Church
God is doing a wonderful thing: He is always doing wondrous things, it is a matter of our perspective whether we get it or not - and share in the glory. Lord, give me Your eyes...
I have posted a few times about my church life. God has made us to know Him individually as well as corporately. We miss a HUGE part of His design if we try to Lone Ranger our way through life. God designed us for intimacy - with Him and with others. It is a wonderful part of our humanness - that brings great joy and the capacity for great pain.
Over the past year, my church life has been characterized with some turbulent waters. As a part of the whole, I felt the painful knowledge that our church was wounded and limping along. The Lord blessed me by allowing me to be as involved as I could be - I greatly enjoyed teaching Sunday school and singing with the worship team - yet I knew there were many in our Body who were experiencing great grief over what was happening in our midst. Our church was wrestling through the question; what was our next step? The last six months it seemed more and more clear that our fate was the tale of Jesus' parable of the seed: unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies... it abides alone and bears no fruit. Dying is a painful process. Yet, only through death does new Life come!
So, with much prayer, much seeking of wise counsel, much listening and conversation, the decision was made to close our doors. The bigger plan is called, "replant" - we are merging with another church plant, allowing ourselves to be ministered to; as a church whole, we need some rest and healing to happen. We desire to "replant" in the future in our original building.
Personally, I am excited. I am aware it is a very scary step for many and I emphasize with them; yet, I have a joyous hope that God is in this whole thing and new Life and fruit will be a result of yielding and obeying.
This past Sunday was our "last" day to meet in our building. It was a blessed day. There was a fullness in our meeting; when we read this passage from Ephesians 3,
16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
...I was struck with how perfect it was for us. I felt a strong unity among us that I have not felt previously. We were walking through a turning point, together, and I believe God was honored as we corporately worshipped and looked to Him as our Head. He is guiding us, He will strengthen us, and "together with all the Saints"... we can grasp His Love for us more and more. I was also struck with the meaning of that phrase, "together with all the Saints" - in that, some of the riches of God can only be received fully as a Body. We need each other to receive the Fullness of God - we are complete in Christ as individuals, individually we receive from Him to love others and bring Him glory through relationship. Mysteriously, something absolutely beautiful happens as we share this in a Body of Believers. God made us to live and function in relationships, as He himself does. We are not designed to live alone. Relationship is vital to fully living. Seriously... can you think of experiencing the JOY of Jesus and not sharing that??!!
We are the Body of Christ.... I pray that our eyes are opened to see the deadly schemes of the Enemy who works to divide, isolate and destroy the unity Jesus prayed for in John 17. May we stand firmly in His Love and Truth today.
Here a picture of our last Sunday...
I have posted a few times about my church life. God has made us to know Him individually as well as corporately. We miss a HUGE part of His design if we try to Lone Ranger our way through life. God designed us for intimacy - with Him and with others. It is a wonderful part of our humanness - that brings great joy and the capacity for great pain.
Over the past year, my church life has been characterized with some turbulent waters. As a part of the whole, I felt the painful knowledge that our church was wounded and limping along. The Lord blessed me by allowing me to be as involved as I could be - I greatly enjoyed teaching Sunday school and singing with the worship team - yet I knew there were many in our Body who were experiencing great grief over what was happening in our midst. Our church was wrestling through the question; what was our next step? The last six months it seemed more and more clear that our fate was the tale of Jesus' parable of the seed: unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies... it abides alone and bears no fruit. Dying is a painful process. Yet, only through death does new Life come!
So, with much prayer, much seeking of wise counsel, much listening and conversation, the decision was made to close our doors. The bigger plan is called, "replant" - we are merging with another church plant, allowing ourselves to be ministered to; as a church whole, we need some rest and healing to happen. We desire to "replant" in the future in our original building.
Personally, I am excited. I am aware it is a very scary step for many and I emphasize with them; yet, I have a joyous hope that God is in this whole thing and new Life and fruit will be a result of yielding and obeying.
This past Sunday was our "last" day to meet in our building. It was a blessed day. There was a fullness in our meeting; when we read this passage from Ephesians 3,
16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
...I was struck with how perfect it was for us. I felt a strong unity among us that I have not felt previously. We were walking through a turning point, together, and I believe God was honored as we corporately worshipped and looked to Him as our Head. He is guiding us, He will strengthen us, and "together with all the Saints"... we can grasp His Love for us more and more. I was also struck with the meaning of that phrase, "together with all the Saints" - in that, some of the riches of God can only be received fully as a Body. We need each other to receive the Fullness of God - we are complete in Christ as individuals, individually we receive from Him to love others and bring Him glory through relationship. Mysteriously, something absolutely beautiful happens as we share this in a Body of Believers. God made us to live and function in relationships, as He himself does. We are not designed to live alone. Relationship is vital to fully living. Seriously... can you think of experiencing the JOY of Jesus and not sharing that??!!
We are the Body of Christ.... I pray that our eyes are opened to see the deadly schemes of the Enemy who works to divide, isolate and destroy the unity Jesus prayed for in John 17. May we stand firmly in His Love and Truth today.
Here a picture of our last Sunday...
Comments
Blessings!
Melanie
~ melscoffeebreak.blogspot.com ~