A JESUS GUY

A Kingdom of connection

One of the biggest lessons that I have learned in my walk with the Lord is what it truly means to be “the church”. I struggled much in my youth with faith, mostly because I wrestled with the idea of becoming a part of what I called a goofy country club. I always thought church people were the strangest of people on the earth, I guess that’s because half my family is devout catholic and half are independent fundamental Baptist. This strange brew would cause any young man to struggle with their faith. For most of my life church was a place where myself and every member of my family dreaded going on Sunday morning, as a youth it appeared to me that no one actually enjoyed attending church, it was just something you were “supposed” to do. Our consumer Christian Americanized idea of church has led most church goers to feel apathetic about church. Most of us only go to hear the best music or the most entertaining speaker and we bounce from church to church to find it; we have lost in a sense the true meaning and value of being the “body”. I think this is why people in our country feel more lonely, depressed and disconnected than ever before. We are looking for entertainment not relation and community. I thank God that through struggling with my beliefs and faith as a young boy He has lead me to His word where I have began to discover what it means to be His church and as a young man I can honestly say I love Jesus and I love the church and I want as many people as God allows me to influence to experience the joy of this connected community we call the fellowship of believers or the church.
“I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God”- Exodus 6:7. Since creation God has been gathering for Himself a people set aside for His glory. He has called this people His bride, His body, His object of affection. What a awesome thought. God made us as communal creatures whose design was to be a lover of God and of others. While most people who walk upon the earth struggle to find identity in this world the Christian must understand who he/she is, a child of God, the bride of His son, and the dwelling place of the Spirit. Through the work of the cross in salvation in one’s life we become a new community, and this is where we find our identity. The church is who we are, it gives our lives definition and Christ like shape. This is something I have fallen in love with and my prayer is that you will too.
“The church is at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought. It is not an accident of history. On the contrary, the church is Gods new community. For His purpose, conceived in a past eternity, being worked out in history, and to be perfected in a future eternity, is not just to save isolated individuals and so perpetuate our loneliness, but rather to build His church, that is, to call out of the world a people for His own glory”. John Stott