The Perfecting Church

We are living in a rapidly changing world.  A world full of conflicts within its nations; a shifting in world order; increasing droughts, floods and pandemics and technology that is outpacing practices, policies and ethics. In the face of such unprecedented change, we need a Church that is maturing.  We need a Church that is rooted and grounded. 

As we sit between celebrating the coming of Christ and entering a New Year, let’s reflect on God’s Radical Love in 2024. If God the author and finisher had A Final Word to declare over your 2024, what might that be? Samson had a final word and God had one for him. 

The love of God is greater than any love we will ever experience.

His love has come down, but it has also come in. His love is in us and is multiplied as we become more like Him. This great love causes us to live in a posture of "expecting". Through triumphs and trials our position is to expect love to show up in it, through it and after it. The birth of Christ reminds us that love remains and is always present.

Jesus came over 2000 years ago and along with His birth He also gave birth to His Body, the Church. Jesus set things straight when He came the first time and He ascended and He now sits at the right hand of the Father but He promised He would return. He left us with power in the form of the Holy Spirit to help us on the journey between His first coming and His second. Within the help that the Holy Spirit provides is Joy. Therefore we have in our possession Joy for the journey. As followers of Christ it is a must that we maintain the joy of the Lord for the journey.

Corporate worship is a holy, sacred, set apart activity in the earth. There is no other gathering in this temporal world that can replicate what uniquely happens when the saints of God gather to worship Him. In corporate worship God reveals, relocates and realigns. When we worship together, we are changed together. 

Worship is a covenantal act. It is our response to the on-going, faithful commands and covenantal love of the Lord God. He is looking for our worship; not because He needs it, but because He knows we do.  Worship is the remedy for our unceasing quest to find wholeness, fruitfulness and fulfillment.  Worship is the way we access and extend heaven on earth until the new heaven and the new earth.  

The Lord God of heaven and earth is a jealous God. In both the Old and New Testament, more than a dozen times, He refers to himself as jealous. The creator of all things has made all things for His beloved. But He will not stand for anything taking His place in our lives. He wants our deepest affections and surrender. He is The Jealous God. 

Humanity was created to live from and for the very goodness of God. God’s very goodness isn’t the quality or ability of an individual part; God’s very goodness refers to the completeness and wellness of the whole. We were created to live from and for relational wholeness and wellness — the very goodness of God. 

 All too often wounds of the heart atrophy our response to the Shepherd of our souls, causing us to miss the Provision, Protection, and Prosperity our Abba longs to supply. There are rituals and routines, sacred rhythms if you will, that are intended to align us with the rhythm of heaven so that our cadence and movement flow with and follow that of the Spirit, the One in Whom we live, move and have our being. As we journey through the 23rd Psalm with an eye on the Good Shepherd, may we encounter the deep healing that comes as we rest the weight of our lives on the Lover of our Soul. 

There are times, when God allows moments that bring us to the end of ourselves; times when we face odds and obstacles that we have no way of overcoming; times when we face enemies and assailants that have every intent on destroying us; times when we see our families, friends, and resources under attack with no way of rescue or relief. But those can be the very moments, when God is healing our hearts. Those can be the very moments when we are learning to trust again. Some heart wounds persist, because we refuse to trust God again and again.