"You are the Christ...the Messiah..The Son of the Living God!"
Matthew 16:19 - "And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be bound loosed in heaven
Keys....
They lock.....
They unlock....
But they do so with things already in place. Doors....windows.....pad locks.....and the list goes on and on.
God has given to us the Keys of His Kingdom.....
Which do you think would be the largest key He has given to us?
Would it be the key to be used to heal someone?
Or would it be the key to unlocking His mysteries?
How about words of knowledge and maybe prophetic visions that would give us a glimpse into the future?
What if the largest key to the kingdom was something else?
What if the most important key to God's Kingdom was a plain ordinary key that one might look over if you had them all?
What if the largest, most important key of the Kingdom......
unlocked the door to our own heart so that we could love as God loves?
The older I have gotten, the more this "love" thing has plagued me. I really want to get this right.
Why?
Because of what I see around me.
Churches treating each other as if we were in competition with each other.
Competition?
Really?
I thought we were the Body of Christ.
One church has on the sign "We're the friendliest church in town!" what does that really say about all the other churches in that town?
In fighting among members of local congregations over the stupidest of reasons.
One group likes the pastor...
One doesn't...
So the bickering starts...all the while the entire group runs around "acting" like they are a part of the Kingdom. Acting and playing at being a follower of Jesus.
No wonder church attendance is down.
The church (and that would be the people) have become an embarrassment to the outside world.
We proclaim the love of God...
yet we don't want to sit on the same row with some who attend our church.
Now before you think I'm getting on my high horse talking down to the masses.....I ain't!
I am fortunate in some ways by heading up a recovery church.
We all know we've got problems.
There is a side to being a recovery church that is very sobering....
IF we don't change...
We will die.
So this "addiction" has put us in touch with a real need for God in our lives.
As we have met each week since April 13th of last year, I have tried to follow God's direction in holding this meeting. That is "keep it real.....keep it honest...and keep it short".
The person who comes through our door on Saturday is suffering....
Their view of their own self worth is seen through the damage they have done in their past.
In other words....they see no worth in themselves.
So right off the bat....we love them.
We see the worth because God saw worth in us.
They may not remember any of the message from the night they attended, but they will not soon forget the love that was shown to them.
I'm talking about real love. We're not great at demonstrating it...but we are working on it. Trying to get out of the way and let God love through us.
So the worship might sound a little different that what you'd expect from a church service.
That's o.k.
God loves the Blues and little Southern Rock.
The other thing is that we aren't singing about God....we're singing to God.
Kind of a collective "Howdy! We sure do love you" kind of deal.
We don't really have an order to our service. Not in the sense of one that we have scripted out and then follow to the letter.
We know three things...
1.) We are going to worship God
2.) We are going to teach His Word.
3.) We are going to have a time of ministry and prayer so God can demonstrate and validate the word that was given. How does He demonstrate this? Through the manifestation of His power in our midst. Healing.........deliverance from demonic oppression........encouragement and oh yeah...........SALVATION!
Saturday night might not look like a well-oiled religious machine
That's o.k.
I just want folks to go away encouraged to follow this Jesus....
Encouraged to fall in love with Him.
I think that pretty much sums up my view of the largest....bestest key on God's key ring.
The key to love.
God on you....
mb
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