WHERE'S THE CAKE?
The Christian believer’s church can
be compared to citizenship with Jesus Christ as its Leader. His desire is for us to become one with Him,
meaning that He is the Vine and we are the branches. As the Vine and the branches are united with each other, so are
those who profess to have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior united
as one body, His body. He also is the Head of [His] body, the
church; seeing He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, so that
He alone in everything and in every respect might occupy the chief place [stand
first and be preeminent. Colossians 1-18 AMP
Ephesians 4:12-13 AMP clearly states the Lord’s intentions for
establishing the church. His intention was the perfecting and the
full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do]
the work of ministering toward building up Christ's body (the church), [That it
might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the
comprehension of the [[a]full and
accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature
manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the
standard height of Christ's own perfection), the measure of the stature of the
fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.
What then are the activities that are
needed to accomplish His intentions:
They are:
1.
Teaching
2.
Fellowship.
3.
Worship
4.
Instruction
5.
Fellowship
6.
Instruction
I believe that Bible believing churches
work hard to provide these activities for they aim to please the Lord who is
their Founder. The problem I have is
that very large churches lack in fellowship (the Greek word is koinonia) which emphasizes the unity and oneness of
the church.
The early church became one family and
mostly every member had a sense of belonging.
Many large churches have grown to the point where this is not
happening. Many people hop from one church to another one because
they feel abandoned. They don’t have
that sense of belonging. Sad but true, some leave the church in order to worship
with Sunday services on TV.
I feel that I can compare this to someone
baking a cake. The person will include
all the ingredients except for the flour.
What does this person get in the end?
Nothing!!! Jesus built His
church on love. I see that another word
for church should be ‘love’.
Jesus said, I give you a new commandment: that you
should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one
another.
By this shall all [men] know that you
are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among
yourselves. (Amplified Bible)
I apologize for being so long but I need
one more point. I may be wrong and if I
am, I need to be corrected. I am
referring to Revelation 2: 2-4 I know your deeds, your hard work and your
perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested
those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name,
and have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you:
You have forsaken your first love. (Amplified) Jesus Christ, who is love personified,
founded the church out of love. His
desire is that we love one another as He loves us. If we perform all the required activities in order to get a church
to function yet do not practice ‘koinonia’ then where is the cake?
Minister Francine Herrington
