Sliced, Diced, and Mashed/Just Perfect

Just perfect!

As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.  For who is God save the Lord? Or who is a rock save our God?It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect. 

                                                                                                    …Psalm 18:30-32

            Many churches have become sophisticated forgetting the real reason for meeting in the House of God, filtering through memberships as if it were a club initiation.

Becoming so “in-themselves,” they have forgotten whom they serve.  With nose in the air, those guilty, miss the opportunity to serve the little ones of society needing a mentor, or the faint hearted and down.  With head tilted high it is difficult for any of them to see the disabled spiritually, so fixed on the beauty of the crowning, elaborate services ahead. 

            Elaborate were Jewish ceremonies were not quite what God had intended by the time man’s formalities were added.  No longer were the ceremonies sacred, but show.  How would the Jews and the Gentiles ever have peace?   The Gentiles were still considered strangers, and the Court of the Gentiles was as far as they could go to worship.  The outsider could be a proselyte, but not a full fledge Jew.  Because of the Cross, we can go directly to the throne of God.

            God had guidelines for the Israelites to follow no doubt, but they failed to recognize the One to whom the guidelines were preparing them for; the Messiah.  The Cross happened, and we are estranged no longer when we recognize Him as the Savior or the coming Messiah. 

            Interesting, the One, the ceremonies were meant for, has been forgotten beneath beauty, history, and cold rituals that mean nothing, because the Messiah has already come. The very ceremonies were for the One who would be rejected by his own.  The world’s only hope for the lost, proud, and sin-stained, would be through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

            Christian, don’t repeat history and have so much ceremony, there is no substance to be seen, or felt. Otherwise, you will be no different from those ‘spiritual’ leaders of Jesus’ day and snob, or look down upon, the poor soul who sits in the pew next to you—the very same soul Jesus died for.  Do you have a Gentile Court in your church?  I pray it is an open court, for ‘whosoever’ will.

Sliced, Diced, and Mashed/Octopus Ordeal

Octopus Ordeal

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

                                                                                                             …Galations 6:1

An interesting fact:  The first ink used was made from pigment from an Octopus. 

The amazing creature hides from his enemies while camouflaged in the waters below.  But once the Octopus feels an object approaching too closely, he whirls one of his arms out to attack his prey. But not before he sprays this ink screen, or cloud of protection, from his ink sak that almost makes him invisible. 

We do the same thing when we are hurt, by putting up a wall or screen of protection, not allowing ourselves to get too close to people for fear of being hurt again.  We just know it will happen.  Someone will disappoint us, but this time we are determined it won’t affect us, we say. 

An Octopus has normally eight arms and if something happens to harm or hurt one of his many limbs, he can grow a new one. 

Unlike the Octopus, we can not grow back an arm if we lose one. I automatically thought of the church when the mention of amputation came to mind.  A congregation can be hurt worse, if the attitude of amputation exists instead of restoration when it comes to members of our church who have fallen into sin. 

The body of Christ feels the loss or damage done, but imagine what amputation would make them feel?  People have had to face such extremes, when confronted with no other options.  But the body misses the limb and its created function.  It is the same for the church. It will never be quite the same after someone has indulged in lustful ways.

 In this case though, the person that fell into sin chose to do just that. The Holy Spirit lives in us to convict, and he does his job.  If we ignore his pleading, we sin, and really we don’t even fall into sin, we walk right in the front door.  We even open the door, turning the doorknob to the direction we want to go.

We as a church cannot at this point amputate that member of the body.  We must try to bring him to a restoration point.  God is in the business of healing spiritually and even correcting our vision to focus in on Him better. We can’t just grow new limbs, but old broken limbs need reviving loving them back into the fold through the example of God’s love.

Some of us don’t have broken limbs, but we do have a blurred vision of what it is to truly be Christian.  Watch out for the camouflage or screens set up to deter us, and restore the fallen in an attitude of meekness.