the cross ultimately deals with: our will versus His will. Jesus learned this at Gethsemane.

For we are told that He learned obedience through the things He suffered. This was one of the greatest tests of His life. He passed the test with total obedience to the Father’s will. He did this in spite of what it cost Him.  

The word I want to center in on here is the “daily” aspect of what is mentioned. To even be able to take up our cross there has to be something that is happening on a continuous basis. Daily doesn’t imply some type of special time set aside; it implies all of the time. If this isn’t so it wouldn’t make any sense to say that this was something that was to be done occasionally rather than on a steady, unhindered basis.  To daily take up our cross and deny ourselves means that there must be something happening that allows us to be in continuous fellowship with the Father to even be able to know how to properly follow Him.  

Another way of looking at it is to realize that if we aren’t in continuous fellowship with the Father and Jesus, than how can we even be in the place to know how to deny ourselves? How can we be in the place of even knowing what the cross of Christ is working within us for that moment of any day?  

In other words, if we aren’t in firm, steady communion with Christ and our Father, than there is no way to be able to take up our cross and follow Him.  This is one of the things it means when we read that we are to “pray without ceasing.” It is revealing to us the ongoing fellowship that God expects from all of us and yet gets from so few.  

Remember the words that Jesus spoke while He was on the earth when He unveils to us what eternal life is? He tells us that it is knowing the Father and His son Jesus Christ. That is what eternal life is. That is what eternity is like and will always be like.  

This knowing is to grow into unbroken fellowship with the Lord. This is the life that He came to reveal and call us to. This is why He died that we may once again enter unhindered into His presence and He within us. This is why Paul cried out that we may know Him and the power of His resurrection.  

So to take up the cross that Christ requires of us, we must first be in close union with Him to be able to even do anything on a continuous, daily basis. Do this and the rest will follow.  

You will find as you grow and hunger after Christ that the revelation that we can do nothing without Him, always goes back to deep union with Him. It is something to be experienced, not just read about. We aren’t able to die to ourselves without Christ doing it in us. And to be able to do it within us requires that we pursue and hunger for Him like a deer does for the water.  When we pursue God in this way, then nothing will be impossible for us. Even the task of denying who we are that He may be glorified.

Job: Embracing the Cross

 
The purpose of this article is to stimulate you to willfully take hold of the Cross of Jesus Christ and let it work within you deeply.
 
While there is a lot to learn of the cross in Job, I want to center in on how he sat there under its bloody application to his life, and let it do its work.  

It has become somewhat fashionable in some Christian circles to blast at anything that would oppose what some would call prosperity and wealth. Yet at God’s instigation and permission, He allowed Job to be devastated in every area of His life.  What I want us to look at is how Job responded to what came upon him. The person closest to him counseled him to curse God and die. In other words, she was encouraging him to commit spiritual suicide that would result in his physical death. In this view at least, his suffering and torment would be over.  

Of course all of us who have read Job know of how his friends came and gave their opinion as to why all of these things had happened.  

What was Job’s response? He simply sat under what happened until what was meant to be accomplished was accomplished. In other words; he embraced the cross!  Embracing the cross refers to the fact that he didn’t try to get out from under what it was that God was doing until the time that he was allowed to be.  

In high school I was on the wrestling team. Our coach one time was showing us the move that it took to escape somebody that was using a certain hold upon us. In doing this, he chose one of the students to use for an example. When the student came to him and grabbed hold of the coach in the way that he was instructed, the coach then proceeded to show us how to escape the hold of the student. A surprising thing happened: The coach couldn’t get the student to let go of the hold that he had upon the coach.  If you can picture yourself going through the painful cross of Jesus Christ, this is about the only response that you can have that will profit you spiritually. Like the student above, all you can do is hang onto the Lord with all your strength while He allows what is happening to you to go on. Any other response will take away the desired purpose that God has for you.  

One of the practical steps in hanging on while your world is turned upside down, is to not try to figure out and analyze what is going on while you are going through it. Both Job and his friends attempted to do this and failed completely. While we are told that Job spoke more accurately about the Lord, yet he was also rebuked for assuming to know what was going on.  

The end is this: we must allow the hand of God to work not only in good times, but especially in the tough times. It is the tough times that will determine who you will be as a Christian and as the church of Jesus Christ. He is quite able to hold you up and to cause you to endure. The way to do this is the same way that Christ did it. You can have your anguishing moment of Gethsemane , but once this is over, you must, like Jesus, submit in peace to the will of the father. Do this and the resultant resurrection life of Jesus Christ will be able to work within you. If there is no cross, after all, how can there be a resurrection?

Weak not only Survive, but Triumph over the Strong

An extraordinary insight from Eric Hoffer:

In contrast to the patterns which prevail in other forms of life, in the human species the weak not only survive but often triumph over the strong. There's a sober realism in Paul's stilted words, 'God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.'

"The self-hatred inherent in the weak unlocks energies far more formidable than those mobilized by an ordinary struggle for existence. Clearly, the intensity generated in the weak endows them, as it were, with a special fitness. Those like Nietzsche and D. H. Lawrence, who see in the influence of the weak a taint that might lead to decadence and degeneration, are missing the point.

"It is precisely the peculiar role played by its weak that has given the human species its uniqueness. One should see the dominant role played by the weak in shaping man's fate not as a perversion of natural instincts and vital impulses but as a starting point of the deviation which led man to break away from and rise above nature - not as degeneration but as the generation of a new order of creation."

He writes this in his autobiography: A Truth Imagined - Page 53.

As a believer, it's the very weakness God is able to infect in us that results in that which is Him coming forth.

When talking about self-hatred above, I believe Hoffer meant it in a way similar to what Christians have of themselves: the flesh.

Only those that see themselves in the light of Christ will comprehend spiritually why weakness within is so important to be what we are meant to be as people of Christ.

Watchman Nee Talking on "Waste"

This is a talk given a while ago by Watchman Nee. I think it is one of the most timely or really "eternal" thoughts concerning the Lord in which we need to hear continually until it truly becomes worked within us.

Gary 
 

"Waste" by Watchman Nee
 
 (Mark 14:3-9 NAS) 
"And while He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head. But some were indignantly remarking to one another, "Why has this perfume been wasted? "For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor." And they were scolding her.

But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to Me. "For the poor you always have with you, and whenever you wish, you can do them good; but you do not always have Me. "She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial. "And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, that also which this woman has done shall be spoken of in memory of her.""

The Lord has ordained that the story of Mary anointing Him with the costly ointment should always accompany the preaching of the gospel. We know the story well. Judging by the story in connection with her brother's resurrection, we know that the family was not an especially wealthy one.

The sisters had to work in the house themselves, and one of them, Mary, had an alabaster box with three hundred pence worth of ointment in it, and with a stroke she broke it and poured the whole of that costly nard upon the head of the Lord. According to human reasoning it was altogether too much, even for the Lord. That is why Judas took the lead with the other disciples in thinking that Mary was wasting something (John 12:4-5).

Now we come to the word which the Lord wants to emphasize at this time, the word waste. What is waste? Waste simply means giving too much. If a shilling will do and you give a pound, it is waste. If two ounces will do and you give a kilogram, it is a waste. A waste means that you give something too much for something too little. A waste means that the one who is receiving the something is not worth so much. Yet we are dealing here with something the Lord said was to go out with the gospel, wherever the gospel should be preached.

With the preaching of the gospel the Lord is out to have a result that corresponds with Mary's action here: that is, for people to come out and "waste" themselves on Him. That is what He is after.

Now we must look at the question from two angles, that of Judas, and that of the other disciple. They all thought it to be a waste. To Judas, who had never called our Lord the Lord, everything that was poured upon Him was waste. Even water would have been waste. To the world, the service of the Lord, and our giving of ourselves to Him is pure waste.

"Such and such a man would have made good in the world if he were not a Christian," is a sentiment that is frequently expressed. For anyone with natural talents to be a Christian, to serve the Lord, is deemed to be pure waste.

So thought Judas, "We could manage better with the money; we could give it to charity; we could do some social service, we could help people in a more practical way. Why pour it down at the feet of Jesus? As to yourself, can you not find a better employment of your life?"

That is what Judas was thinking, and that is what the world is thinking. It is too much to give yourself to the Lord! But no! When once our eyes have been opened to the worth of the Lord, nothing is too good for Him.

But it is upon the reaction of the other disciples that I want most to dwell; for they affect us more than does Judas. We do not mind very much what the world is saying, but we do mind what those other disciples are saying who ought to have understood, yet did not. We mark that they said the same thing as Judas; and not only so, but they were moved to indignation, saying, "To what purpose is this waste...?"

Now here is the whole question of waste, and of what the Lord is after. Today, even amongst Christians, there can be found much of that spirit that wants to give as little as possible to the Lord, and yet to get as much as possible from Him. The prevailing thought today is of being used, as though that were the one thing that mattered.

That my little rubber band should be stretched to the very limit seems all important. But this is not the Lord's mind. The Lord wants us to be used, yes; but what He is after is that we pour all we have, ourselves, to Him, and if that be all, that is enough. It is not a question of whether the poor have been helped or not, but of whether the Lord has been satisfied.

The question is not one of working for Him, my friends, but of service to Him, of ministering to the Lord. That is what He is after; that I should give Him my all, even though people should say, 'You are doing nothing!' My service to the Lord is to please Him.

There is many a meeting we might take, many a convention at which we might speak, many a campaign in which we might share, but this is not the first consideration. That my usefulness should be brought to the full is not what the Lord is after, but His concern is rather with my position at His feet and my anointing of His head. What I have as an alabaster box, the most precious thing, my whole life. I give it all up to the Lord. It seems as if it is a waste, but that is what He is after.
May I tell you something?

One thing some of us have come to learn is that in the divine service the principle of "waste" is the principle of power, whereas the principle of "usefulness" is the very principle of scattering. The real usefulness in the hand of the Lord is "waste." The more you think you could do, the more you employ your gifts to the very limit--and perhaps beyond the limit--that you will find to be the principle of the world, and not the principle of the Lord.

I knew a sister in the Lord, now in His presence, who was very greatly used of Him. But my first concern about her was that she did not seem to be being used. Every time I said to myself. Why did she not get out and take some meetings, get somewhere, do something?

It was a waste to live in a small village without anything happening. Sometimes when I went to see her, I almost shouted at her: "No one knows the Lord as you do. You know the Book in a most living way. Do you not see the need all around you? Why don't you do something? It is a waste of time, a waste of energy, a waste of money, a waste of everything, just sitting here and doing nothing!" But she was the one who helped me most of all., The highest thing is not just to be moving about. I do not mean to say that we are going to do nothing, but the first thing is the Lord Himself, not the work. That is what He is after.

So the Lord said, "Why trouble ye her? She has wrought a good work as to Me. The poor you will always have, but you cannot always have Me." The whole point is, What am I going to do to the Lord today? Did those other women who came with their spices to the tomb succeed in anointing the Lord's body? No! He was risen.

Only one succeeded, Mary, who anointed Him beforehand. It seems as if man will say I am wasting my time--but Lord, nothing is too good for Thee! He is worthy to be served. He is worthy for me just to be His prisoner. He is worthy for me just to live for Him. Let others say what they will. Have our eyes been opened to see that working for the poor, working for the benefit of the world, working for the eternal welfare of the sinner, as things in themselves, are not to be compared with the work we do to the Lord, with our being just for Him.

What is your estimate of the Lord?
Then the Lord said, "She hath done what she could." It means that Mary had given her all. That was all she could do, no more; and she did it. The Lord will not be satisfied with anything less. The whole point is a life really laid down at the feet of the Lord, and that in view of His death, His burial; that is, in view of a future day.

Then it was His burial, now it is His crowning day that is in view. He will be acclaimed by all in that day, but how precious, far more precious to Him it is that we should anoint Him now; not with any material oil, but with that which is deepest and, maybe, hard for us to break. The Lord get anointing from us today!

Further, the Lord said, "Wherever the gospel shall be preached, this story shall be told." Why? Because the gospel is meant to produce this. The gospel is not primarily for the satisfaction of sinners. The gospel is preached that everything may be to the satisfaction of the Son of God. Not to sinners first of all, though, praise God, sinners will be satisfied. But supremely it is Christ who must find satisfaction through its preaching.

Once more let me repeat. The whole question for us is simply this: It seems that I am giving too much for too little. That is waste. Others appear to far better advantage than I, though they have given up none of the things that I have. As for me, I seem to meet with all the difficulties.

Continual trial and suffering is what comes my way. Now, am I not wasting my time? If I consecrate myself enough for the blessing, but not enough for the trouble; if I consecrate myself enough for the Lord to use me, but not enough for the Lord to shut me up, it will be all right! Are we not found thinking thus at times? But the principle of waste is that which satisfies the heart of the Lord Jesus. You can get something for yourself out of your consecration, but often real satisfaction can only come to the heart of your Lord when you seem to be "wasting" yourself on the Lord, giving too much and getting nothing back for yourself.

O friends, what are we after? Are we after mere usefulness, as those disciples were? They wanted to make every penny of that three hundred pence go to its full length. They wanted to be used themselves. If only we can please Him, surely that should be enough.

Now the breaking of the alabaster box and the anointing of the Lord filled the house with the odor, with the sweetest odor. Everyone could smell it. Whenever you meet someone who has really suffered; been limited, gone through things for the Lord, willing to be imprisoned by the Lord, just being satisfied with Him and nothing else, immediately you scent the fragrance.

There is a savor of the Lord. Something has been crushed, something has been broken, and there is a resulting odor of sweetness. The odor which filled the house that day still fills the Church; Mary's fragrance never passes away.

Friends, we cannot produce impressions of God upon others, impart the sense of the presence of God, without the breaking of everything, even the most precious things, at the feet of the Lord Jesus.

The Lord would have us here, not first of all to preach or to do work for Him, but to create hunger in others. No true work will begin in any life apart from a sense of need. We cannot inject that into others, we cannot drive people to be hungry for God. Such hunger can be created only by those whose lives convey vital impressions of Him.

Oh, to be wasted! It is a blessed thing to be wasted for the Lord. So many of us who have been prominent in the Christian world know nothing of this. Many of us have been used to the full--have been used, I would say, too much--but we do know what it means to be wasted on God.

We like to be always "on the go": the Lord would sometimes prefer to have us in prison. We think in terms of apostolic journeys: God dares to put His greatest ambassadors in chains. "But thanks be unto God, which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savor of his knowledge in every place" (2 Corinthians 2:14).

The End of Types and Shadows

At the time of the death of Jesus, the scriptures tell us that the veil of the temple was rent. The way into heaven to the Father had been opened. The fulfillment of all things by Christ had been accomplished. The law and the prophets, that is, the whole Old Testament was fulfilled in Christ.
 
All the types and shadows, laws and feasts and ceremonies were complete in Christ. That’s why He is called reality itself. Everything these things pointed to were brought to reality in Him. Because of this, all of these things have no more use to us other than the fact that they existed temporarily until He came to fulfill them. Now that He has, they are no long significant in any way.  Yet throughout church history we still have clung to those types and shadows as if we needed them in addition to Christ.  

One obvious example is the concept of the temple. The church never met in special places or buildings, only in homes. Yet most Christians today meet in a building and erroneously call that building a “church.” This is totally unscriptural. These pagan buildings were first used in this way when Constantine, the ruler of Rome in the 4th century a.d., built them.  Even though the scriptures tell us that God doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, many go there as if He does.  The Jewish temple, that was a shadow of Jesus and His church, was destroyed in a.d. 70 as prophesied by Jesus. There was no stone left, now the true living stones were dwelt in by God through the Holy Spirit. This type is gone forever, now the reality is here.  

The same goes with special types of clothing people may wear. When Jesus was on the earth He wore no special clothes to separate Him as different from His followers. Even after preaching all those years, the authorities needed Judas to go and point Him out to them, that’s how inconspicuous and normal He was.  Even though the Jewish high priest would wear unique clothes in the Old Testament, all of these clothes were types that, again, Christ fulfilled. Jesus strongly rebuked the Pharisees for making additions to their clothing so that they could impress people. Yet today we see people wear costumes as if there is some type of holiness attached to these things.  

No one has a right to revert back to types and shadows or outward shows. All things have been summed up in Christ.  

All of this temple worship and special clothing was straight out of paganism, created by one of the worse megalomaniacs in history: Constantine.  
Now that we have Christ, there is no other way to the Father; there is no one but Christ that gives us access to God. Because Jesus Himself made this claim, He was crucified.  

Types, shadows, and symbolism are dead. They all pointed to the Messiah that was to come. Now that Jesus has been revealed as the Christ, we know Him as complete reality. We are no longer to go back and participate in pre-Christ anticipations.  
 

Gary