This article is for anyone out there that considers "grubbykupp" or "Just Some Jesus People" their church.
First of all, there is almost no such thing as "grubbykupp". That's just a word that we got years back that said, "you can only be loved by me as who you actually are, with wounds and lack and sin and all the mess of who you are, so be the cup and get filled and washed and just go go go and walk with Me!" Jesus seemed to be saying...
I got that word prophetically when I preached Jeremiah 31 about the New Covenant at a Methodist Church in Loveland OH in 2001 or 2000 or something. They've got the tape... Judy came up to me after and said she was getting that word and that the Lord was calling us to be vessels, as we were, with the good news of Jesus, the lover of sinners... Jesus, loving us and telling us to tell you he loves you... what? so simple, yet far too rare...
and we're a mess and he loves us...
But grubbykupp isn't a "thing", really. the Thing is JESUS! He really does love you, now, today, as you are, and he's calling you out of your guilt and to know the indescribable Father-Love of Abba... What? so simple... soooo... simple...
And "Just Some Jesus People" is a little trick i play on people who need a label in order to start a friendship. I mean, look at that... enjoy...
But the linked article is goood. For anyone there who thinks that by meeting together or living together, or whatevs, that they are "joining a church" or a "community"... you joined the only church there ever has been when you first realized that the Someone you need is Jesus! all those years of loneliness and brokenness and here's Jesus, arms open, loving you and speaking HIMSELF as the final message on how God feels about you.
You know what else?
any time you joined a church before?
No you didn't.
Some of the people at the meetings may have been the church, but they weren't behaving in a full understanding of the true definition of church--the reality of church (forget just defining it: it's there to LIVE IN)
that wasn't behaving like what Jesus calls a church, if you had to join it like that...
sorry, dude.
the church Jesus started doesn't name itself after itself and do like that. seriously... what? Does that indict something dear to you? something you may have confused for something else??? hope so.
I really do.
I'm not here to make you comfortable if you've set your hope on some wack imitation of the reality of the gifts of God. God has LOVED US and has given us such immense GRACE, and the imitation stuff kinda gets stinky! really.
God is hardly who we have imagined him to be... He is in LOVE with you.
Now go read the book of Hosea. Go. Read it. Why did God put that in there? What the heck is that? Yeah. Goood. be perplexed now. and go with that...
Friday, August 22, 2008
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A most excellent post.
ReplyDeleteWho we are and why we do all answered in this guy Jesus.
Love Wayne's writing as well. Church is a reality isn't it.
I think it is like the love of God that is so wonderfully expressed in Hosea especially the 1st 3 chapters. Love isn't something we earn, a choice we make or a verb but simply a reality to enter in to.
I am a little reluctant to comment, b/c we have a little reconciling to do. So, I'm doing my best not to respond at all out of emotion but out of only principle and truth. That being said, it appears to me that you in this article are only looking at the definition of church as the body of Christ. That includes all Christians and states that there is only one church. Did I interpret that right? (I realize I may be wrong in how I read your article.) Though I believe that that definition is accurate, I believe scriptures has two meaninings for church. The other IS the meeting, living, structure, etc. You can see this in Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in EACH church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. So, it shows here that there are times where scripture shows that there are multiple churches. To confirm this point, look at all of the different churches talked about in revelations. Much love.
ReplyDeleteOkay, okay. After further reflection and a closer look at what was actually said, I think I did interpret you incorrectly. I don't think that the point you were trying to make is that there is only one church. I think you were saying that it's not about joining and attending a service; it's about the whole sharing life and growing in the Lord stuff that makes you the church. And there can be many of those types of bodies. I still do think, however, in those types of bodies that there is order, structure, and roles. Now I'm just thinking out loud. I'm not trying to say that you don't think those things belong in the church. Do I understand you correctly? Anyways, I'm curious to understand you better of what specifically you mean when you talk of the "imitation of the reality of the gifts of God". Can you clarify in more detail?
ReplyDeleteThanks bro.
An Apology.
ReplyDeleteI wrote on this blog, in the past, having very little observation of the glory of the Christ.
I had very bad teaching regarding truth.
I arrived at most of my conclusions on this blog merely on the basis of my own rationality. This in short was entirely prideful and ultimately...sin.
I am sorry.
I would like to correct any comment I have made with an amendment...
We are a people broken and wounded by sin. Our only hope is in Christ.
Christ body extends across this planet to this day; His Body, our Eucharist. His Body, an undivided, holy catholic and apostolic church.
Now sure, His society we know as the Church is filled with saints and sinners alike.
We the whole people of the human family are a society filled with saints and sinners alike.
The unique quality of the Church that distinguishes it from the rest of the human family is God's grace. Together we are redeemed from our sins by faith in one truth. The truth is this:
There is one God, The Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and Earth.
That His one and only Son, Jesus Christ is our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From there He will come to judge the living and the dead. That at pentacost, He sent his Holy Spirit to the holy Christian church, the communion of saints. And that through all of this, we are forgiven of our sins, our bodies are resurrected and we have eternal life.
This is what is true.
And as a people in this grace, we are born from above. We are included in the inheritence of God's Eternal Kingdom. We are the new Jerusalem.
Transformed by the conversion only possible through baptism.
This means we must not judge as men, but see people as God sees men...with mercy.
Judgement by suspision is ground for sin against this truth, insofar as it shows contempt for our neighbor.
There are two ways we must guard against that are of this condemned type of judgement:
1) Judging our neighbor on grounds preconditioned by the perception of our own shortfalls in their actions. (which might I add, we don't even really know our own faults and tendancies. Only God knows our inner most passions. Thus it is impossible for us to see in others that which we can not in all actuallity see in ourselves).
2) Judging our neighbor on the basis of our passions or emotions toward them.
I apologize for doing either of these things in my writings or actions before I was taught the truth.
Please forgive me.