What is church?

When you hear the word church, what comes to mind? A building? Something you should do on a Sunday morning? The style of worship? The order of worship? Time to fellowship with others? History and tradition? What mom and dad do? In other words, what characterizes church to you?

These characteristics, among many others, have been going through my mind for quite sometime now. Not that there is a specific right and wrong way to conduct a worship service on a Sunday morning, but it is easily seen the wide variety of ways that services are conducted today. Yet, with the variety of churches today, it begs the question: "What is church"?

Over a year ago, I was given a opportunity that I thought I would never have in my life, let alone an opportunity that I never thought that I would accept. God lead me to become involved with a small group of believers that was working towards planting a church in a local community. "Me, Lord?" the question went through my head a lot. I had always hoped for a church closer to home; though I loved the church I had been attending, the drive was time consuming. Church planting was never on my radar, mainly because I didn't think that I would ever be involved with starting a church.

During this whole process, I have found that, for me anyway, the most mind boggling aspect is figuring out what church is. In many ways, everyone that is involved with the church plant, has been shaped and learned from previous churches that they had been apart of. As much as that has brought them to where they are in their faith, most of that is left behind as we all come with an open mind to create atmosphere for a body of believers to grow in their walk with God. Yes, there is a denomination that we are affiliated with, but that mainly provides the foundation for us to build off of.

When we look to scripture, there isn't much to find about what church is. The Apostle Paul wrote many epistles to many New Testament churches, but he never talked about what church should be. He gave a charge that the Word of God be preached accurately, he gave words of encouragement to struggle churches, he gave warnings to churches of how to keep Satan out of the church, he gave instruction on how to chose church leadership, among many other words of wisdom to new churches. But he didn't say there was any one specific way church should be coordinated.

I often reflect back to Acts 2:42 "And they devoted themselves to the apostle's teachings and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers." I like this verse because I feel it explains the foundational reason for the church very well. Weekly worship services are vital to a believer's walk with Christ, I firmly believe that a person cannot truly be a disciple of Christ without fellowship with other believers. Therefore, a body of believers coming together, studying the Word of God, creating community and fellowship among themselves, and praying together. Is that not what church should be about?

From my little vantage point on earth, I look out and see how divisions are being created in the church as a whole and I am disheartened. I understand the reason behind denominational differences, but that doesn't mean I have to be in favor of them. I feel that all, myself included, need to get deeper into scripture and fine tune our beliefs and wisdom to reflect the truths of the Bible, not just what the Pastor said on Sunday morning. Instead of being bumps on a log and falling asleep in the pew on a Sunday morning, we need to be attentive and desiring the Holy Spirit to transform our lives because of what was heard and sung during the service.

I'll end this with the words from a brother in Christ of mine, "Don't just go to church, be the church."

Christ is our example

Hebrews 4:14-16 

"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." 

Blessing of singleness and the broader outlook

For many, including myself, singleness is accompanied with words such as: lonely, boring, unwanted, etc. The word singleness has almost become a label for a group of people that seem to put other aspects of life before the thought of marriage and family. Society has become about individualism and selfishness, which has lead greater amount of single people rather than marriage and family. But what about those who did intend for singleness, who have wanted anything but singleness in life?

Personally, I was ready to settle down right out of college and begin an amazing life with the woman of my dreams. Lo and behold, here I sit in my parents living room in my late 20's still figuring out singleness and what I am supposed to do with it and about it. It's been a struggle watching all my close friends get married and now starting families. Don't get me wrong, I am VERY happy for them as I have been apart of many of their weddings, but can't deny the fact that I have to push my struggle with singleness deeper and cover it up with a smile.

Flip the coin.

What if singleness isn't a curse, but a blessing. Push aside the lonely, selfishness, woe is me attitude. Get out of the self centeredness box and look at what you can do with your singleness. I have recently stepped out of my box and was quite surprised on what I saw.

One of the biggest aspects that I have observed about singleness is that we need to use this time to serve, not be served. A favorite quote of mine is from Josh McDonald, "A man's main goal in life is ministry, but his first ministry in his family." Well, with no family of my own yet, I still have the God given responsibility of ministry. Go, do, serve those around you. You never know what you may accomplish in the process.

Another aspect is the availability you have for service. You hear of a need for help and you can just go and do, not worrying about taking time away from your family. This happened in my life a few months ago. I saw a need, I became available, and I serve. I didn't have to worry about not being there spending time with a wife and kids, or not being able to serve because I needed to spend time with them. Singleness allows a person to go look for areas of service and get involved. Don't sit back and wait for the opportunities to come to you. Go find them and get involved.

Dive into who God is calling you to be as an individual. What is He calling you to do? Who is He calling you to be? Where is He wanting you to go? How is He calling you to serve Him? In the state of singleness, you are better to understand who God is calling you to be as a person. If/when the time comes, He will show you how He calls you to be a spouse and parent. But right now, you can be selfish and burn with desire to want to know who you are as a single person in Christ.

Finding a passion is an aspect of singleness that many people over look. Because of their dismal outlook on life, they tend to miss out on finding what they really enjoy about life. Find something that you enjoy and get involved. Never stop learning, never stop doing.

Which side of the coin are you on? Which do you want to be on? This could be one the the best, brightest times in your life. But you're missing out because you are looking in at yourself and not out into the world.

Go. Do. Be a witness of the gospel where ever you can.

Hope

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." Romans 15:13

"Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." Romans 8:24b-25

My hope is in You, Lord.

Forever

There are some words that our human minds cannot comprehend. Forever is one of such words. We don't know what forever looks because our human minds think in the essence of time so often that we cannot think beyond a value of time.

For those you are followers of Christ, this is the most bitter/sweet week of the year. "Then he said to them, 'These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets must be fulfilled.' Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.' " Luke 24:44-47  As we celebrated Palm Sunday last week, we saw the praise and worship that was offered to Jesus as He rode into Jerusalem. Now we think through the torture and crucifixion of Christ on the cross. We watch Jesus become the Passover Lamb and be the ultimate sacrifice to fulfill the promises of the Old Testament. But then, we get to witness the most amazing thing ever, the resurrection of Christ from the dead!! Conquering death and exemplifying that the Lord's reign is forever. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can get in the way and stop the reign of our Almighty God. God is forever. Christ's sacrifice is forever. Our salvation is forever.

Listen to what an example of Forever means. Just close your eyes and listen. Hopefully this will put you in a state of mind of the true meaning of this time of year.

God sacrificed His one and ONLY Son for His will on earth to be accomplished. What are you willing to sacrifice in life so that you can allow God's will to be accomplished in your own life?

"Forever, He is glorified
  Forever, He is lifted high
  Forever, He is risen"

 Forever by Kari Jobe

Letting go and Let God

Have you ever thought about what God's will for your life really is?? Think about it. Before we were even born, our Almighty God already knew the steps that we would take and the things that we would do. (Jeremiah 1:4) As much as our inward desires of the flesh fight back, God created us to worship and serve Him according to His will for our lives.

But that doesn't mean that life is a calm sea; letting us sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. Far from it! Sometimes life will be easy going, but other times it will cause us to stumble and fall. 2 Timothy 4:7 reminds us of that "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." A life that is reflective of the gospel and being the light of Christ to the world will not be easy, but it will be a fight worth fighting. God's will for our lives will cause us to have a myriad of emotions from being ecstatically joyful to unbearably crushed.

I recently have gone through a time that caused me to fall at the foot of the cross and in someways I am still struggling my way through it. Because of being in a state of confusion and uncertainty, I sought counsel from others that would help me think through and understand the situation. The best advice I got was from a person that I have only met a couple times, yet I have a lot of respect for this man. He said that I needed to stop carrying the burden, the issue I am dealing with, and I must lay it at the feet of God and pray that the Lord's will be done. He proceeded to help me understand that it makes no sense for me to try and carry the burden around with me because it doesn't belong on my shoulders. Yet, I am not supposed to lay the burden down and walk away, absolutely not! Just because we may take a burden off of ourselves and lay it and the feet of Jesus, we still have a huge responsibility. We are to pray, pray, and pray some more. Pray for the Lord to continue to work in the situation according to the will He has for you. Pray that you are able to leave that burden at His feet and not attempt to take it back upon yourself, which is one of the hardest things to do. Pray for the Lord's will to triumph over our personal desires.

So, I think that I am finally at the point of fully removing the burden from myself and laying it at the feet of Jesus. Though it is a very hard battle somedays not to pick it up again. It is a struggle because I am the type of person that likes to understand issues and resolve them. But when I laid this burden down, I gave up my right to try and figure it out on my own. I gave it to God, saying that I can't do anything in my capabilities to resolve this, so I give it to You. Now I just pray, pray, and continue to pray. Multiple times a day I find myself asking my Heavenly Father for perseverance. Don't get me wrong, I have my personal desire of how I want the issue resolved. My prayer has become that God would change the desires of my heart to coincide with His will for my life.

As much of a comfort that Jeremiah 29:11 is for times like this, sometimes I feel that this verse shouldn't be used alone like it usually is. The two verses that follow are so, so powerful and they say "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart," (Jeremiah 29:12-13a) Yes, the Lord does know the plans that He has for our lives, but it isn't until we pray and seek Him that we will see where He is guiding us and understand what He is doing in our lives.

Verse for the day.

"I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed." Psalm 34:4-5