July 23, 2009
Brush Off
One of the neat things about church planting is that it’s easy to invite people to come and visit you based solely on the grounds that you’re a new church. I recently I ran into a believer that I once worshipped with from XYZ Church, so I invited her to come and visit. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not in the sheep rustling business. We just have friends in common and I thought she might like to see what we're doing. “Thanks,” she said, “But I’m not into church right now. Oh… every once in awhile I go to the ABC Church and I’ve talked to Pastor Doe. He understands me and where I’m coming from.” There’s not too much you can say when you’ve been given the brush off. I wish I could have said, ‘From the Lord’s perspective it’s where you’re going that’s the issue…’
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Gail;
-----Jesus Christ died and rose again to give anyone who wants eternal life an escape from death. Although the person who turns to Him for this precious gift will physically die, and although He will raise her physical body again, it is a spiritual death and resurrection that each of us must first endure. We go through that as alone as we go through physical death, so the basis of the new life we live until we physically die is in an individual one with Him. Then the choices we make for the new life in Him are also individual, such that the choices of one individual can not be measured by the standards of another. They are only measurable by His principles as understood by that individual’s limited abilities. Therefore, in what collection of saints a person best relates to the Lord, and how often that person feels it important to gather with them are also according to individual understanding. Of primary importance to the Lord is that the individual will indeed pass through the test without herself being burnt up.
-----But that does not mean the secondary importance is ignorable. For we are not raised, either spiritually or physically, to a life for the Lord and the self only. We are raised into a new life that is a mutual life shared among many others. The objectives of that new life observe the demand of the needs of others and the joy of the hope of others, and they honor them with as much help or fellowship as the dying to self will allow. Thankfully, it is a process that produces among the saints many who are strong and full of new life, and many who are weak and scanty of it. That way those who are coming through the test of the fire with most or all of their work burnt up will indeed come through it having had the encouragement of those who come through it with abundant works surviving. For getting the individuals through the fire is the Lord’s primary interest.
-----Indeed you honored your friend’s need for fellowship among those whom she knows. But her waning interest in the mutuality of the new life is alarming. That she goes to a church once in awhile is heartening, but that she does it more and more is hopeful. Even if she maintained an occasional gathering with the saints would be better than if she went less and less. I know some who say they call on the Lord, but no longer go to church at all. They may very well be calling upon the Lord, too, so I am sure to occasionally engage them in spiritual chat, then remind them that they have just been to church with the Lord and me, and that they also attend whenever they acknowledge the Lord in conversation. it is not an adequate substitute, but it is at least something.
-----For after all, each of us die to the self only to a certain degree, then only in certain areas, otherwise we would all be perfect. The Word makes it clear that none of us are perfect, so to each her own degrees in her own areas according to the measure of faith the Lord has assigned (Rom. 12:3), at least for now. And if those who are full of church attendance do not think too highly of themselves, those who are empty of it may get just enough encouragement to stay alive in Him and make it through the test of fire.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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