The prodigal church and our need to move forward.

The last few days I went through some books I had on the shelf to do some research.
I went through one in particular and ended up on some statements from a gentleman named Frank Bartleman.
He was writing about the great Azuza revival. In this book I came upon the following;
"Beloved, when we stop going forward, we go to milling around. When an individual stops going forward for God, he begins to go in a circle, just as a man when he is lost in the forest ceases to go straight forward but wanders in a circle. So it was wiht the early church. When they ceased to go forward, they started wandering in a circle and became so lost in the Dark Ages. The devil had found he could not destroy them or stop their march by persecuting and killing them; so he removed the cross, offering them titles, positions, honor, salaries, profits of every kind-and they fell for it."
This was written in the 20's. He later goes on to talk about how history repeats itself. And that it is that way with our great church bodies of today. (20's) And even for now if not worse.
He goes on to talk about how out of the dark ages the great ecclesiastical, Roman hierarchy came about to dominate both the world, politics and religion. He then says " And the same condition has developed out of every fallen movement. An illegitimate, hybrid monster. has come forth."
Then Luther came and tried to bring about the change of reform from the seed that was buried in the rubble of the dark ages.
Bartleman, states that through the labors of the reformers and others the prodigal church
has began the journey home.
He brings about a situation that is so true. In that each time a fresh deposit of the Spirit and truth brought forth by the reformers and others, has sooner or later stopped short of the full goal. Although in the process gaining much ground and experiencing tremendous blessings from God. Though again, each group that was changing ceased to go forward as the body and completely return to the early New Testament standard and reality.
Again as the church has climbed from the depths of some sectarian strangleholds, with various stages of formalism and spiritual darkness, only to find itself falling again, within only a generation at times, into sometimes an even worse state than before.
As this happened, each time though some new light and understanding of truth and God's ways have been given upon which the next group of people could build upon.
Then again as is the failure of men, not God's, each new group has only gone so far.
God's desire is to fully restore the church to her first estate and love, is as true with all who fall back.
When we cease to move forward and keep on the offensive for God, we stop and die as a people.
A movement is no longer a movement when it stops moving forward. No matter if it is the first revivals to what is happening now.
Bartleman again stated, 'it may continue to increase in numbers and in wealth, but that is not necessarily a sign of life and power with God. All anti-Christian movements can show that kind of growth."
No movement has ever recovered once it has gone to the skids.
"We don't have to leave movements, we simply move on with God."
The one movement that will never cease is God's plan to redeem a fallen world through His Son Jesus Christ. We must be working for the kingdom of God in all areas of our life.
He feels that the hinderance of a lot of the moves of God has been because we (people) have started to work for a pet project, organization, or movement. So in doing that it stops us short of the task at hand. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
"We have worshipped certain doctrines, party standards, partial experiences, and such , all fine as far as they go, but abnormal in themselves and only part of the whole."
Most of these have been unbalanced, and overstatements of the truth at best. And they usually bring bondage instead of blessing.
He said later that every company ends up repeating the mistakes of the early church. "They compromise to escape the cross and accept positions, salaries, titles, and ecclesastical power."
There must be a readjustment to all of our doctrines to the fullness of God's word.
Frank Bartleman came out of the pentecostal move and even back then in the 20's and 30's he seen the problems facing the body. Man and tradition.
I just want to present this. We are not the first to see the problems that has a risen in the modern church, but we could be the last. If and I mean if we don't repeat the same mistakes.
We must not get ourselves side tracked into moving forward and then stopping short of what God is laying out in front of us.
If you are doing the work of God, don't compromise your beliefs just to earn a paycheck or recieve a donation for the ministry. No, keep moving forward as God is our provider.
We are going to hit some roadblocks, but how we handle those will determine how much our faith will grow in turn moving forward even more.
I can't sell what I see as truth for a morsel of bread and stew, just because I am hungry and want some nourishment. I won't do it.
Please keep moving forward and don't conform to what the culture thinks the church should look like. Because God is the same yesterday today and forever. He never changes! His ways never change. WE are the ones called to repent, NOT God!

Building one another up in order to stir each other.

Words of the bible. Build and stir.
Who is the wise master builder?
Who is the one who will build HIS church?
Why do we come together in our meetings?
How is it that when you come together each of you has.....!
You see Jesus will build HIS church. Not mine or yours or anyone elses. He is building HIS!
In doing that we are to come together in HIS image to build and stir each other up.
Why? Why do we have to be the ones building and stirring each other up?
Can't Jesus just do that through us individually?
Yes, He can and He does. Except that He chose us specifically to be helpers for others.
We are His hands, feet, arms, legs. He is the head. What does the head contain?
It has the eyes, mouth, ears, brain.
He is our eyes, mouth, ears and He is our maker who has all the ability to do all things for His glory.
Yet He uses our hands to shake, hug and grasp others. He uses our feet to run, walk and go help get us to where we are to be helping.
When I work out I use my arms, hands, legs and feet. Not to mention abs etc. Without them I would be helpless.
So why does Jesus use us to build one another up? Because we are the physical location of His body on this earth. We are the ones who serve Him. By doing.
We are the ones who feed His sheep by working.
It is all who are His who are needed to do the work.
I honestly don't know where I am going with this thought or if it even makes sense, but I felt the need to blog about this.
I see what is happening and how we are seperating ourselves from the rest of the body at times.
We must stop. We need to be apart of each others lives.
It boils down to this. If we are to build and stir one another, then we need to be in relationship with each other.
All for one or one for all!
We are in this together, so let's walk accordingly. Christ gave Himself for the church! The pure spotless bride He is going to have when He comes back.
Go and do....build and stir.

Why so many denominations for "One Body?"

I would like to start this post by saying this, there seems to be so much controversy on what one person or church believes over another. Which in turn has caused so many "new" buildings and denominations to be built.
Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 1:9-17 "God who is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, 'I am of Paul,' or 'I am of Apollos,' or 'I am of Cephas,' or 'I am of Christ.' Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name.
Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other.
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect."

We have come so far from the true reflection of Jesus' words "I will build my church."
It has come down to who can have the bigger building or who has the right doctrine. Some fellowships have even split over the color of the carpet.
Come on get real! How stupid it is to be in such a state of selfishness as to leave fellow believers just because you don't agree what the color of the carpet should be.
As I have stated on some other forums I feel the biggest issue of why we have come so far and have so many disagreements is PRIDE!
Pride is sin. If we are truly a believer then we should be yeilding to the Holy Spirit. As that happens we should be walking in LOVE. Love one another. Instead we take each other to court and sue if we don't like what is going on. Or we leave and have bitterness towards another.
All of these go right against what the scripture says. Christians of all people should be the most forgiving, loving and God fearing people on the planet.
Yet there is so much disunity it is sickening.
We want power and prestige. We want to be right. We want to fulfill the lust of the flesh. When we need to be crucifying the flesh.
We should be falling on our knees daily and seeking God for each other.
We need to be in the inner court proclaiming our praises to the Father. We are adopted into the family of God.
Who is in control when a baby is adopted? Does that child have a choice on who they want to be with? No! God chose us first. So where do we get off thinking we can divide over issues that make no sense.
Paul pleaded that the Corinthians "speak the same thing" and "that there be no divisions among you," and that we be "perfectly joined" together in the "same mind" and the "same judgment".
What should we be speaking?
Nothing except Christ and Him crucified!
What if our eyes decide to stop functioning because they are jealous of the ears? We would be blind. Then we can't see where we are going. In turn our whole body would be off as we have to learn to adjust. In turn wasting precious time.
So we should be "perfectly" joined together. Who is it that keeps us perfectly joined?
Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
We need to be on the same mind and judgment. In turn the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Also the least will be the greatest. We will all be servants seeking to serve and not wanting to be served.
We would have all things in common. We would all forsake everything for the sake of Jesus.
We would have LOVE!
Love for Jesus and for one another.
Then the kingdom will grow from the inside out.
I don't see where a new building or house will help us gain souls.
I don't see where a new "pastor' would be helpful so let's get rid of the old one.
I don't see where a new "program" will help us.
No, we need the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be united under the cross of Christ.
We must be about our Father's business. Not our quirky agendas.
We each have a gift and we must all be helping each other exercise in those gifts in order that God will get all the glory.
That is the bottom line. Who gets the glory?
GOD does!