It's HIS Church

Matthew 16:16 and verse 18
Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

"And I (Jesus speaking) also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build MY church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."

Is there no fear of God among His people?
Do we not have any reverence or fear of who it is we claim to worship and come before on Sunday's, or whatever day you choose to meet?
I keep running into people who share stories with me about what is going on in their own churches. Pastor's whose infidelities are swept under the carpet so to speak and treated as if nothing wrong had ever happened. Deacon's and Elder's abusing the very position and power entrusted to them by the people of that church. Is this really the church that Jesus said He was going to build?
Is the church that will cause the gates of hell to crumble and fall? I don't think so. Such is man's church, not God's. 

Do we even know who God is? Or have we taken the name God and built an image in our minds of how we wished He would be? In other words, have we created God in our own image? Do we even know what it means to come before Him and worship? To worship in Spirit and truth, such are the ones that the Father seeks. Do we understand....I mean are we really in touch with who the Father is? He is the first part of what some refer to as the Trinity. God...the Father. Jesus, the Son, is the entrance or doorway for us to come before the Father. The Holy Spirit is the conduit...the comforter that communicates to Jesus who, in turn, communicates to the Father our prayers. Oh yeah...one last thing. The Holy Spirit is a "HE"....not an it. The Holy Spirit can be grieved. He is the purveyor of the Joy of the Lord to us and in us. The Holy Three in One....working together in perfect harmony to bring about the Kingdom of God in our midst. I think somehow God models before us how we should be living here on planet earth. In harmony with our fellow believers. In unity with the Body of Christ at large. Yet we are so afraid that the church down the street might get more people to their meeting that we can. So we resort to all manner of foolishness to get people to church. Maybe we should spend more time learning to love folks, rather than plotting the next big promotion or event. You mean promotion's and event's are of the devil? No, I didn't say that. But you do have to wonder what the motivation is behind some of the stuff we see churches pull out in the name of Jesus. My thing is pretty simple. I want to make disciples........not just converts.

I have been dealing with some of my own issues when it comes to God building His church. I have a bad habit of looking ahead when it comes to Vineyard Recovery Church. Looking ahead and always measuring where we are spiritually at this point against where I think we might be headed. I confess this! But God keeps drawing me back to one simple statement He made to me before we ever held our first meeting. "It's my meeting...not yours. It's my church...not yours. I will build it. Keep your hands off it."  Now what part of that statement is not clear? I have guard myself from wanting to get into the mix and put my personal stamp on it. I am very much in touch with who I am not....and exactly who God is. I desire to allow God to come and demonstrate His Presence...His Power...His Purity...and His Purpose to us on Saturday nights. I just want to worship Him and give Him the honor that is due Him. Our highest call, as His creation, is to simply worship Him. Worship Him in our music....worship Him when we gather together....and worship Him with our very lives. Those who are a part of the core group of VRC is there to serve those who come to the meeting. We are there to pray with and for those who are searching for a way out of the misery we call addiction. We simply want to introduce them to the Jesus we have found, and then model before them what a life of following Jesus would look like. Sometimes our modeling includes all the bone headed stuff we do. We would put that under the label of "How not to follow Jesus!" We do not want to create and image or a false idea of what following Jesus really means. We desire to be an honest and transparent people before God and those who come to meet with us on Saturday's. It takes a lot less energy to be who you are and not who you think people want you to be. 

I want to close out today's posting with a video from the archives. 
It is from a Vineyard Pastor's Conference held in the early 90's.
Jack Hayford is the speaker and he shares with the group what God has given him to say about who we are as a church movement. I do not want to drift from this, but remain true to who I have been called to be. As Bill Jackson states in his book Quest For The Radical Middle, you don't join a Vineyard Church....you just discover that who you are.

God on you....
mb