Christ wants to be seen, not simply heard

The end result of the eternal purpose of God is that He will be all in all; everything that He is will be embodied in His people. This is the ultimate purpose of creation, that who He is invisibly will be shown forth visibly in a people.

He does this through a love relationship with His people, whom He calls His bride. But Christ isn't looking for a trophy wife that is seen as worldly eye candy; an ornament built to impress the world. Many of the people of God wrongly believe they can impress the world by outdoing them. Yet it's futile to try to impress the world this way. You can't outworld the world - we were never meant to.

Just like Christ is completely different than us, as we allow Him to form and shape Himself within us, we become completely other than this world, which bears the imprint of Satan.

In other words, our purpose as a Church is to show forth Jesus Christ, to bear His image, to be a testimony of who He is. That's why Paul tells the churches that they are a letter meant to be read by all men.

Talking about the church as a candlestick, T.A. Sparks said:

"But we say to one another together - what matters it that we have meetings, larger or smaller, and go on with our teaching, with our magazine with a candlestick of gold printed on it? None of these things matters at all. I say, let them go, the Lord save us from them, unless, as the fruit of all and as the source of all, there is this light which is an impact - without any inconsistency, without contradictions, without a lie - so that our teaching is not in the first place heard but seen. If there is to be a coming and an enquiring, it is because something is seen. 'I turned to see the voice.' People are hearing things, and they are turning to see. What do they see? A light, not a teaching? A light with an impact?"

Sadly, a number of believers who think they're being radical and doing this, have already started off wrong, and instead of being a testimony of Christ are moving off Him as their purpose for being a people, and are embracing all types of worldly ideas and thoughts they think are important to God.

Instead of pursuing Christ, they're more interested in being politically correct and believing the many philosophical lies taught them in the school system and universities.

They are trying to impress the world by parroting their psychology and philosophies, rather than embracing Christ as their wisdom. They're blindly following the environmentalist mantra of endless fears, and think they're doing some type of service to Christ. They're following cunning fables created by fallen man and attempting to wrap the name of Christ around it like He's approving of it.

Those doing this won't last along outside the religious systems of this day, as Christ doesn't give or commit Himself to these types of irrelevant things. As the scriptures say, "perfect love casts out fear," and the river of doctrine flowing out of the world that attempts to strike fear in the hearts of man (and God's people)doesn't belong amongst the people of God. We not only need to quit embracing it, but we need ignore it for the most part.

I'm even starting to see a number of misguided and deceived people repeating the ugly lie that homosexuals are born that way, not even realizing they're attacking Christ and His view of that evil lifestyle. It doesn't matter whether it's the old or new testament, homosexuality has always been condemned by God, and to imply that it's the fault of Christ is wickedness, and there are people being given a voice that are spewing out this garbage.

I'm bringing these things up because many seeking to change the practices of the Church of Christ are being deceived and/or talked into pursuing this nonsense, while basically abandoning Christian teaching and doctrine that has refuted this from the beginning.

The thing Christ is after isn't to change the basic doctrines of the church which have been in the scriptures and part of church life from the beginning, He's changing the practices of the church and calling us back to a close fellowship with Him intimately.

He's calling us again to embrace the cross and allow Him to work His work within us, weakening the old man so that the new humanity - represented by Jesus Christ - can be formed within us and be read by all men.

Christ isn't interested in changing or saving this dead world, He's interested in calling us out of it, which is what the term used for the church in the Greek actually means.

While we are to be salt in this world, it's for the purpose of keeping the world from completely imploding and self-destructing before its time, and so Christ can call all those who are to be saved to Him.

When I mentioned above that Christ isn't interested in saving the world, I mean by that that He's already done it. Anybody that calls upon His name shall be saved. From there we are to get back to the purpose God created us: to fill us completely with Himself. That is what we are to focus on and pursue.

Christians are not of this World

Talking about his inner core group of disciples one time, Jesus in prayer to the Father said they weren't of this world, just like He and the Father weren't of this world.

This is an extraordinary statement talking about His people and who they were to be.

Many people professing Christ don't want to face this conclusion of Jesus about those that had surrounded Him when he was physically on the earth, because the implications are devastating to those that love this world.

We are a people called to be in this world, but not of this world. We are to live from a life totally contrary to the way this world functions and what its endless fears and concerns are.

One thing that may shock people was Jesus never moved based on need, only on the word and actions of His Father. If He heard it from the Father, or saw the Father doing it, Jesus would do it. If not, He would say or do nothing unless it was the Father saying or doing it in Him.

Jesus went so far as to say without the Father He could do nothing. Nothing means what it says. That's the life we are also called to live while on this earth.

A major problem Christianity faces today is they are intimidated by the world and its ranting against the Lord and His Christ, to the point where they are trying to please the world and prove something to them. We aren't called to that as a purpose, and we aren't called to please this world.

The only thing Jesus says is they'll know we are of Him because of the love we have for one another.

But we don't love one another to prove it or to please the world, we do it because it's what Christ and the Father are. They are love. The love we then organically express to one another is seen as being from God. We simply don't pay attention to that seeing. When the Father wants the love we have for one another to be seen by the world, He'll make sure it's seen.

For us we simply live our lives quietly and peaceably on the earth, like we're called to do. The world will take true notice of a people that live life from another world than their own. They won't notice or care about those that name the name of Christ and yet are just like them. We are called to a higher calling than that.

Only Christ can do this as we hold to Him as our head within us. It's not something we can make happen.

Don't be afraid to be different than what this world is, we don't live from the same source they do. We are not to be of this world - and we aren't. We live from another life source that doesn't originate here. We need to cooperate and allow the Lord Jesus to live his life in us.