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This blog is where I express myself to the world or at least to those who might stop by to read what I post 
. Maybe God will use what I post (I am a Christian and this blog will have a most decidedly Christian bent to it) to good effect in the lives of my readers.
I may turn some of my posts into a book. I may cease blogging here altogether. Who knows. But for now..I am content to post away in this, my own little corner of the world.
Rather than reading through my now lengthy list of posts you may wish to read what I consider to be my very best posts or you can just read the posts that deal with a single subject category that might interest you.
Please know that I am open to any input on any topic I write about. If you have something to say about anything you see written here please....feel free to speak up in the form of leaving a comment or sending me a PM (private message).
And if you are in San Diego and wish to meet the one and only Carlos (that's me)...drop me a private message. I always enjoy meeting one of my readers!
Thanks.
Carlos
PS. If you want to follow my blog such that you will get an email when I write new posts you can subscribe to my blog.
. Maybe God will use what I post (I am a Christian and this blog will have a most decidedly Christian bent to it) to good effect in the lives of my readers. I may turn some of my posts into a book. I may cease blogging here altogether. Who knows. But for now..I am content to post away in this, my own little corner of the world.
Rather than reading through my now lengthy list of posts you may wish to read what I consider to be my very best posts or you can just read the posts that deal with a single subject category that might interest you.
Please know that I am open to any input on any topic I write about. If you have something to say about anything you see written here please....feel free to speak up in the form of leaving a comment or sending me a PM (private message).
And if you are in San Diego and wish to meet the one and only Carlos (that's me
)...drop me a private message. I always enjoy meeting one of my readers!Thanks.
Carlos
PS. If you want to follow my blog such that you will get an email when I write new posts you can subscribe to my blog.
Being a witness to His resurrection!
Posted 11-29-2009 at 12:57 PM by carlos123
This morning as I read the Bible I was particularly struck by a theme running through my reading and wanted to share that with you all for what it's worth.
One of the things that I sometimes bring before the Lord in prayer is the very idea of even His existence. I know it sounds a bit odd but I will talk to Him about whether He even exists or not.
Rather odd, I mean that I would be praying to someone about a concern that He may not even be there but, I am completely open with the Lord about whatever is rolling around inside my heart. The good and the bad.
He accepts me just the way I am and I don't need to put on a pretense of being hyper spiritual with Him.
So this morning that was one of the things I had been speaking to the Lord about before I did my reading.
While He did not give me some revelation or other great insight into this issue I did get something from my reading that I wanted to share.
It seems to me that most persons who profess to be Christians these days have a relationship alright. But that relationship is one of a relationship with biblical truth and not so much a relationship with the truth Giver.
There is a difference. A great big difference.
While we, as Christians, are indeed to have a relationship with His truth and while we are indeed to expound upon and share it we are to primarily be witnesses of His resurrection and of the living reality of God as He lives among us. To His honor and glory.
The Christian faith is rooted in something that happened in time and space. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! He lives today and is present in His Body, the Church!
Now the problem is that many persons who profess to be members of His Body today have a relationship with His truths (if I can call such a relationship) and not with Him!
With the result that His Presence is not very evident within the visible church.
It is witnesses to His resurrection that we (those of us who are Christians) are called to be!
What did Jesus do while He lived and walked on this Earth?
He taught God's truths with authority by virtue of living a life pleasing to God in all things. He healed the sick. He gave sight to the blind, cast out demons, and raised the dead. He was fearless in His stand for truth and what was right and lived with one thing in mind...to bring honor and glory to His heavenly Father. He died as He lived thinking of others and putting them first before Himself.
Suffice it to say that He lived a very different life than what one sees in many churches today.
Is He present in His Body today? Yes.
But why do we not see Him very readily doing what He once did through the visible church then?
There are a number of reasons for this I think but one of the biggest in my opinion is that we have taken the easier route of being content with a relationship to His truths than aiming for nothing less than a relationship with Him.
Relationship with His truths is relatively easy. All one has to do is read the Bible for themselves, hear some nice sounding sermons, take notes, maybe even listen to the Bible being read on tape.
"Going" to church (as if one can go to a Body that we are, a Body that is not a place) fits in nicely if all we are interested in is relationship to His truth.
For many, relationship with His truths has become a substitute for relationship with Him.
Relationship with Him is an entirely different thing!
Yes, God's truths can enrich a relationship with Him, can give us insights into how to have a better relationship, are even fundamental in helping us understand who the Lord is that we might have a relationship with Him in the first place but...relationship with His truth is meant to point us and to move us into having a relationship with Him!
We must move beyond a relationship with His truth alone and on to having a relationship with Him.
The bolded text was bolded by me for emphasis.
Relationship with the Lord involves coming to Him, surrendering to Him as Lord, and becoming His disciple (i.e. a Christian). Believing who He was and what He came to do (i.e. to die for our sins as the Saviour of the world) with a willingness to act on what one says they believe.
In my experience, many, many church goers have a relationship with His truths alright but they lack relationship with Him.
It does not therefore surprise me that His Presence is not every evident in the visible church.
I am not talking about making some feet grow equally as long, healing a cold, having a nice "spiritual" experience at a church service and feeling all good inside while singing some great songs.
I am talking about experiencing His living reality within the Body. A Body that is doing the things He did and saying the things He said.
I just don't see it.
Relationship with Him is not going to be found in going to a building on Sundays and sitting down for two hours to hear a pastor tell us what the Bible says.
These days Bible's are readily available to all who might want to read them for themselves. I can hear sermons streaming to me over the Internet that are ten times more powerful and instructive than most local sermons are.
If relationship with truth is all that we are interested in...we can find all kinds of ways to have such a relationship.
And if superficial relationship with other church members is all that we want then the doughnuts after a service and the occasional pot luck will suffice and be more than enough.
But if we want real relationship with Him...I mean to where we learn to listen to His voice and to where the Holy Spirit leads us in every day life to give up our lives in service to Him and in learning to love others as He did...well...that is an entirely different thing.
Relationship with Him is not an easy thing. It starts and continues by faith in an unseen being who we have come to believe has risen from the dead. It involves acting as His Body to do what He did at the risk of looking like fools if He does not show Himself to be present when we step out to be all that He is in the Body.
It involves acting in line with what He said to humble ourselves before one another, admit wrong, forgive as we have been forgiven, not holding grudges or being resentful, thinking the best of others, and loving others with all that we have and are and hope to be.
Just as He loved us and gave His life for us.
Relationship with Him involves baring our souls before Him and before one another as members of the same Body. It involves letting Him and members of His Body in to our lives. Of sharing ourselves and all that we have with Him and with members of His Body.
If we claim to believe that He is present in His Body then we must act toward His Body as though we were interacting with Him.
We will not come to realize His living Presence in the Body short of that.
The church of today is missing many things that were present in the New Testament Church. But one of the most fundamental differences is that members of His Body then had a relationship with Him as the resurrected Lord of all. While we of today have a relationship with His truth.
I am speaking in generalities mind you and like all generalities there are exceptions but I think what I am saying here is true overall with respect to the underlying reason that we do not see much of His visible and living Presence within the visible and organized church today.
What we see of church today is comprised, in part, of persons who are really not members of His Body at all. They are not disciples. They are not surrendered to Him. They are not willing to lay down their lives in service to Him and to their fellow man.
They know Christ only as the subject of the sermons they hear and not as their personal Saviour and Lord.
There is a Church within the visible church that is indeed His Body. And that Body must once again focus on relationship with Him as being the cornerstone of all that we are and do if we as His Body are to rise up to reclaim all that the Church is supposed to be. As His Body.
Carlos
One of the things that I sometimes bring before the Lord in prayer is the very idea of even His existence. I know it sounds a bit odd but I will talk to Him about whether He even exists or not.
Rather odd, I mean that I would be praying to someone about a concern that He may not even be there but, I am completely open with the Lord about whatever is rolling around inside my heart. The good and the bad.
He accepts me just the way I am and I don't need to put on a pretense of being hyper spiritual with Him.
So this morning that was one of the things I had been speaking to the Lord about before I did my reading.
While He did not give me some revelation or other great insight into this issue I did get something from my reading that I wanted to share.
It seems to me that most persons who profess to be Christians these days have a relationship alright. But that relationship is one of a relationship with biblical truth and not so much a relationship with the truth Giver.
There is a difference. A great big difference.
While we, as Christians, are indeed to have a relationship with His truth and while we are indeed to expound upon and share it we are to primarily be witnesses of His resurrection and of the living reality of God as He lives among us. To His honor and glory.
Quote:
Acts 1:8
"...but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
Acts 1:21
"Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us--beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us--one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection."
1 Corinthians 15:3
"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also."
"...but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
Acts 1:21
"Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us--beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us--one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection."
1 Corinthians 15:3
"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also."
Now the problem is that many persons who profess to be members of His Body today have a relationship with His truths (if I can call such a relationship) and not with Him!
With the result that His Presence is not very evident within the visible church.
It is witnesses to His resurrection that we (those of us who are Christians) are called to be!
What did Jesus do while He lived and walked on this Earth?
He taught God's truths with authority by virtue of living a life pleasing to God in all things. He healed the sick. He gave sight to the blind, cast out demons, and raised the dead. He was fearless in His stand for truth and what was right and lived with one thing in mind...to bring honor and glory to His heavenly Father. He died as He lived thinking of others and putting them first before Himself.
Suffice it to say that He lived a very different life than what one sees in many churches today.
Is He present in His Body today? Yes.
But why do we not see Him very readily doing what He once did through the visible church then?
There are a number of reasons for this I think but one of the biggest in my opinion is that we have taken the easier route of being content with a relationship to His truths than aiming for nothing less than a relationship with Him.
Relationship with His truths is relatively easy. All one has to do is read the Bible for themselves, hear some nice sounding sermons, take notes, maybe even listen to the Bible being read on tape.
"Going" to church (as if one can go to a Body that we are, a Body that is not a place) fits in nicely if all we are interested in is relationship to His truth.
For many, relationship with His truths has become a substitute for relationship with Him.
Relationship with Him is an entirely different thing!
Yes, God's truths can enrich a relationship with Him, can give us insights into how to have a better relationship, are even fundamental in helping us understand who the Lord is that we might have a relationship with Him in the first place but...relationship with His truth is meant to point us and to move us into having a relationship with Him!
We must move beyond a relationship with His truth alone and on to having a relationship with Him.
Quote:
John 5:36
"I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
"I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
Relationship with the Lord involves coming to Him, surrendering to Him as Lord, and becoming His disciple (i.e. a Christian). Believing who He was and what He came to do (i.e. to die for our sins as the Saviour of the world) with a willingness to act on what one says they believe.
In my experience, many, many church goers have a relationship with His truths alright but they lack relationship with Him.
It does not therefore surprise me that His Presence is not every evident in the visible church.
I am not talking about making some feet grow equally as long, healing a cold, having a nice "spiritual" experience at a church service and feeling all good inside while singing some great songs.
I am talking about experiencing His living reality within the Body. A Body that is doing the things He did and saying the things He said.
I just don't see it.
Relationship with Him is not going to be found in going to a building on Sundays and sitting down for two hours to hear a pastor tell us what the Bible says.
These days Bible's are readily available to all who might want to read them for themselves. I can hear sermons streaming to me over the Internet that are ten times more powerful and instructive than most local sermons are.
If relationship with truth is all that we are interested in...we can find all kinds of ways to have such a relationship.
And if superficial relationship with other church members is all that we want then the doughnuts after a service and the occasional pot luck will suffice and be more than enough.
But if we want real relationship with Him...I mean to where we learn to listen to His voice and to where the Holy Spirit leads us in every day life to give up our lives in service to Him and in learning to love others as He did...well...that is an entirely different thing.
Relationship with Him is not an easy thing. It starts and continues by faith in an unseen being who we have come to believe has risen from the dead. It involves acting as His Body to do what He did at the risk of looking like fools if He does not show Himself to be present when we step out to be all that He is in the Body.
It involves acting in line with what He said to humble ourselves before one another, admit wrong, forgive as we have been forgiven, not holding grudges or being resentful, thinking the best of others, and loving others with all that we have and are and hope to be.
Just as He loved us and gave His life for us.
Relationship with Him involves baring our souls before Him and before one another as members of the same Body. It involves letting Him and members of His Body in to our lives. Of sharing ourselves and all that we have with Him and with members of His Body.
If we claim to believe that He is present in His Body then we must act toward His Body as though we were interacting with Him.
We will not come to realize His living Presence in the Body short of that.
The church of today is missing many things that were present in the New Testament Church. But one of the most fundamental differences is that members of His Body then had a relationship with Him as the resurrected Lord of all. While we of today have a relationship with His truth.
I am speaking in generalities mind you and like all generalities there are exceptions but I think what I am saying here is true overall with respect to the underlying reason that we do not see much of His visible and living Presence within the visible and organized church today.
What we see of church today is comprised, in part, of persons who are really not members of His Body at all. They are not disciples. They are not surrendered to Him. They are not willing to lay down their lives in service to Him and to their fellow man.
They know Christ only as the subject of the sermons they hear and not as their personal Saviour and Lord.
There is a Church within the visible church that is indeed His Body. And that Body must once again focus on relationship with Him as being the cornerstone of all that we are and do if we as His Body are to rise up to reclaim all that the Church is supposed to be. As His Body.
Carlos
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