A Settling Pilgrim

By Grace, by Agape Love, by Providence the Mullaney Pilgrims have had the same address for over a year now. Settled? Not quite. However, we are taking steps to settle into a community of believers and this too is a part of the pilgrim journey. Where would this be? Just north of Worcester in West Boylston, MA at Bethlehem Bible Church (BBC).

This past Sunday I finished taking a membership class at BBC where we have been attending for the last year. I had lots of questions and the ones I asked were answered. There are still a few I would like answered before I take the plunge and say yes I'm in. In a number of ways I am already in, that is pretty good for a New England Church but after all I am a native. Actually, I was more skeptical of them then they were of me.
In the past nearly 8 years, we have been blessed by many believers up and down the east coast who have welcomed us into their midst, loved and cared for us, made us feel at "home." Upon returning to our motherland i.e. Massachusetts, we have visited several churches and had done just that - visited. Not until Dan started to attend BBC regularly (and yours truly dragging her feet which we won’t get into here) did we actually start to dialogue about making a commitment to this local body of believers.

It is still quite an adventure. Yes, this is in New England and in Massachusetts and in fact when the kids were little we went to BBC for Awana for 1 year. However, we are here at BBC meeting new people and digging deeper into the Scriptures, discovering and uncovering more truth as we continue on the pilgrim highway. No matter what anyone’s position is in this body of believers, one thing is clear; each and every one is human, imperfect, dependent on God’s grace, hungers for truth, loves one another and desires to serve the LORD, one another and those in their sphere of influence.

(Massachusetts seems to be the next stop for us. This being said after 3 years 3 months and 15 days back in the Commonwealth)

This type of settling is making a commitment. It isn’t quite like picking out the best spot on the beach and “settling in there” because we like it. A lot of Americans go to and become members of a church because they like it. And like any other blue blooded American I like to be comfortable and be at ease. It is a good thing to want to be at home with the people who you would want to call your church family. We need to want to belong to a local body of believers who love the LORD Jesus Christ, want to honor Him in all things, know the grace of God, preach and teach the Word of God, we would want to live in obedience to Christ and encourage one another to do so and above all Glorify God.

We had to pretty much push the like question down on the list. The questions ran more like this: Is BBC teaching sound biblical doctrine? Do they worship in spirit and in truth? Do the people at BBC love one another? Do they extend the hand of friendship and love welcoming those who come into their midst? Do they love one another enough to confront with the truth and exercise church discipline? Is Jesus Christ being lifted up and glorified? When these questions are answered in the affirmative, which they have been. Well then, YES we like it. (Are there things we don’t like? Sure but hey there are things we don’t like about ourselves and one another everywhere we go when we take the time to get to know one another. However, we are given the grace to put up with those things.)

For any of you who know of my pilgrimage, it has been quite interesting (and I am not talking about the 18 moves). So why this church? Well, Dan started to listen to the pastor’s radio show on the local Christian Station here and he like what Mike was saying. Dan couldn't believe that a pastor was saying what he was saying. Dan started going pretty regularly and I visited a couple of times. It wasn’t good for our marriage to be doing church separately especially since both of us wanted to become part of a community of believers. So, I finally came around and started attending, a bit reluctantly but with an open mind. Then something happened that I had never seen in a church and had only vaguely heard about and that was the exercise of church discipline. My second to last question was:
“Do they love one another enough to confront with the truth and exercise church discipline?” It was done with integrity, with love, with anguish and in the spirit and manner for doing so as it is laid out in the Bible. This was the tipping point for me. I could belong to a church like this because if I get really off the mark, I hope someone loves me enough to call me out, loves me enough to want to restore me and bring me back to the LORD. It was real, it was raw, and mostly it was sobering. And I thought “but for the grace of God there go I.”

In Churches there are weddings, funerals, baptisms, etc. Do we gather on Sunday to praise the LORD, to hear the Word preached, to be equipped to go out into the world? You betcha. But life is not always “all good.” God is always good but life is hard. If you believe that God is sovereign, ruling over the good and the bad in life, then you need to be willing as a church family to take the good with the bad and deal with it effectively. Be mature, do the right thing, even with strangers in the midst. I recently heard someone say, “my life got harder after I became a Christian. I became aware of my sin. I want to honor God in my living not in order to earn God’s favor but out of gratitude for His saving Grace in my life.” Obedience to God is not so I can get into good standing. I want to obey because the LORD God has made me righteous through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ. Obedience is birthed out of gratitude. I have been bought by the blood and I now belong to Him. Just like a father loves his child enough to discipline him, a church ought to love enough to exercise discipline for their family members, don’t you think?

So what is the meaning of this post? To say Dan and I are looking to become members of a local body of believers and we know it will not always be pretty or perfect. Like I said earlier in this post, in a lot of ways we are already welcomed in as a part of the BBC Church family and it is our hope that God will continue to get all the Glory as we continue on the Pilgrim Path toward the Celestial City.

The Body of Christ, a living organism
Worshipping in Spirit and Truth

Did you read that book by Josh Harris, Stop Dating the Church? It's a good read. I believe that if more Christians were committed to a local body of believers that the body of Christ as a whole could have a greater impact on the world we live in. If we want to stick with the "body" word picture of Christ, you have Christ as the Head (I would say He would need to be the heart as well), we have the skeleton which could be your local churches, then you have missionaries who do travel but usually stay in one place for a period of time, and hopefully those put muscles on the bones, then their are people like us, you might say that we are like the blood circulating through the body and since we don't reach every part I am sure there are others out there traveling about and spending brief periods of time within other parts of the body.
I hope we bring the needed oxygen and help flush out the wastes to the parts of the body of Christ that we visit for a time and of course, that would be a result of the Holy Spirit working through us. So, our commitment is to the Body of Christ as a whole and for now we do not belong to a local church but are grateful to those local bodies who welcome us in and love us as if we are going to stay.
We have been to home churches, loud ones, traditional ones (and yes, I take my mother to Roman Catholic mass when she visits). One of the things that we have found a little disturbing about a number of Modern-American Christian Churches is that the purpose of Sunday morning worship is not primarily for the worship of our Lord but instead used for the purpose of evangelism. (Now before you try to stick me in a box: wait a minute, people don't belong in boxes anyway. Boxes are for things. I know this will be my 12th time packing to move in 4 years.) As Christian we are to evangelize: some like to call it the Great Commission and there are times when local churches as well as big ministries hold crusades, tent meetings and revivals, this is where evangelism ought to be taking place regularly along with one on one relationship evangelism. However, we are coming to believe through the Word of God that the main purpose of the Church is to come together to be edified, challenged, lifted up and of course, worshipping the Lord together in spirit and in truth.

Encouragement (edification) and Challenge (spur one another)
Hebrews 10
22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Prayer (lifting up)
James 5
Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 15and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. 16Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
Worship
Hebrews 12
You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 24to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

25See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens."^[e] 27The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29for our "God is a consuming fire."^[f]

^{It seems abundantly clear that it is not our job to bring the unbeliever to church: God is the one building His Church (the body of Christ, the kingdom of God, His Family) but our job is to bring them to the foot of the Cross, point them to Jesus, not programs and steeples. When I became a believer the last place I wanted to go was to a church. I was afraid this new relationship with Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit would not be permitted because it was not acquired through the rites of "the church" but by the power of God. He invaded my life without my permission and I have never been the same.}

^{Well folks, I really don't have anything figured out nor do I expect to in this life looking through the glass dimly as it may seem. However, I will continue to pursue the Truth for as long as I live by God's grace.}

^Pax,

^CM

Evangelism does NOT equal salesmanship


Evangelism does NOT equal salesmanship. Let me say that again, Evangelism does NOT equal salesmanship. We don't need to beg and plead for someone to come to Christ (and that is what this guy is doing in a video I watched online today). The Lord said, when I am lifted up I will draw all men to Myself. We are to lift Him up! Preach the gospel! The good news is that we were dead in our transgression on the fast train to hell but then CHRIST came to bring good news to the afflicted, to proclaim liberty to captives, to bind up the brokenhearted. To demonstrate the mercy and loving kindness of God.
Today in the van we talked about what is the purpose of the church (the visible church). What we observe in the American church at large is that the church is the tool of evangelism instead of a fellowship of like minded believers where we can sharpen our tools, gain strength from one another, encouragement and healing for those of us who already call God their Father. Then we are sent out to GO and preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Since the church is being used as the tool of evangelism, the truth of the gospel and the truth of God's Word has been watered down and Evangelism has been reduced to a sales' pitch. "Imagine God loves you so much that He sent His own Son to die for you, it is as if God is getting down on one knee and asking you to accept Him and all you have to say is I do." This is a close paraphrase. Isn't this man reducing God to the ways of man? Remember what Jesus reminded Nicodemus just as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Let's not reduce the Creator of the Universe down to a man size God. Who wants to love, serve, honor and glorify someone like that? Not me. He is a Mighty God, fully just and fully loving, our Abba Father (daddy), Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Redeemer.
At this point are you wanting the link to the website. Before I do give that to you, I do want to say that I agree with quite a bit of it. It was the sales pitch that turned me off. The site www.juststopandthink.com

I will clearly admit that a lot of evangelists are charismatic and persuasive and for the most part I believe the Lord uses those abilities to preach the gospel but again it is the Holy Spirit who does the Work and brings about the results. It is not the salesman (excuse me) the evangelist closing the deal (getting a response via the alter call). The alter call I believe is also used by the Lord. The Lord uses His children to call His other children to Himself. I believe that we are or have the ability to be in the delivery room and get to help in the birthing process of someone being born again. It is an exciting place to be, an honor.
Tomorrow I will continue these thoughts on evangelism.
PAX, CM