Some of the responses I've had over the last months when I talk about the folly of believing the extraordinary hype and misconceptions concerning the cult of environmentalism and outright lie of global warming, shows that many who read Acts 29 Review have bought into the brainwashing, and don't mind drinking the koolaide without checking it out to see if there's any poison in it.
The scriptures teach us we are not to follow every wind of doctrine, and the Lord Jesus has provided us with the means to resist false and spurious doctrine which leads us into all directions but the right one.
But let me say this before anything else; even if everything about global warming, climate change and environmentalism were true, I would still say what I've been saying, and it changes nothing.
Now the things being foisted upon us aren't true, but it's the underlying purpose of God that's at stake, and nothing in this life or world was meant to distract us from that, no matter how
it's presented to us.
So let's again look at the eternal purpose of God in Jesus Christ, which trumps everything else, and really, shows us there is nothing else.
The end of the eternal purpose of God, and that which has dwelt in Him and has been part of Him from before creation, is that He will fill everything with Himself, that He may be all in all. That's it! End of plan! No confusion! Nothing else! Period! Got it?
Everything in this - our selves, the world, and our spiritual enemy, works toward moving us away from God's eternal purpose, and is done quite creatively.
Remember the extraordinary response of Jesus Christ to the situation with Martha and Mary, where Martha complained that Mary wasn't helping her serve everyone?
Jesus first of all identified the source of Martha's complaint: she was always worried about so many things. Then He corrected her by saying Mary was doing the only thing that was really necessary for a human being, and He wasn't going to take that away from her.
What was it? She was simply humbling herself at the feet of Jesus listening to and fellowshipping with Him and the others at their home.
To be filled with Jesus Christ to the point of Him being all in all is to humbly and quietly walk with and before Him while He permeates and imparts Himself to us within; on a moment by moment and daily basis. It's nothing less and nothing more than that. That's why we were created, and that's why Jesus Christ created us. That's our purpose with nothing else added to it.
What all these other things do is take our attention off of what is really important so that we can get caught up with and think we're doing something important because we're busy blabbing about it or somehow taking part in it in a way that makes us thing we're saving the planet or some other delusion of grandeur.
The cost is fellowship with and centering our lives on Jesus Christ. I believe one of the major reasons we cooperate with this, aside from allowing ourselves to be led astray, is because true fellowship with Jesus Christ is a death blow to our self, and we don't like to walk in the light as He is in the light, as it eventually exposes who we are, and we don't like that.
So it's easier to follow a bunch of causes which do nothing to build the person of Jesus Christ within us, but actually becomes an enemy of God because it takes us away from what He has always only cared about: being with us in a loving and intimate way, in order that we are changed into His image.
Causes, possibly more than anything else in our generation, draw and entice us away from the Lord's purpose to chase after endless rainbows and salvation projects which we feel are more important than Christ.
Part of the reason for this is enshrinement of politics as the agent of change rather than Jesus Christ in His people. So you go chasing after confisgated money called taxes to get your share so you can chase the latest activist fads.
Much of this is generated by fear and torment that the world is going to end, and people embrace it as if it's a statement of fact and faith, and don't bother to check assertions out to see if they're even true.
This is why there are tools used by evil people to attempt to pressure the masses into allowing legislation to be enacted, which of course must be done today if we're going to have a world tomorrow. That's an old but effective tactic used to tap into the innate fears so many people have and to make them believe the government can be our savior.
Only Jesus Christ is our Savior, and there is nothing else that can be allowed to replace Him in our lives in that capacity. Government for a long time has been attempting to push Jesus Christ and Christianty out of the equation in order to position itself as god to the people. The fact that many of you reading this aren't even aware of that and have embraced that uncritically shows how far down the rabbit hole you've traveled.
Again, as I've mentioned several times recently, winds of doctrine doesn't only refer to doctrine about Jesus Christ, but it refers to teachings and assertions made from generation to generation which attempt to sway the masses to believe a lie in order to gain more power and control, effectively placing Jesus Christ as some type of usurper or fraud who needs to take His place as one of the many gods out there, and quit attempting to assert His rights as the only God of this universe, although He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
I will never stop calling for people to abandon the misguided and baseless assertions connected to environmental and other causes like that, which in many cases are based upon outright lies and manufactured data, and at best need time to work out as we gain wisdom.
But people who even name Christ have bought into this or have become pragmatic in order to gather those who insist upon this being part of the Church, when Paul told Timothy that a good soldier of Jesus Christ isn't to get caught up in the affairs of this world.
So now what are you going to do about that wisdom of the Holy Spirit spoken through Paul to Timothy, and by extention - to us
Showing posts with label Christ our all. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christ our all. Show all posts
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
The work (fruit) of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, . My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places (Isaiah 32: 17-18).
The work or fruit of righteousness is peace. That peace is a work within us, as our soul lines up with our spirit which is in fellowship directly with Christ.
This is part of what is meant when Jesus told us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. When we throw all of who we are onto Christ, who dwells within us, we are working toward a place of quietness of the soul, and a resting place where we cease from our own labors.
That's the end of the pursuit of the righteousness of Christ. We rest in Him and His work, and labor only as we see Him labor, and speak only what we hear Him speak.
Jesus lived this way throughout His life on earth, submitting His purpose and soul unto the Father.
Our major job in this life is to learn to rest in Christ within, allowing the cross to destroy our self-centered lives so we may live our lives unto Him; or rather, allow His life to live in us. We are to live by His life after all.
While this is simple to understand, it takes a lifetime of pursuit to accomplish. Our souls have become so over-stimulated and strong that we need to ask the Lord to weaken it through the work of the cross in us so we even have the desire to pursue this way of life.
Jesus did this His entire life on earth, not only when He was in public ministry. This is why the Father was "well pleased" with Him when He was identified by John the Baptist and emerged out of the water of baptism, before He did anything related to what we consider ministry.
The Father was pleased with Him before He did anything publicly, because Jesus simply lived out His life in union with the Father in His spirit within Him.
They didn't suddenly become closer because Jesus went public, they were close during His entire life on earth. He quietly spent His life fellowshipping with the Father, and kept doing it even when He became busy.
Dwelling in union with Christ in us is the peaceful habitation and quiet resting place referred to by Isaiah. While we need to learn to do this individually, it's primarily related to the church, which will become a peaceful resting place when we learn to deny ourselves and think of each other more important than ourselves.
The reason there is so much turmoil in the church is because people don't embrace the cross and allow it to demolish their old man and self so that the life of Christ may be formed within them, and ultimately flow out to others as the river of life.
First we must individually embrace the cross, and then connect to others looking to travel the same journey. If we don't embrace the cross, all the talk of the organic church or non-institutional church will be meaningless, as the self-life will always end up destroying the work of God He attempts to give birth to.
Only a people who are willing to have their self-life weakened and destroyed will be able to enter into peaceful habitations; within themselves or with their brothers and sisters.
The work or fruit of righteousness is peace. That peace is a work within us, as our soul lines up with our spirit which is in fellowship directly with Christ.
This is part of what is meant when Jesus told us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. When we throw all of who we are onto Christ, who dwells within us, we are working toward a place of quietness of the soul, and a resting place where we cease from our own labors.
That's the end of the pursuit of the righteousness of Christ. We rest in Him and His work, and labor only as we see Him labor, and speak only what we hear Him speak.
Jesus lived this way throughout His life on earth, submitting His purpose and soul unto the Father.
Our major job in this life is to learn to rest in Christ within, allowing the cross to destroy our self-centered lives so we may live our lives unto Him; or rather, allow His life to live in us. We are to live by His life after all.
While this is simple to understand, it takes a lifetime of pursuit to accomplish. Our souls have become so over-stimulated and strong that we need to ask the Lord to weaken it through the work of the cross in us so we even have the desire to pursue this way of life.
Jesus did this His entire life on earth, not only when He was in public ministry. This is why the Father was "well pleased" with Him when He was identified by John the Baptist and emerged out of the water of baptism, before He did anything related to what we consider ministry.
The Father was pleased with Him before He did anything publicly, because Jesus simply lived out His life in union with the Father in His spirit within Him.
They didn't suddenly become closer because Jesus went public, they were close during His entire life on earth. He quietly spent His life fellowshipping with the Father, and kept doing it even when He became busy.
Dwelling in union with Christ in us is the peaceful habitation and quiet resting place referred to by Isaiah. While we need to learn to do this individually, it's primarily related to the church, which will become a peaceful resting place when we learn to deny ourselves and think of each other more important than ourselves.
The reason there is so much turmoil in the church is because people don't embrace the cross and allow it to demolish their old man and self so that the life of Christ may be formed within them, and ultimately flow out to others as the river of life.
First we must individually embrace the cross, and then connect to others looking to travel the same journey. If we don't embrace the cross, all the talk of the organic church or non-institutional church will be meaningless, as the self-life will always end up destroying the work of God He attempts to give birth to.
Only a people who are willing to have their self-life weakened and destroyed will be able to enter into peaceful habitations; within themselves or with their brothers and sisters.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
A number of people I've communicated with through the years have misunderstood what it means to walk in the presence of the Lord. I thought I'd take a moment and help give some understanding and insight into this so we can know better what it is this means.
First of all, let's talk about the presence of the Lord from a couple different areas. You have the general presence of the Lord, which fills the universe, and which the created universe can't hold; even the heavens of heavens. That talks about a general presence where God is everywhere because nothing created can hold Him.
Second, there's the much more important specific presence of God, which dwells within those who have received Christ as their Lord and Savior. That presence dwells within us with a very stated purpose: filling us with Christ. But it isn't a general filling, where God is there because of his endless, eternal makeup, rather He's there so His life can inhabit us in a complete way.
Taking up residence within our spirit, God then begins to work His presence within us through the cross so that He doesn't simply inhabit us, but changes us into His very image.
Eventually, His eternal purpose of filling everything with Himself will be fulfilled, as His people embrace union with Him and change from glory to glory through the many trials and struggles of life.
So while the presence of Christ within us definitely is a tremendous blessing and closeness, at the same time His dwelling within us is so He can have pre-eminence and the two will become one. Essentially that's what it means for the church to exist, to be a visible testimony of the invisible Lord.
For that to happen we must open our hearts to Him in faith so He can rule the kingdom of our hearts.
All of us who truly believe have the life of Christ within us, but very few are willing to walk the difficult path that will destroy our self life in order for the life of Christ to be manifest. The work of the cross is the tool used by God to bring this about, but most aren't able or willing to embrace that effective, destructive tool in order that the perfume of Christ can be released from these human vessels.
This is why God continually calls a people to walk in this way, as there aren't many able to walk this walk individually. It's also his ultimate will and purpose that a people exist that show forth who Christ is; not simply an individual.
While we all need to embrace this way as individuals, it's to be expressed and displayed in a corporate people. In the end, that's the reason God created and the purpose for being called out of all the nations to Christ. That's what the church is, a people called out of this world into a higher life and world, which, corporately, is to be brought from a higher realm to this one.
It all happens in the hearts of a people sincere and serious about walking in union with Christ.
First of all, let's talk about the presence of the Lord from a couple different areas. You have the general presence of the Lord, which fills the universe, and which the created universe can't hold; even the heavens of heavens. That talks about a general presence where God is everywhere because nothing created can hold Him.
Second, there's the much more important specific presence of God, which dwells within those who have received Christ as their Lord and Savior. That presence dwells within us with a very stated purpose: filling us with Christ. But it isn't a general filling, where God is there because of his endless, eternal makeup, rather He's there so His life can inhabit us in a complete way.
Taking up residence within our spirit, God then begins to work His presence within us through the cross so that He doesn't simply inhabit us, but changes us into His very image.
Eventually, His eternal purpose of filling everything with Himself will be fulfilled, as His people embrace union with Him and change from glory to glory through the many trials and struggles of life.
So while the presence of Christ within us definitely is a tremendous blessing and closeness, at the same time His dwelling within us is so He can have pre-eminence and the two will become one. Essentially that's what it means for the church to exist, to be a visible testimony of the invisible Lord.
For that to happen we must open our hearts to Him in faith so He can rule the kingdom of our hearts.
All of us who truly believe have the life of Christ within us, but very few are willing to walk the difficult path that will destroy our self life in order for the life of Christ to be manifest. The work of the cross is the tool used by God to bring this about, but most aren't able or willing to embrace that effective, destructive tool in order that the perfume of Christ can be released from these human vessels.
This is why God continually calls a people to walk in this way, as there aren't many able to walk this walk individually. It's also his ultimate will and purpose that a people exist that show forth who Christ is; not simply an individual.
While we all need to embrace this way as individuals, it's to be expressed and displayed in a corporate people. In the end, that's the reason God created and the purpose for being called out of all the nations to Christ. That's what the church is, a people called out of this world into a higher life and world, which, corporately, is to be brought from a higher realm to this one.
It all happens in the hearts of a people sincere and serious about walking in union with Christ.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
In continuing on with our look at Jesus as the Tree of Life, I want to start off this time with the comment thousands of years ago by Soloman that there is "nothing new under the sun."
Taking that insight and applying it to Christ as the Tree of Life, I want to show some of the simplicity of this as it relates to the church.
Our walk with the Lord within, while it may be new to us, as far as experience goes, is not new at all, from the point of view of the Godhead. They have been walking this eternally.
What this means is we are partaking within of His existing experience and living it out among one another.
One easy to understand concept we can embrace and practice as the church, is to comprehend that much of we do when we practice our Christianity, or Christ-centeredness (which is what Christian means), is repeating how the Godhead has lived together before time.
So when we share with one another what it is Jesus is doing through our current circumstances or revealing to us, is more than anything else, reminding one another of what has happened throughout the existence of God.
The practical outworking, is that when we share, much of it is to remind one another of who He is, and help one another to learn more of who He has always been.
In other words, we do more reminding when we talk and share life together, than anything else. As a matter of fact, as we grow in Him, it simply becomes His life emerging out of us toward and into one another.
The reason this has become complicated isn't the only the unbibical way people meet and the whole pagan structure and practice, but many times even when people start to see the organic, they tend to share the things they've learned in schools or colleges, especially related to philosophy and related courses that are diametrically opposite of who Christ really is.
It's nothing other than the old alternative tree of the knowledge of good and evil being consumed.
So we again get the mixture that always weakens and ultimately destroys the testimony of Christ in His people.
Remember, Christ is writing His story within us, so ultimately people will be able to read us as a letter from God. That's why Paul one time said "you are my letter," referring to the church.
In the end, that's the overall purpose of Christ as the Tree of Life, to be eaten and internalized, so what is within will be shown without and read by all men.
Jesus Christ: The Tree of Life Series
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
a
Taking that insight and applying it to Christ as the Tree of Life, I want to show some of the simplicity of this as it relates to the church.
Our walk with the Lord within, while it may be new to us, as far as experience goes, is not new at all, from the point of view of the Godhead. They have been walking this eternally.
What this means is we are partaking within of His existing experience and living it out among one another.
One easy to understand concept we can embrace and practice as the church, is to comprehend that much of we do when we practice our Christianity, or Christ-centeredness (which is what Christian means), is repeating how the Godhead has lived together before time.
So when we share with one another what it is Jesus is doing through our current circumstances or revealing to us, is more than anything else, reminding one another of what has happened throughout the existence of God.
The practical outworking, is that when we share, much of it is to remind one another of who He is, and help one another to learn more of who He has always been.
In other words, we do more reminding when we talk and share life together, than anything else. As a matter of fact, as we grow in Him, it simply becomes His life emerging out of us toward and into one another.
The reason this has become complicated isn't the only the unbibical way people meet and the whole pagan structure and practice, but many times even when people start to see the organic, they tend to share the things they've learned in schools or colleges, especially related to philosophy and related courses that are diametrically opposite of who Christ really is.
It's nothing other than the old alternative tree of the knowledge of good and evil being consumed.
So we again get the mixture that always weakens and ultimately destroys the testimony of Christ in His people.
Remember, Christ is writing His story within us, so ultimately people will be able to read us as a letter from God. That's why Paul one time said "you are my letter," referring to the church.
In the end, that's the overall purpose of Christ as the Tree of Life, to be eaten and internalized, so what is within will be shown without and read by all men.
Jesus Christ: The Tree of Life Series
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
a
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Introduction
Christ - Everything at once!
In writing about Christ and the eternal purpose of God, we must be cautious concerning the temptation of wanting to put this into categories or bits and pieces. While this is true with all spiritual things, it is especially true here. For it is here that we have lost the greatness of the Father and the purpose He has in His son. To make it into another fragment or disjointed tidbit of so-called “doctrine,” would be a futile, hopeless, endless misapprehension of who Christ is. Once one sees the greatness of Christ in all of His fulness, it totally demolishes this human concept.
So having said that, may God grant us all eyes to see and ears to hear as we open our hearts fully to the revelation and receiving of Jesus Christ.
It has been revealed to us by Christ Himself that He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. Of course when He says this He includes everything in between also. In other words – He is everything all at once: eternal. This doesn’t mean that he had a beginning somewhere and then grew into becoming the end – for He had no beginning and He has no end: Again, He is eternal. We are told that everything that is the Father has been fully indwelt inside of Christ. When we see Christ we see the Father. This of course happened before there was even a creation.
So when we have Christ, we have all of who the Father and Son are. When we believe, we don’t receive part of Him, we receive all of Him.
Let’s look at one example of this. When Jesus waited until Lazarus died and came back to resurrect him, He was told by Lazarus’ sister that she believed that he would be raised on the last day, to which Jesus responded to her that He was the resurrection and life. The resurrection wasn’t simply a one-time event that would happen in future, the resurrection was a person. The resurrection was an all encompassing reality that fully indwelt Jesus Christ. He was the resurrection.
In other places we see that Christ reveals that He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is revealing to us that the way is a person, the truth is a person, and the life is a person. They literally exist as Him, complete in Him at the same time. They are Him.
We must again open ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ as one who completely, totally, fully embodies all of who the Father is at once and eternally.
Patience, love, hope, longsuffering, faith, among all other Godly attributes, again, are Christ the person, they are not unattached things or characteristics.
What does this have to do with the eternal purpose? The eternal purpose is a person too. The eternal purpose is Christ. All that the eternal purpose entails is embodied in Christ; it is who He is. All that the eternal purpose is the Father has centered in His Son. It is one purpose, single, unified, whole in Christ.
As we search out and explore God’s only purpose, we will discover that all of it is placed in and is Christ Jesus our Lord. That purpose is total and complete with nothing that can be added to it. Still as we are taught, it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the glory of the king to search a matter out. And we are kings and priests unto our God, so we are called to search and explore the depth, height, and width of the eternal purpose the Father has imparted in His Son.
But we are not called to search it out as some fragmented, fractured idea that is dissected and separated from the person of Christ. Rather we are to see this purpose in Christ as our Father sees it: fully dwelling in Christ. All the fullness of God dwells in Christ, and He totally embodies all that the Godhead is.
This was before creation, outside of space and time, completely whole and complete. Christ is the beginning, middle, and end of all of this, and when we believe in and receive Christ within, all that God is comes at once. The alpha and omega as Christ is entirely dwelling wholly within our spirits - Not part of Him but all of Him.
We must see that all of the purpose of God is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We must see our Lord as completely whole and unified as the Father’s purpose. This is the beginning of seeing how truly great our God is!
Friday, December 14, 2007
I want to say something about endurance that I haven’t heard mentioned much: Its main application and focus is in relationship to the church.
While there is application in our everyday individual and family lives, overall the eternal application relates to the people of God with one another.
When you are able to see it, it is amazing how everything in the scriptures ties into Christ and His church in connection to His eternal purpose.
Endurance is another of these tremendous things.
For example, how can we even begin to experience and enter into the eternal purpose of Jesus Christ without having endurance? It can’t be done.
First we must learn to endure the working of God in our lives.
Then we must learn to endure others. Since fellowship with God is the overall umbrella over His eternal purpose, there isn’t far to go before it extends to one another.
So to give the purpose of God a chance to work within us together, there must be much fortitude and staying power. If there isn’t, the purpose of God will never be worked out within our lives. It’s that simple.
Since endurance is Christ, we must continually be in fellowship with Him and the Father so that we may have this vital aspect of Him worked within us. If we don’t we will never stay together long enough to have the eternal purpose worked within us.
That’s why Paul prayed that the church would be strengthened with all might according to the glorious power of God, to the end that we would be patient and longsuffering toward one another with joyfulness.
Without this being worked within us, we can never fulfill the purpose of God in the earth.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
This is a hard topic to talk about because the great majority of Christians aren’t aware of the depths that one can enter into in relationship to the presence of God. So if you aren’t aware of it individually, it is even harder to talk about the corporate nature of it. Yet we’ll give it a try.
First of all, when I talk about corporate I am not referring to sitting in those buildings people go to once a week. That is about as far away from corporate as you can get.
No, I am talking about being one together in the pursuit of the presence of God in our lives on a continual basis, while living in close proximity to one another to facilitate it.
Of course the first step is to desire and pursue a deep, intimate relationship with Christ individually, as it is impossible to enter in corporately without the hunger and desire individually first. Again, one cannot exist without the other!
Yet the purpose of entering into the presence of God individually is never an end in and of itself; being together in it - that’s the end that God has in mind.
This reminds me of a movie I saw one time where the main character was seeking spiritual enlightenment. He eventually goes by himself up onto a mountaintop and reads spiritual books and contemplates. One day he gets some insight and starts to laugh to himself. He then takes the book he is reading and starts tearing the pages out and putting them in a fire.
When he comes down from the mountain and talks to his mentor, the mentor asks him what he learned when he was up there. His response was that it was easy to be a holy man on a mountain.
In other words, seeking God by yourself only, is nothing in comparison to doing it individually, and than together with others. That is the part that is harder than the other and more in tune with God’s ultimate purpose.
Seeking God by yourself is not enough. We must first seek Him and then together seek and enter into His presence.
This is what truly being the church is all about. Together we pursue his awesome presence and daily dwell in Him and He in us. That’s what God’s desire was from before the foundation of the world. What we must be careful of, as I have mentioned in another article, is to not make this our great disconnect!
God’s heart and purpose has always been to have a corporate counterpart; a many-membered body, a woman.
In other words, this is something to be lived out in reality in our lives. It is not something that you read about and intellectually agree with and then go about doing things the same way as always. This is what it means to be a Christian. That’s why the believers at Antioch were originally mocked, because they so much pursued Him in this way that they were deridingly called “Christians,” which means that they were Christ centered.
Like I said, this is what it really means to take the word Christian upon yourself individually and corporately. It means that our lives are lived in His presence moment by moment; continuously on. That’s the great corporate endeavor we are called to participate in. That’s the heart cry of God.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
One of the problems of talking about what has become called “Mysticism” is that people tend to immediately assume that it concerns something that cannot be known by the everyday believer in Christ. The word itself implies something that is hidden and almost impossible to comprehend. While I think that the word is an unfortunate one in reference to what we are going to discuss, it is the one that has been used throughout the centuries, so we will use it for our purposes and bring the mystery out of it.
What has been called mysticism is nothing more than believers throughout history that have been dissatisfied with their walk with the Lord, and as a result begin a pursuit of Him that brings them into deeper union and closeness and intimacy with their Lord.
While this is simplicity in itself, it also leads into the endless depths that exist in Jesus Christ.
The great purpose of God is that He wanted to share the fellowship of the Godhead with man that He created in His image. That was the great motivating factor that resulted in creation of man. Because God is love, it was impossible to keep His greatness and love to Himself. The problem is that most Christians have no idea that we can enter into this fellowship on a consistent, non-stop basis.
This is the great goal of what has been labeled mysticism; to learn to dwell in the presence of God endlessly no matter where you are or what you are doing in life.
It is here that everything dims before the majesty and unspeakable greatness of Christ. It is here that all things melt before His presence as we walk in fellowship with Him.
And as we dwell in His presence, we truly learn to grow from glory to glory, changed as we simply center our beings in Him and as Jesus gave us by example: to do what the Father did and speak what the Father spoke and share in that together.
When we truly hunger after this privilege we have been offered from God, we will realize that heaven truly has come to the earth in the presence of Christ; both individiually and corporately.
Monday, August 27, 2007
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.
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