I Timothy 3:15
If I am detained, you may know how people ought to conduct themselves in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and stay (prop and support) of the truth.
Everything must have a foundation upon which it is built.
Buildings.....
Highways....
Governments.....
and yes....
even humans.
We must have a foundation of belief's, either wrong or right, that will guide us through life.
The older I get the more I see that what we truly believe is found in the actions of our everyday life.
If that life is wrongly grounded upon a shaky foundation, then the actions will be destructive and bring about bad consequences.
Given a sure foundation....
A firm foundation.....
even when life throws us a curve ball and we find ourselves in the middle of an emotional storm of conflict and doubt, we have that sure, steady place inside from which we can make our choices.
That is why this verse from I Timothy 3 is so important to me. If I want to learn truth, I turn to God. If I want a place where I can grow in truth, I turn to a community of like minded people. The church. This is why Saturday night's are so important to me. I can go and be grounded for the coming week. I can worship and be among people who also desire to continue in this new life we have been given. Being "Born Again" is more than a catchy phrase that some thought Jimmy Carter created when he ran for President. No...Jesus spoke to a religious ruler who had come to him under the cover of night to ask some questions. Jesus told him, "You have to be born again to understand and enter the Kingdom of heaven." In other words, you got to have a whole new foundation laid from which you will learn how to live life under the direction of God's Holy Spirit. Born Again.
This gathering of people who have been born again (we call the church) is the ground from which truth is grown. It is the pillar or support of the truth. You see we can't measure the success of any church by the number of people who attend.....we measure it by the quality of people it produces. Do they love Jesus? Are the being "Salt and light" in their communities? Do they love each other in word AND DEED? Truth is not a mental exercise. Truth is not merely a nod that something is condoned or accepted. Truth is what sets you free from any one or any thing that runs contrary to God's will. Truth is a weapon that is to be wielded when the enemy comes at us with his lies. We learn, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, how to accept truth about ourselves. How to embrace the changes that we are seeing that we need to make.
What better place to make these changes that within a community of people who are just crazy enough believe that God is who He claims to be and will do what He claims He will do.
The church....
God on you....
mb
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