Brethren,
God knows i'm true when i say i don't set this post up as a strawman argument, and just by my saying, on an internet forum, "Against Denominations" really doesn't matter in the whole of God's Economy.
God put this leading in my heart a few years back, but i was sitting this morning, having a wee bit of coffee, and just flitting thru the Word.
i say flittling because i always try to go sequentially for a purpose, which is "reveal Your Son to me and in me", but this morning i felt a leading to read the first chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and i had previously underlined this passage: verse 10, 1st chapter
"I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment." here's the Scriptural reference in KJV, as i quoted ESV 1 Corinthian:10
"Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment"
i had spent a week up in the "driftless region" of Wisconsin, thats the SW portion untouched by the glaciers that flattened out the productive farmlands of Minn, Iowa, Illinois, etc, and its this portion that was untouched.
i was staying with friends, they don't know God, i love them though, and maybe i'm a poor witness, but i would engage in my morning devotional reading of Scripture, and i would hear this, "if it works for you"....and in the background i would hear the "clip clop" of a pair of Amish riding in a buggy, and i would feel a Godly envy....they are a community rooted in Christ. ( i care not to 'argue' their doctrine with any of ya'll, coz i dont know their particular doctrinal differences) i just brought it up, because my heart does leap whenever i see them.....don't know why.
let me cut to the chase, i went up there to do some secular writing, which is my tentmaking, but i was also looking at a small farm for sale, beautiful little farm. i dont have the down yet, but God provides, and i drove thru a town i know well, population of 137 souls.
thats right, 137 souls. Now this town is named after an Old Testament figure...ohhhh, i'll tell you all, its called Boaz, and it's dying, no industry nearby, no way outside of dairy, or farming to make a living, in fact what made Boaz so popular back in the day, was that the town of Richland Center, the county seat, 5114 souls used to be "dry", but Boaz was not, so......you get the picture?
Richland Center isnt dry anymore, but the only business's in Boaz(outside the kwik-stop gas station on the main highway) are three really sad looking bars. i didnt go in, but you look at them, and they're dirty buildings, one is an old pre-fab, rusty pick-ups parked outside, you get the picture
BUT......right in the middle of this tiny town, is the most beautiful red brick, simple Church building, must of been built sometime between 1890-1925, but it looked as dead as pharoah's mummy. Not a sign outside, no shades on the windows, only a limestone sign built into the overhead lintel, and it said "Evangelical Lutheran", this limestone sign was old.
There was nothing, PHYSICAL, of this world, to indicate that there was anything going on in this building, but in this dirty poor lil hamlet, this building was the only thing of solid construction, and if you go into the realm of the Holy Spirit, there is a Godly metaphor...BUILT on the Foundation of Jesus, and i sat in my truck, just looking at that dear building, thinking, praying, and i said "Lord God, if you give me the funds, or the permission from whoever holds the deed, Revival starts here", and when i said to that God, He said, "let Revival start in your heart, start to burn".
just sitting out there, maybe i was waiting for a soul to come by, and ask what the story about that old Church was, and i KNEW right then, the "Sign" i would put over the limestone sign that read "evangelical lutheran" and you know what that wooden sign bolted into the brick would read?
JESUS.
No other sign in the yard, announcing this service, that service, no pithy quotes, just The Name, above all names,
JESUS.
no 501c3 non for profit formed, no professional pastor, no typical Sunday "service", stand up, sing a few songs, pass the offering plate, sit down, hear a "perfect" 3 point lecture, sermon lasting 25 to 45 minutes on the dot, prepared by a professionally seminary trained "pastor", once thats done, he might give an altar call, and start trafficking in "decisions", and heaven forbid, this "church" be without some "denominational covering".none of that. A place to pray, to tesify, to pray somemore, to weep, to pray some more, doors never locked, always open. different, but something like what used to be, as i read of in the Bible.
as i was sitting there, and as i sit here now, my soul and heart give witness to what happened in the Hebridean Islands of Scotland and how God used two old half blind widows, who exhorted the pastor MacKay, to gather the praying men of the community to cry out in the night watches, and then God tugged at the heart of dear Duncan Campbell, who had the good sense to listen to the Holy Ghost and make way for these lonely islands,and witness what happened then!
https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/visit.php?lid=1319
"When God Stepped Down From Heaven"---Duncan Campbell
(note to Greg, if you read this, the "CD quality" links to this appear to be broken...i'll pm you also)
if you stayed with me this far, please allow me to continue: in north america, this denomination thing isnt working, these doctrinal arguments we have arent working, our mega churches arent working, our cut and dried Sunday mornings arent working, all of our man centered religious enterprises arent working......how do i know this, the same reason, you all, dear beloved ones know this, look at the signs around you.....
pull open the secular newspapers, turn on that hideous box the TV and listen to what passes for news, everything is crumbling around us, all the man centered institutions of polis, of mercantilism, of money, they are collapsing, we have a hole in the ocean spewing out what was used by the merchants of the world AND us, to drink of the cup of luxuries. the opinionators of the day, all falling over themselves with the pointing finger, and the shrillness of their blame game, while the very world itself is set to light itself on fire, i could engage in a jeremiad, but to what point?
i sat in that truck, and prayed. I drove back to the city and talked to the Lord, i said to Jesus, "Lord, you know my sins, i cant conquer them in my power, i have no power, i need Your Power Jesus, i need the Comforter to make me as holy as a saved sinner can be"....and Praise Him, He talked to me, i'm thankful He even deigned to talk to a wretch like me. He told me what to do on my own perosnal sin issues.....and lets be real with each other, we all have them, sanctfication is an ongoing process.
So what about this lonely church building? who am i? i'm just a worm, and that aint just me engaging in faux humility, i know my place, but just one other brother and me, maybe a married couple, and a another brother and God in His Mercy, gives forth that humble building, what then?
post signs all about the county?
"COME TO THE REVIVAL MEETINGS!!!!"...?????
no.
we get on our faces, thru the night watches, and weep between the "porch and the altar" and beg God to pour down His Living Waters on a dry and thirsty ground.....we get desperate in our prayers, because we are desperate for God.
revival is not something man-made, we have ample evidence of that, God is Sovereign in Revival.
i bless and pray for the effort in Victoria, may God pour down Living Waters there!!!!
i just cant get my heart and my soul off that lil dead dry Church in Boaz, Wisconsin that should have a Sign that reads "Jesus" above the lintel.
which brings me back to the point of denominations, how has it gotten to this point?
so hopelessly divided, so impotent, yet so vociferously potent in all the intercine divisions, and the doctrinal divisons, incessant arguing over the letter of the law, i know it has to tear you all apart, it tears me apart, and heaven forbid, somebody should proclaim this backslidden state, because then they get tarred with that word, "ecumenical".....it's just words, wielded like swords, when Jesus Himself recognized dear Peter in that first Messianic Confession.......in Matthew 16:13-20
He didnt recognize Peter, per se, it was this Confession of Peter's:
"He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
then Jesus replied this:
"And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
permit me to say, as the Spirit leads, the "Rock" is that Confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God", and that Confession is the Rock, the Foundation that HE, JESUS said "I will build MY CHURCH"
Singular. Jesus didnt say "Church'ssssss" He said, "Church", and yet what have we and our forefathers done? How many denominations? How many divisions? how many "creeds", or 'confessions", or extra-canonical "traditions"?
and what did Jesus finish that CENTRAL Holy Premise off with?
"and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
Jesus said "It", singular, meaning the Church. "It" and ever since 315 AD when the devil realized he couldnt squash the Church by rank murder and persecution, he figured out a new more devious strategy, "i'll join it, then i'll divide it", which is EXACTLY where we are today.
but i tell you this, that foul accuser, that enemy of all that is Good and Righteous has NOT "prevailed" against the Church.
God's watching us, Jesus is praying for us, so what do we do now?, and the only thing my heart testifies is this, individually we have to clean up our own acts, believe me, God knows how dark and craven my own heart is, i aint pointing any fingers, God forbid, and maybe we should GO BACK to that Original Confession of Peters,
"You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God"
and let That be the Spine of our Faith, and away with all the stuff that divides us, and then maybe we have to get very Godly intense on two Things,
A. radical travailing prayer to God to bring a true Holy Ghost Revival rooted in Messiah Jesus and the Blood that cleanses all sin.
B. radical love rooted in Messiah Jesus, that enables us to love with abandon even the most rank and foul God denying sinner that walked the face of this earth, coz the reality is, we aint too far behind them, if not even stevens, its just that God, not flesh and blood called us IN Christ, and we should be like those who just bolted out a burning barn, breathless and thanking God, not pounding our breasts and thanking God we arent like that sinner over there, as a certain Pharisee did when praying.
Radical Love, Radical Prayer, One Confession, One Church;
Oh Lord, please have mercy on us, we who have been given so much. Please Lord, pour down Your rain upon this dry and thirsty ground, and i beg you Lord, dont let these pitiful words of mine cast out in cyber space fall on deaf ears, and i implore you, help me to be as holy as possible while in this tent, in Jesus' Name, amen