Grab a cup of coffee and come sit a while beneath my tree or upon its billowy branches and rest a while with me....IT TAKES A CHURCH ...During the last few generations we have watched the gradual deterioration of the "community" in our nation. With much grief we must agree that our communities are in great need of major renovation- physically, socially, economically and spiritually.The deterioating conditions have resulted in further breaking down of the family and a general disrespect for life. Regrettably, the village has abandoned the children, leaving them unsupervised and hopelessly alone.
The community is no longer qualified or adequately prepared to raise a child because the community itself must be
raised. But who will do it?There can only be one answer:
the church. This is our day, church, and we must rise up and take responsibility for the community. It is the church that must establish integrity and biblical standards. We must turn to our Lord for a new empowerment and a fresh filling of HIS love.
The community is filled with the oppressed and brokenhearted. A spirit of heaviness pervades the atmosphere, culturally, naturally, and spiritually.
Will we choose to focus on building our own impressive empires of religion, or will we turn our attention to building a new community, empowering those who sit at our very gates?
Now is the time to stand up and extend our hands to these victims, lifting them up into the loving arms of the Lord who can heal them and give them a living hope.
Acts 3:1-10 is the account of a man who was carried daily to the temple gate.
Religion offered him no other alternative but a beggar's lifestyle.
The story is set outside the gate "Beautiful," a very ornate and impressive doorway into the temple that was covered with gold and other precious metals. Throughout his years of begging thousands of people had passed him by oblivious to his desperate need. His misery provided an opportunity for devout Jews to display their generosity as they quickly entered the temple to get on with their religious exercises. He was the object of the righteous pity of a religious system but remained unhealed.
Then one day Peter and John passed by at the hour of sacrifice, the time when religious men perform their duties. As Peter was about to enter the temple, his heart was seized by this man's condition.
On his way to church, Peter shifted his attention away from the opulent beauty of the religious structure and locked his eyes on the lame man. Out of the deep compassion of his heart, Peter said, " I don't have any worldly thing to impress you with , but I do have something that will change your life and put you on your feet. Rise up in Jesus Christ!" (see v. 6).
Peter chose to set aside religious duty and righteous appearance so that he could change one man's life forever. He did not look upon this poverty-stricken man as an outsider but welcomed him into the community and that day gave him a purpose and an inheritance.
There are so many who sit at our gates - socially and spiritually lame from the womb, disenfranchised, generationally dysfunctional, educationally disadvantaged, and impoverished. What will we do?
Will we continue to pass them by as we make our way to our houses of worship?
Or will we reach out and take them by the hand, as Peter did, and raise them up in the of Jesus Christ? Will we seek to impress the community with our pious efforts or will we impact it eternally with our compassionate exploits?
How can we as a church continue to take up building fund offerings when our church attendance is the lowest it has ever been? Why not call it a "building up fund"? We can use these moneys to contribute to the needs of those in the community.
God is calling us out of the temple and into the community. If we want to make a difference, we will have to move away from impressing the community and ourselves with our religious structure to impacting it with the power of God through the tools that He has provided. The future of our community is in our hands.
We must get involved in the life of the community. We cannot restrict the body of Christ to ministering solely inside the church walls. We need to focus on the believer's effective involvement in the world around him. Jesus was concerned with reaching those on the outer fringes of society and lifting them out of their misery. As the body of Christ, His concern should be ours, too.
My prayer is that not only the spiritual gifts of His church will be used but the plumbers, electricians, carpenters, housewives, nurses, doctors, beauticians, seamstresses, etc.....will be used to improve our community. Each one of us has something we can offer someone in the community.
Karen, a dear intercessor had a vision of what this community would "look like"
in the future. She said the Lord showed her that if one congregation did not have someone gifted in marriage reconciliation then they would be referred to another that was. If one church didn't have a drug addiction program and another did, or one church had an unusual number of single mothers who need help with parenting skills and job training and another church in the community has a person or group established for this..send them to that group!
Lets empower one another, give God the Glory, give up "ownership" of the lambs. A team effort, churches united in the community, can bring awesome results.
To God be all the Glory....In, through and to HIM...Deborha