February 16, 2013

  • Our Lord Jesus Is Trying To Refresh Us!!!

    "There is no regularly constituted church of Christ on earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinances; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking."

    Roger Williams                                      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priesthood_of_all_believers

    Notice how many Protestant Christians are constantly asking God to send "revival?"   Most of these are seeking a refreshing of the Holy Spirit among believers and not a continuation of the Reformation.  But I believe God is now already working among us to bring a fresh, reformed understanding of the Christian lifestyle, a more individual and personal immersion into the Christ's ongoing life on the earth through His Holy Spirit.  And the remaining accepted structures of leadership in the church are actually hindering Him!

    "About every five hundred years the empowered structures of institutionalized Christianity, whatever they may be at that time, become an intolerable carapace that must be shattered in order that renewal and new growth may occur.  When that mighty upheaval happens, history shows us,there are always at least three consistent results or corollary events:

    First, a new, more vital form of Christianity does indeed emerge. 

    Second, the organized expression of Christianity which up until then had been the dominant one is reconstituted into a more pure and less ossified expression of its former self... 

    The third result is of equal,if not greater significance, though.  That is, every time the incrustations of an overly established Christianity have been broken open, the faith has spread -- and been spread -- dramatically into new geographic and demographic areas..."

    Today in America there are many, many Christian believers who adamantly proclaim their faith when asked but who no longer attend church regularly, much less actively participate in a particular, local church.  The reasons offered for this by "the empowered structures of institutionalized Christianity" are growing quite stale and unacceptable.

    I believe the major reason for this trend is that too many local churches indoctrinate and enforce old traditions of New Testament religion instead of introducing and encouraging believers into ever-deeper, personal -- I mean One-on-one as an individual -- personal relationships with the living, now-at-all-times-and places, very-present Spirit of Jesus.

    In my own home church, there is at least some emphasis on entering fellowship with the Holy Spirit as a group, but when and only when we are gathered together for corporate worship.

    What do you find in your own local church?  Or, is this issue the one which hinders you from attending church at all?

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