To Live As Christ - Page 35 of 35 - A Personal Journey With God

“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

-Acts 2:36

Our “Dark & Early” man-group read this today. The entire passage surrounding this is fascinating and inspiring; I encourage you to read it. The piece that stuck out to me was this question: what does the fact that Christ is Lord and Messiah mean for us today? And might it even be exactly what we need in order to experience the signs, wonders, baptisms and powerful speaking that surrounded the early church when these words were first spoken?

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

-Romans 10:9-10

So today I’m asking myself if I believe in my heart that God has raised Christ from the dead… enough to die for it? And I’m going to declare to someone I meet that Jesus is Lord.

Because, if He died and was raised, and I believe it, then I am justified. And if he is Lord, meaning I must surrender to Him in obedience will ALL aspects of my life, then speaking that truth is a proclamation of my salvation and his Lordship of my life. It often seems that if I was asked, “are you willing to die for your faith?” the answer is affirmative; but if asked, “When was the last time you told someone the Christ is Lord?” the occasions are sparse, if existent at all. Shouldn’t someone who claims to believe, also proclaim their belief?

I think so. I think that I personify more the “lukewarm believer” than a martyr. My prayer today is that I would be cut to the core, like our brothers from Acts were, that Christ would be proclaimed and many would be saved.

So, I’m not Catholic per-se, but I think they have done a fairly good job of maintaining nomenclature regarding Mass; or gathering or “church”. This is something I feel is being or has been forgotten. As a Christ-follower, I understand that my ultimate goal is to honor and glorify God by surrendering my will to His. Where these two ideas, of Mass and obedience to God, collide is where I am in this moment.

The discipline of gathering together to remember Christ’s body and blood is one that is ancient, holy and essential. It is commanded by Christ, who is the fullness of God, and I could hardly consider calling myself a Christ-follower were I to neglect it. Likewise, the benefit and duty of gathering is exhorted in scripture [Heb 10:25]; I have been its’ beneficiary and I encourage others to do the same.

What I would like to suggest is that we pause to ask ourselves, “Has God asked us to gather in this way?”

Weekly; Non-weekly. In a building; Not in a building. With thousands; With several. Lights, video and sound; silence and stillness. We’ve selected some methods that fit our culture, needs and preferences, but my fear and suggestion is that we have allowed the perriferal to become the essential.

As “the body”, which is the true “Church”, we use terminology such as, “going to church”, which doesn’t make any sense if we are to think about the words we use. Then we have to clarify what we are talking about; if we are using the “big C or little c” in church. Frankly, “the church” is people and you can’t “go to” people.

The detriment here is not so much that we must be wordsmiths and English majors, but that we lose something by speaking this way. Cultural speech directs individual thinking. If I “go to church” then I “leave church” afterward. “Church” is then just a program, not a group of people living out a way of life.

Therefore, gather together. Feel free to put on a program (all the while, avoid calling it a “service”… let’s save that for when we actually serve people, so that we don’t misplace the meaning of that important word as well). But don’t forget that we are all the body, and gathering together is not our primary function. I’ve been let off the hook too many times by congregations whom allow me to sit, take and leave; I am essentially neglecting my responsibility as a “Christ-follower” of following Christ in His way.

May this be my official invitation to you, to hold me accountable for my responsibility to the way, and not to a program.

For more thoughts:
https://www.theexaminer.org/volume7/number5/forsake.htm

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Both Lord and Messiah

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