As I ponder the direction the Lord is leading our church, to “get back to basics,” centralizing on the doctrines found in Hebrews, chapter 6, and to go on to perfection - Greek word teleiotes meaning growth in moral character - I’m struck by the grace and mercy the Lord shows.
He gives us everything we have need of to learn how to properly grow in moral character even though, as we have seen as we have been studying 1 Corinthians 13, it’s not always been comfortable facing how woefully short we fall in having good moral character.
I say grace and mercy because He could have just left us to our own devices, our own thoughts of what it means to have a moral character (and the society we live in is a dismal depiction of what WE think having a moral character is) all the while requiring us to measure up to His definition. I’m so glad our Father in Heaven did not do that.
As we have gone through 1st Corinthians learning what it means to have unconditional love, we have once again found the Scripture true that speaks to us from Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” And Romans 3:10, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.”
As we have found ourselves falling short, we are encouraged by the knowledge we would not be shown these shortcomings without also being shown the way to overcome them.
Again, we are finding the Scripture true - at the very moment we may find ourselves despairing of ever changing - we see it telling us in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” We can take heart in the fact God not only requires from us that we change to be more like His son Jesus He has begun the work within us when we accepted Jesus as Savior and promises to continue to do that work in us until Jesus comes back! WOW! If that doesn’t make you want to shout and praise God I don’t know what will! Not only does He require perfection from us, He has begun the process within us and will continue to guide and work within us until the process is complete. What more can we ask?
As I’ve previously said, most of us at our church feel privileged to having our focus brought by the Lord back to the mandate of the church - to reach the lost with the gospel, beginning with the good news that Jesus died for the sins of ALL mankind, and only through faith in Him can salvation be had.
While it may not be comfortable to our flesh some of the time, as the Lord continues to deepen our commitment to understanding His Word and His will, it is becoming ever more apparent that lives are being changed and that through the Holy Spirit’s ministry to us that “God is in the House.” This deepens our commitment to learning more and our desire to be changed to the degree we can be used more and more to reach the lost in this world of sorrows and woe. Not so our “church can grow,” but so those who are beset by sin can be delivered through faith in the Son of God and gain the hope and peace that we have been given.
We truly live in a glorious and exciting time.
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Editor’s note: Charlie Newman is pastor of Avoca Christian Church. To contact him, e-mail pastor@ pastorcharlie.net, or write in care of The Times at [email protected] or P.O. Box 25, Pea Ridge, AR 72751.
Church, Pages 2 on 06/19/2013