Think on these things.

[Pearl]

There is and has only ever been one true Church, which is made up only of those who are Born Again believers from whatever church background, or none, worldwide, past present and future. Those who through the revelation of the Holy Spirit have seen Jesus for who he is, recognised what he did, turned from their sin and accepted him into their lives as Lord and Saviour. Anybody who hasn’t taken these steps towards him and made that commitment is not, in my view, part of the Church. And in my experience many church-goers and even clergy fall outside this criterion.

And already in God’s eyes we are spotless; having had our sin washed away in the blood of the sacrificial Lamb we are free from it. We are not though, yet perfect – far from it some might say – and won’t be while we are in our mortal bodies, but we are without sin in God’s eyes. If we were not we wouldn’t be called a Holy Priesthood; those who have been made holy as he is holy and can come into His holy presence and stand before him face to face.

It is this Church which will be presented to the Father as the Bride.

Within the denominations there are many ‘weeds’ and where they are in the majority, I believe God’s word tells us not to be yoked with unbelievers. I know there is an argument which says stay and lead by example, but I have found that such died-in-the-wool ‘weeds’ have absolutely no desire to change and most will be quite derogatory about those in their midst who confess to be Born Again and spirit filled.

Many clergy are afraid to preach the truth in case they offend life-long church members who then may leave, causing dwindling membership to drop even further – I’ve seen it happen. These stiff-necked people are often the driving force of the church (small c) as they refuse to step down from positions of authority on PCC committees and the like, which can result in the stultifying of the church.

Those of us who do belong to the One True Church should be showing love and a lack of prejudice towards one another. We who carry the divine DNA and are brothers and sisters in Christ, children of the Living God need to be seen to be kind and loving to each other as “By their love will you know them”. We have so much in common, and our Father tells us to encourage one another, so let us do just that.

I believe that in God's eyes we are not spiritually divided if we have the Holy Spirit of God in us and are in Christ. We are not divided but already have the unity of the Spirit. We may not agree on doctrine or the colour of the walls in the brew room, or even about whether to have a bag or a plate for collections. But if we are born again Jesus unites us; his blood unites us; his sacrifice unites us. We are already one family in Christ; albeit a quarrelsome one.

And whilst there are divisions within the Church over unimportant doctrinal matters which have been interpreted in different ways by different sectors of Christ's body, nonetheless the important thing is that all who are born again in Christ are united with Christ and therefore must surely be united with each other. If you do not agree with what I have said then that’s ok but maybe you might like to give it some deeper thought before you reply.

If we will stop looking at the differences between us and begin to see ourselves as united in the way I have described then maybe that will go a long way to closing the divisions and ending the quarrels.

 

[Nancy]

There is and has only ever been one true Church, which is made up only of those who are Born Again believers from whatever church background, or none, worldwide, past present and future. Those who through the revelation of the Holy Spirit have seen Jesus for who he is, recognised what he did, turned from their sin and accepted him into their lives as Lord and Saviour. Anybody who hasn’t taken these steps towards him and made that commitment is not, in my view, part of the Church. And in my experience many church-goers and even clergy fall outside this criterion.

And already in God’s eyes we are spotless; having had our sin washed away in the blood of the sacrificial Lamb we are free from it. We are not though, yet perfect – far from it some might say – and won’t be while we are in our mortal bodies, but we are without sin in God’s eyes. If we were not we wouldn’t be called a Holy Priesthood; those who have been made holy as he is holy and can come into His holy presence and stand before him face to face.

It is this Church which will be presented to the Father as the Bride.

Within the denominations there are many ‘weeds’ and where they are in the majority, I believe God’s word tells us not to be yoked with unbelievers. I know there is an argument which says stay and lead by example, but I have found that such died-in-the-wool ‘weeds’ have absolutely no desire to change and most will be quite derogatory about those in their midst who confess to be Born Again and spirit filled.

Many clergy are afraid to preach the truth in case they offend life-long church members who then may leave, causing dwindling membership to drop even further – I’ve seen it happen. These stiff-necked people are often the driving force of the church (small c) as they refuse to step down from positions of authority on PCC committees and the like, which can result in the stultifying of the church.

Those of us who do belong to the One True Church should be showing love and a lack of prejudice towards one another. We who carry the divine DNA and are brothers and sisters in Christ, children of the Living God need to be seen to be kind and loving to each other as “By their love will you know them”. We have so much in common, and our Father tells us to encourage one another, so let us do just that.

I believe that in God's eyes we are not spiritually divided if we have the Holy Spirit of God in us and are in Christ. We are not divided but already have the unity of the Spirit. We may not agree on doctrine or the colour of the walls in the brew room, or even about whether to have a bag or a plate for collections. But if we are born again Jesus unites us; his blood unites us; his sacrifice unites us. We are already one family in Christ; albeit a quarrelsome one.

And whilst there are divisions within the Church over unimportant doctrinal matters which have been interpreted in different ways by different sectors of Christ's body, nonetheless the important thing is that all who are born again in Christ are united with Christ and therefore must surely be united with each other. If you do not agree with what I have said then that’s ok but maybe you might like to give it some deeper thought before you reply.

If we will stop looking at the differences between us and begin to see ourselves as united in the way I have described then maybe that will go a long way to closing the divisions and ending the quarrels.

Loved the post Pat,
Gotta say one thing here and that is about prejudice inside the Church. There are MANY ignorant Christians, they don't understand something they are repelled because of the demonization the Church has made out of many people and their past. Doesn't seem to go away, only gets worse. This makes me want to stay AWAY from the mainline church's. Why would anyone want to be where they are shunned, not loved or even liked! I agree with Ghandi when he said something to the effect, "I like your Jesus very much, but I do not like Christians". When reading that the first time, I totally agreed with him, I couldn't stand Christians because of their stuck up noses and clean little lives and their attitude of judging, sentencing and condemning. No, have not felt welcomed in most church's. And, that will never put me off of God, they will pay with their hypocrisy and total lack of welcoming and love. No mater how I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried so hard for so long to converse with the women, once they knew I had no husband or children, it was like their eyes just go blank and, that's that. Oh, SOME might have the decency to at least say hello but, that's it. So, yeah...I'm pretty down on mainline churches as a whole. At least here, behind the screen, I'm comfortable enough to mention things as I cannot see the eyes of the person and the change come over them, that is more hurtful than anything I have experienced concerning the church.
I do not see any changes there...prejudice dies hard. In my own experience, I see more hate than I do love. Cannot see much of any difference between them and the world so...I am finished with them all. It would be so nice to have a prayer partner, a study partner but...that ain't ever gonna happen with me it seems and, it's fine...I can pray and study on my own and get what ever fellowship I can get on here. If you sense sour grapes Pat, then you have sensed well. When I feel the grudges trying to build up inside, I quickly say NO and, pray for them instead. It seems the congregations are all cookie cutter clones of each other, and not in very good ways. All very clique like and, if you're not "like" them, you're out...kind of like high schools and "the Mean Girls". Why would anyone different from them even WANT to go to their church's. I do not, and I am sorry if you all think I'm "forsaking the gathering of the brethren. There is such a lack of empathy, such a lack of love and welcoming. Who wants to go to a place like that?? And, yes...my eyes are on Jesus always, I do NOT look to people to fulfill my needs, it is just the palpable lack of fellowship. Okay, sorry but, just had to vent!
Love you sis

 

[Pearl]

Loved the post Pat,
Gotta say one thing here and that is about prejudice inside the Church. There are MANY ignorant Christians, they don't understand something they are repelled because of the demonization the Church has made out of many people and their past. Doesn't seem to go away, only gets worse. This makes me want to stay AWAY from the mainline church's. Why would anyone want to be where they are shunned, not loved or even liked! I agree with Ghandi when he said something to the effect, "I like your Jesus very much, but I do not like Christians". When reading that the first time, I totally agreed with him, I couldn't stand Christians because of their stuck up noses and clean little lives and their attitude of judging, sentencing and condemning. No, have not felt welcomed in most church's. And, that will never put me off of God, they will pay with their hypocrisy and total lack of welcoming and love. No mater how I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried so hard for so long to converse with the women, once they knew I had no husband or children, it was like their eyes just go blank and, that's that. Oh, SOME might have the decency to at least say hello but, that's it. So, yeah...I'm pretty down on mainline churches as a whole. At least here, behind the screen, I'm comfortable enough to mention things as I cannot see the eyes of the person and the change come over them, that is more hurtful than anything I have experienced concerning the church.
I do not see any changes there...prejudice dies hard. In my own experience, I see more hate than I do love. Cannot see much of any difference between them and the world so...I am finished with them all. It would be so nice to have a prayer partner, a study partner but...that ain't ever gonna happen with me it seems and, it's fine...I can pray and study on my own and get what ever fellowship I can get on here. If you sense sour grapes Pat, then you have sensed well. When I feel the grudges trying to build up inside, I quickly say NO and, pray for them instead. It seems the congregations are all cookie cutter clones of each other, and not in very good ways. All very clique like and, if you're not "like" them, you're out...kind of like high schools and "the Mean Girls". Why would anyone different from them even WANT to go to their church's. I do not, and I am sorry if you all think I'm "forsaking the gathering of the brethren. There is such a lack of empathy, such a lack of love and welcoming. Who wants to go to a place like that?? And, yes...my eyes are on Jesus always, I do NOT look to people to fulfill my needs, it is just the palpable lack of fellowship. Okay, sorry but, just had to vent!
Love you sis

I can totally feel where you’re coming from Nancy. I don’t go to meetings either and haven’t for a few years. At my first church, which was a traditional Church of England the vicar and his wife were lovely born again Christians and apart from a small group of other born again believers all the others were traditionalists and I felt very uncomfortable with a lot of them and wasn’t included in their circle and suspected it was because I had been divorced.

At my second church – which I still consider to be my church – there is that feeling of cliques which don’t open up to admit me. At first everybody invited us back for lunch but I don’t think we fitted. Everybody is nice and welcoming if I go back like I did this time last year but then they left me alone to go join their groups. Perhaps it’s because I have no interest in swapping recipes etc . I have never seen anyone during the week apart from my friend Sue.

I wanted to be involved with things but it always seems to be people from the same group that get asked to do things. For a while I was absolutely sure that God wanted me there, but when I lost that feeling I stopped going and Ray left altogether. And like you I find more fellowship on here.