BALANCE IN THE BODY OF CHRIST

When the teeter totter is not resting upon a proper fulcrum it cannot be rightly balanced.  When we, the Body of Christ are not balanced on the ROCK which is Christ, having Him as our Head and His command as our foundation, the Body likewise cannot find proper balance.

In many of our American churches the work of ministry is resting on the Pastor as its fulcrum, not only in expectation that the Pastor will do the work of the ministry while the sheep of the pasture show up on Sunday to sit for an hour, but many times also resting solely on the Pastors whims, desires and personal dictates.  Why is this?  People have abdicated their responsibility to be accountable to one another. Pastor “power” is running amok precisely because the people God intended to be contributing members of the Body see themselves as less  in spirit or ability than those few considered anointed as clergy.

Failure to individually adhere to Apostle Pauls exhortation in II Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God a worker who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth”,  has left many ignorant and vulnerable to false teaching and the wolves in sheep’s clothing who devour them.  We sit passive in the face of the serious problems cropping up in our churches feeling helpless to stop it. Sin runs rampant and Christians are seen as powerless and ineffective to the very ones we are to example Christ before! 

Somewhere along the way we’ve lost sight of the truth that every born again believer who calls on the name of Jesus as Savior is to be a minister of the Gospel as set forth in Apostle Pauls second letter to the Corinthians 5:17-18 and 6:1 “we then as workers together...”  We have absented ourselves from our role in the Body of Christ and expect to be carried by arms that have no legs to support them!  Apostle Paul revealed clearly in First Corinthians 12:12 the importance of every member of the body doing his or her part. If we fail it is not just we but the whole Body who is failiing!

We turn Pastors, our fellow workers into some sort of celebrity figureheads and bow to them in worship as the foolish Israelites bowed to their own handmade golden calf in the wilderness rather than remain true to the Mighty God who delivered us from slavery to sin.  We place the full weight of ministry upon the imperfect shoulders of Pastors throughout our religious organizations and then we are angry with them at the imperfection that results. As quickly as we shoved them onto pedestals is just how quick  we are to join in the mocking of the world to knock them off with hardly a single prayer and replace them with more imperfect specimens. 

We’ve watered down our Lord Jesus' truth in a false effort to make it more palatable in order to appear we are tolerant and inclusive that the world in turn might find us more acceptable and agree to populate our church pews and include us in return. When that doesn't happen  we seem blind that how they do spitefully use us is really a screaming cry about how desperately in need they are for us to pray for them, to pray for their deliverance from the darkness that grips their souls!

Let me be clear in what I am saying here.  The world does not need Christians to include them, but they violently need us to recognize how lost they are and pray to Almighty God for their salvation.  Jesus sternly rebuked those who took the “work of ministry” to be treated as a light matter. He stressed this important point when He declared in Matthew 11:12 “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the VIOLENT take it by force.” 

Take what by force?  Take the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN by force!

The single most powerful force in the hands of a believer of Jesus Christ as Savior and God the Father as Creator is prayer.  Simple, powerful, zealous and energetic prayer laid as an offering upon the altar of Gods throne of grace.  Both in the physical realm and the spiritual realm prayer is our most powerful weapon, affecting both earth now and all Eternity in Heaven!

I do not point these things out from some lofty position of authority but on the contrary, from the position of lowly servant to the people of the Lord, a sinner saved by the gracious Savior. I cry out as the Holy Spirit of God that is in me reveals in order that we all might come together in unity. 

Church, our Head is calling us to obey Him more perfectly in the way of surrender that He might open a way to fuller understanding and intimate relationship with Him for all His sheep. We must continually strive to TURN TO HIM, JESUS, WHO IS THE HEAD OF THE BODY, in order to serve His purposes and not our own.

All Scripture is quoted from the New King James Version. 

Pastor Marie and her husband continue to travel the US, sharing the Gospel of Salvation through Christ alone and exhorting Unity in Christs Church across denominational lines.

You are welcome to comment on the opinion expressed here. 

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