MY PLACE
IN THE BODY
OF CHRIST
Every new convert in Christ has
heartfelt intentions on contributing something of them self to the building up
of the Body of Christ. Be it with their finances or talents. New converts must
know that not every person in the church is Born-Again. Some people are there
just to be a part of something and because they do not know Christ as their
Lord and Savior, they are used by Satan to hinder the Lord’s work and sow
discord amongst the brethren.1 These
are carnal Christians who claim to love the Church they have accepted Christ as
Savior, but have not given Him the place on the throne of their life as Lord.
They will remain spiritually immature until they decide to make Christ Jesus
lord.2 The carnal Christian is self-centered
and shallow; they allow Satan to use them to destroy the testimony of love and
unity in the church.3
Their stunted growth and delayed
dedication to the Lord does bring some growth and fruitfulness, but the length
of delay will bring loss and shame to him or her when the time comes for them
to stand before the Father.4 I say
this so that you will know when you are not allowed to work in the church its
not personal, it is an attack from the enemy. Satan knows that you have
something valuable to contribute to the Body
of Christ and he is trying to hinder you from doing it. For many, many
years I tried to become a Sunday school teacher and was always rejected. I was
offered a children’s class but with what I had to say it wouldn’t have worked
for me. I love children and now realize that they too need to learn but their
learning was on a different level than where I was at that time.
These
statements are so that you know, not everyone going to church is in the Body of Christ. Their works are
easily identified so don’t get discouraged, God has provided distinguishing
characteristics that helps believers to identify the fruits His children
possess.5 Possessing these fruits and being able
to identify them gives believers the knowledge they need preventing them from
falling victim to the status quo.6
Believers are to do all we can to the Glory
of God and allow God to
exalt us in position, not man. New
converts in the Body of Christ do not need permission from man to work in the
vineyard of God. If you feel you’re ready just go out and win souls for the
Kingdom of God’s Dear Son. When you feel certain of your knowledge of how to
bring souls into the Body of Christ,
by all means do it.7
Christ
Jesus said to His Disciples, “The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers
are few”.8 When God has revealed your calling, it
is your obligation as His servant to go forth in the name of Christ Jesus and
do it.9 Because Christ Jesus is our
propitiation He satisfied God’s righteous demand for man’s redemption. This is
why God is able to turn towards us, making us new creatures in Christ. He has given us the ministry of reconciliation.10
The word reconciliation means a change of relationship from enmity to
peace. Believers have been reconciled to God and because of that we have the
privilege of telling others that they to can be reconciled to Him. God was able
to change His relationship towards believers because our sins were imputed to
Christ Jesus; who knew no sin yet He became sin for us.11
His death was in our place not for His
sins, but for ours. This is why God counts Christ’s righteousness as our
righteousness.12 The word of reconciliation means that God
has entrusted believers to tell the lost and dying world that He wants to
restore all of us to right standing.13
As we build our relationship with the Father
through Christ Jesus His Son,
our calling becomes clear. The word for today and everyday is: study. We must all study to show
ourselves approved unto God, by becoming workmen who will not be ashamed before
God. Becoming workmen who will not be ashamed is accomplished by allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us how to
rightly divide the Word of Truth.14
It
is up to the believer to gain knowledge and understanding of God’s Word, after
all, it is our spirit man that is being nurtured, and built up. Our spirit man
is who we are working for to get into Heaven
and to keep from Hell.
Fellowship with other believers is required for growth; but we have to be wise
in our choice of friends.
My brother Lavan is a skillful and
talented musician. He began going to a church and eventually became the
keyboard, and saxophone player. This went on for several months. One day
someone high in authority invited him to a church party; he went and was never
the same. He stopped going to church and his life began spinning out of
control. I asked him one day why He stopped going to church? He told me “the
church ain’t right and I will never go back again. To this day he has not
stepped a foot in a church. I told him that he shouldn’t let the actions of
others discourage him from the Lord. Everyone has an individual race to run and
carnal and undedicated people should not move him away from serving God.
My words did not seem to help. I
continue to pray for all my brothers to be saved, healed, and delivered. We are
to pray:
Ø
For
the church
Ø
The
pastor
Ø
Other
believers, and
Ø
People
all over the world who are in need of Salvation, healing, and deliverance;
locally and worldwide (I Thessalonians 5: 17; Romans 8: 26; Mark 14: 38;
Hebrews 10: 25)
Growing up in Christ causes the desires of the flesh to disappear and
to be replaced by the Fruit of the
Spirit, which is Love.15 When we truly love the Lord, we will
love all people with no exception just as God loves all people giving His Son
as a ransom for them.16 Once
we have love for everyone without exception, the Fruits of the Spirit is able to exude from our being.17 There will be some struggles as we
discard the works of the flesh. This is because love and good works need to be
stirred up by our desire for them from the inside out; they don’t just
automatically occur in us.18 The
Greek word translated stir up
is paroxysm, which means a
convulsion. In this context the word stir
up speaks forcefully of the tremendous impact believers can have on each
other.
For this reason, new converts must
know how to examine fruit. True believers in the Body of Christ don’t do things for show, or to man please. Our
hero and object of worship is God,
in the Person of His Son and our daily aspiration is
to be pleasing to Him.19 The
word peddling is used in the
New Testament and comes from the word kapeleuo.
This Greek word kapeleuo is
translated peddler, and a peddler will sell at retail, with the insinuation of
improper profit by either overcharging or adulterating (Greek-English Keyword
Concordance Concordant Version). The church of man is filled with peddlers, but
one thing is certain for those who are working contrary to the Word of God,
they may go un-punished here on earth; but payday is coming when all will stand
before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of our life, and in that
instance no un-repented sin will go unpunished.20
1(Proverbs 6: 19)
2(I Corinthians 3: 2-3; Hebrews 5: 12)
3(I Corinthians 3: 3-4, 14: 33;
Ephesians 4: 1-3)
4(Romans 14: 12; I Corinthians 13:
13-15; I John 2: 28)
10(II Corinthians 5: 16-21)
11(II Corinthians 5: 21)
12(Romans 3: 22)
13(Romans 5: 8)
14(II Timothy 2: 15)
15 (Ephesians 5: 9)
16 (Mark 10: 45)
17 (Romans 15: 7; Galatians 5: 16-26)
18 (Hebrews 10: 24)
19 (Romans 8: 8)
20 (Galatians 6: 1-10; II Corinthians 5:
10)
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