meeting of one

Wanted: Dead People in Christ

'The fact is that, while certain things characterize the New Testament churches, the New Testament does not give us a complete pattern according to which churches are to be set up or formed! There is no blueprint for churches in the New Testament, and to try to form New Testament churches is only to create another system which may be as legal, sectarian, and dead as others. Churches, like the Church, are organisms which spring out of life, which life itself springs our of the Cross of Christ wrought into the every being of believers. Unless believers are crucified people, there can be no true expression of the Church'.

(T. Austin Sparks, November 1952 - Words of Wisdom and Revelation)

Exchanged Life Prayer into His Kingdom

Dearest Lord Jesus,

I believe in You.

Thank You for giving your life for me.

Thank You for giving your life to me.

Thank you for taking my sin, guilt and shame on the cross.

I need You.

I need your grace to forgive me, and I need your life to live through me.

I gladly, but humbly, exchange my life for yours. . I thank You that my old sinful nature was crucified with Jesus.

I believe that I no longer live but Jesus now lives in me and through me as me.

I thank You that my spirit is now alive to God.

Please teach me that I cannot live FOR You, but I need to let You live your life through me.

Thank You that I am hidden in You and apart from You I can do nothing.

Thank You Jesus, my Christ, Son of the Living God.

Galatians 2.20

'That causes Paul to go out along one wonderful line, and he says, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me" (Gal. ii.20) (Paul is not saying that when we died in Christ we lost our individuality. We ought to have lost our individualism, but not our individuality.) There is some difficulty in translating the verse just quoted. "I live by the faith of the Son of God," or "which is in the Son of God." It seems to me that, in keeping with so much more that Paul says, it means this - "It is Christ Who is providing what is necessary for this new life the other side of the Cross. I live by Him, I live the provision that He makes." Yes, and God, in calling us into His Son, has called us into an all-sufficient provision. You say, "I cannot love, especially in certain directions." But Christ can, and He has provided it in your case. Do you think everybody loves you? There are some people who do not love you, but Christ loves you whatever you are. You might be unloved for very good reasons by everybody else; He loves you. God loves you now with that love that can and does love the unlovely. He can provide us with a love to love."

[T. Austin Sparks, His Great Love p.26]

Pioneering New Church Territory

'We have intimated that behind this ministry, and largely as the occasion and venue of it, there is a company of the Lord's people who regularly meet at Honor Oak, London. We believe that "order" of gathering, procedure, and ministry are as near to what the Apostles sought to have as our present light permits. We do not claim to "yet attained," neither do we account ourselves as "yet perfect," but being open to the Lord we are adjustable to any further leadings of the Holy Spirit.

We have never followed a pattern discovered on earth. Either we were in culpable blissful blindness, or providential innocence, but we knew not the same order obtaining already. So as we were concerned it seemed as though the Lord was beginning us at zero. Neither had we studied the New Testament with the object of trying to formulate a New Testament church or its order. We have since come to believe that the New Testament does not give a full and final pattern for reproduction and imitation.

Thus, having set aside all the form system of organized Christianity, we committed ourselves to the principle to the organic. No "order" was "set up," no officers or ministries were appointed. We left it with the Lord to make manifest by "gift" and anointing who were chosen of Him for oversight and ministry. The one-man ministry has never emerged. The "overseers" have never been chosen by vote or selection, and certainly not by the expressed desire of any leader. No committees or official bodies have ever existed in any part of the work. Things in the main have issued from prayer.'

(T. AustinSparks, March 1956 - Words of Wisdom and Revelation p.67).

Christ Alone

' He (Christ) is the focus of the ages and eternities. What is Heaven exclusively looking for and looking at? Emphatically, only that which is essentially that Person. Not now symbols, figures, types, representations, but reality, actuality! No, not the "Church" as something objective! No, not the Kingdom of Heaven as place and object of perception! "The Kingdom of Heaven cometh not with observation" (Luke xvii.20). It is a fallacy to think and speak of the Church without meaning Christ Himself. They are not subject and object! They are one. The Church is His Body, His wife; they are "one flesh" (Eph. v.31).

. . . It is equally fallacious to think and speak of the Kingdom of Heaven and not mean Himself. They are the same. In the Gospels the two are brought together. The Messiah is present both as King and Kingdom. The very nature of the Kingdom corresponds to that of the "the Son of Man." It , as He, is from Heaven.

. . . What God and Heaven are looking for and at is not something called the Church, nor for local churches, as such. God and Heaven a looking for Christ, in His nature, heavenly nature; in spirit and truth; in eternal life; in conduct and behavior; in virtues and character; in influence and impact; and in victory over sin, Satan, and the world. It is positively not locality in terms of geography, but "Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in (into) my name, there am I." That may be on a ship or in an aeroplane, neither of which can be fixed in locality. Christ may be in Ephesus, or Laodicea, or any other place, but it is the Christ which defines the Church, not the place! Christ may be in the congregation, the institution, the denomination, while none of them - as a whole - may be in Christ. We seek Him. We gather unto Him. He is the Ground; we meet on Him." (T. Austin Sparks p.96 - Words of Wisdom and Revelation)

Philippians 2.9-13

'For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed upon Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.'

Accountability Checklist

We can guard against man-made religions by asking these questions about any religious group:

1) Does it stress man made rules and taboos rather than God's grace?

2) Does it foster a critical spirit toward others, or does it exercise discipline discreetly and lovingly?

3) Does it stress formulas, secret knowledge or special visions more than the Word of God?

4) Does it elevate self-righteousness, honouring those who keep the rules, rather than elevating Christ?

5) Does it neglect Christ's universal church, claiming to be an elite group?

6) Does it teach humiliation of the body as a means of spiritual growth rather than focusing on the growth of the whole person?

7) Does it disregard the family rather than holding it in high regard as the Bible does?

(source: NIV Life Application Study Bible p.2164 footnotes)

meeting of one

Monday, July 13, 2009

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meeting of one

Purpose

Wanted: Dead People in Christ

Exchanged Life Prayer into His Kingdom

Galatians 2.20

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Pioneering New Church Territory

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Christ Alone

1 John 4 . 12-15 (NAS)

Philippians 2.9-13

Accountability Checklist