Seriously, I'm Looking for These People
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I've been looking for people who talk about church and ministry as Jesus did. I've been looking around. Honestly--and unfortunately--I haven't seen any. I admit, I've been frustrated about this. I've been wishing to connect and have fellowship with them but I can't find any.
There are lots of good pastors and church leaders out there, but I haven't met one who talks of ministry as Jesus did.
Church people always talk about their church denomination--how many churches and members they have, what they did, what they accomplished, how many more they aim to have. It's always "our" this and that (admitting it's their empire) and "how many."
David counted his troops one day and the Lord's wrath fell on him. Nebuchadnezzar talked about his empire to himself one day, marveling about it, and God sent him to the wilds to live like an animal.
For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. [1 John 2.16 NLT]They think of the universal church or body of Christ only in terms of their sect or denomination. They may form temporary alliances or joint fellowships with other denominations now and then but that's as far as it goes. They go back again to their parochial denominational thinking. Anything they do is confined to their church membership.
Jesus was different. He always talked about "whosoever" or "anyone." It always involved believers the world over regardless of race, gender, culture, speech, country, planet or whatever. "Whoever believes in him should not perish." It doesn't say, "members of this church denomination who believe in him should not perish."
He never said anything about Jews or Greeks or Romans or Pharisees or Sadducees who believed in him. It was always all inclusive--they, you, anyone, whoever, anybody, all.
One time, he said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." It wasn't about a certain church denomination or sect that listened to his voice. It was his sheep. And "sheep" meant whoever followed him.
Anywhere you go you hear the same thing. When I was still actively attending church conferences, the speakers often talked well. But then their messages were meant only for their own ilk. Baptist speakers couldn't cater to Pentecostals, for instance, and vice versa. And the same thing with other church denominations.
Sometimes, some conferences do cater to all denominations so that you see pastors and church people from different denominations gathering in one place. They seem as one. But that's only temporary. After the conference, they go back to their partisan character.
When Jesus addressed a crowd, he saw them as people, not denominational members. He talked about the Kingdom as one Kingdom, God's one dominion, without partisanship or separate doctrines or divisions or sects.
When churches today talk about God's Kingdom, they always imagine it as something you enter through the gates of their denominations. You belong to God's Kingdom only if you belong to their denomination. But when Jesus talked about the Kingdom, he meant one Kingdom that you entered through Him alone. You didn't need to be this or that. You didn't need affiliations or memberships.
You go to a conference today and the first thing they ask you is what church you belong to. In Jesus' "conferences" in the Gospel, he never asked anything like that.
I'm looking for believers who talk like that--who talk like Jesus--who are interested only in the King and His Kingdom and in the one glorious church of Jesus, whose main and sole interests are only the greatness and accomplishment of God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, who know the Kingdom's ins and outs, who roam around its courts, grounds, premises and gardens, and are familiar with its chambers and secret passages.
Those who know God's Secret Place.
People whose first tendency or instinct is to talk about Jesus, his humility, person, character, virtues, works, accomplishments and greatness. Folks whose mindset is Jesus, first and last. People who barely mention about their ministries and do so only in passing (redirecting the conversation at once to Jesus) and who always say something like, "It's not my ministry. It's God's. He just lent it to me for a while. And whatever accomplishments it has is solely God's doing and effort. I have nothing to do with it."
Do you know people who are like that? Please refer them to me. I want to hear them talk about my Jesus.
And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! [Job 19,26-17]
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