I tend to measure everything existentially now days. Not religiously (thank you Jesus for freeing me from that). If that means being genuine, then I'm that. We need a genuine Christianity. I don't like the generic media generated greed based religious definition. It doesn't represent the Church I serve, or the Christ I love.
The popular religious form of Christianity is narrow, malnourished, religious, and anemic. It's just a historical representation as one of the three major world religions. It always seems to be in competition.
It lacks.
I always notice that many times the emaciated church refers to itself as in the past. That we need to "get back" to the "way it was." I used to think that until I realized the church that is entertaining that line of reasoning essentially is not the church at all. It is the malnourished, anemic, starving shell of what the Church is. To be clear here and not confuse, there is THE CHURCH, and there is the sham version. The sham version gets all the press. It tickles the senses. It entertains.
Measure it against the ideal of "without spot or wrinkle" and you tell me.
If the Church is the living organism I believe it is, and that it is eternal and comprised of the Living Stones which are the "true" believers in Christ, then it can't be "the way it was", but has to be "the Way it is"!
The shriveled up misrepresentation of the church is sad. It's a spiritual good 'ol boy network propagating and keeping alive an erroneous and deceitful network of messages and dog and pony shows. Circus Maximus. Shiny objects that attract. Comedians with phony baloney credentials passed on by others with phony baloney credentials. It's an infectious disease that's not fooling God.
It's closer to a pyramid scheme than a church. It's being bought and sold in the market place to the highest bidders. It's Enron. It's AIG. It's a failure. It's bursting at the seems with greed and avarice.
A wise man once said, "The garbage is getting piled so high on Calvary that we can hardly see the Cross!"
When it comes to the Church, the Way it was is the Way it is. It IS the Way. The Way is Jesus. In other words, it's alive and functional. It's just not the one that most people ever get to see. We don't have to "get back" to anything. The true Church of Jesus Christ has never been less than it ever was.
John 14:6 (Amplified Bible) - "Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me."
It's a simple yet concise creed. He is everything.
Look here:
John 15:5 (Amplified Bible) - "I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing."
There it is. The way we are, not the way we were. If the Way is the way, then the Way is the way it is. The way it always has been. The way it always will be. Now and forever.
Apart from Jesus we are nothing. Never have been. Never will be.
I am in Him so I really am. Existential? So be it. But it's real.
I love being me. The same person I always have been, but redeemed in Him. A better version of reality.
I suppose that's what Jesus really meant when He said we have to love ourselves in order to love our neighbor (each other). Anything short of that is a total abject failure.
My prayer for you today is that you are vibrantly and completely attached to the Vine. That your fruit is abundant, and that you are in vital union with Him! Run it all past Jesus today, and be blessed!
Keepin' it real,
Pastor Kevin <><
www.reallifect.com
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