When I was a little kid, I remember a game-song my aunts would play with me. They would put their hands together, palm to palm and say, “Here is a church.” Then they would interlock their fingers (still palm to palm) leaving their thumbs pressed together and they would say, “Here is the steeple.” Then they would (without unlocking their intertwined fingers) open up their palms and say, “open the door, here’s all the people.” And they would wiggle their fingers. Maybe some of you can visualize that, it was a bit hard to describe. 🙂
The truth is Remnant, the church is NOT a building, the people are. WE ARE. Jesus said to the Apostle Peter after Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ in Matthew 16:
“ 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.”
Jesus was not talking about Peter building a building, He was talking about using Peter as a vessel to build HIS church. Remnant – WE ARE THE CHURCH. And, speaking of Jesus, Ephesians 2:17-22
“And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
The church is NOT a building, the building is the place where we, the church gathers, you do not “join a church” you are joined AS a church through becoming part of the Body of Christ. WE ARE THE CHURCH, Remnant. If you have professed Jesus as Christ. If you have made Him Lord over your life, then YOU are part of the body of Christ. YOU ARE THE CHURCH.
1 Corinthians 12:12-27 talks about the “body of Christ’:
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”
The church building is NOT the church, it is a place where the church (we Christ’s body) meet, fellowship and grow. And so, I ask you, what kind of church are you representing with your life? If you read the book of Revelations (the last book in the Bible) you can see God speaking to the churches. Our lives, Remnant are a witness of Him. What is YOUR life saying about what you believe? I do not say this to condemn, I say this to get us thinking, to get us remembering who we are saying we represent. Our lives should represent what we believe. How we live, how we talk. IF we are the Church, (the body of Christ) we should be living to represent the head of our Church, which is Christ Himself. Colossians 1:18:
“And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.”
We, as His body are to be led by Him, the head. Are you led by the Head? Everything we do, how we live should show who it is we represent. THIS IS IMPORTANT. What are your actions representing? What are your words saying? We are not saved by works but we are responsible with how we conduct ourselves, especially if we are confessing to be Christians. We truly are ambassadors for Christ, and it is something that we should always be aware of – even within your own weaknesses and areas that Christ is still working within us on. Remnant, as long as we have breaths in our body, we are ALL “works in progress” do you not know that admitting that is one of the ways that you show yourself as “real” before those your life is a witness to? I will be the first to admit where I have missed the mark, where it is that Christ, through Holy Spirit is still “growing me” it does not mean you have to appear to be “holier than thou” or “perfect” it means you need to be REAL. The witness is in YOU. And as such, our lives are living testimonies of Him who has called us to be HIS church.
This is something that is spoken of in the book of Revelations, which I can tell you is a VERY good read. If we are not careful and take this seriously, we can damage people. There have been people hurt “by the church” and have turned away from God for how they have been treated. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to stand before God and give an account as to why I didn’t “love” as Christ asked us to love. I don’t want my actions here on earth to be one that dissuades someone from coming to know Jesus. It is important for us to keep our eyes on HIM and to teach people that their eyes are to be focused upon God and NOT upon us, God shares His glory with NO person (see Isaiah 42:8). But He has entrusted us with the responsibility of living lives that draw others to Him. There is no greater joy than seeing that someone “wants what you have” and what we have is Jesus.
When someone “opens the door of you” what do they see? Do they see a “people” that radiate the love and light of Jesus? I pray that we can BE the Church that God has called EACH one of us to be a member of – HIS BODY. And that the light of Him who called us will radiate like a beacon and draw all others unto Him. MAY IT BE SO WITH ME, AND MAY IT BE SO WITH YOU. Shine Remnant, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and with the Light of Christ that dwells within you – and fulfill the purpose that as a time such as this, God has given you and God has given me, in Jesus’ precious name. AMEN
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