CHRISTIANITY IS A WAY OF LIFE NOT A MOVEMENT

John 17: 20,21

I don’t want my way of life to become a movement.  It seems that when that happens something organic gets lost.  I see Jesus coming to earth and showing people first hand how to enter into a relationship with God, how to enjoy that relationship, and how to live one’s life as a fruit of that relationship.  That is what he wanted his disciples to pass on to others…a relationship.  “That they may all be one, just as you Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be in us.  So that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

Movements become man centered very quickly.  Groups develop their Books of Discipline, Initiation requirements, methods of being accepted or not into the group, tapes of instruction, etc.   Then the hierarchy and leadership structure is built, usually by those empowered by charisma and certificates.  When all is up and going the unintended consequences and human problems begin.  “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain.”

Whatever God creates and builds succeeds as He would have them succeed, until what is to be accomplished is accomplished.  The tabernacle and temple ‘system’ was outlined very specifically by God, right down to what lamp went where.  This was the way he made being in His Presence a practice for His people.  As specific as it was it was only a foreshadow of what was to come.

God fulfilled His plan in His Son.  Jesus completed God’s plan when He died on the cross, reconciling the relationship between God and His people and making His Presence available to all who believe and receive it; He still does.

He is the Way, Truth, and Life in the Presence of God…He is the temple.

The Bible is an amazing book.  It shows the good, the bad, and the ugly.  It shows the success of God’s ways and the failures of man’s ways.  It shows the unintended consequences of doing things our own way instead of God’s.

In Revelation Jesus comes back to earth in a vision to John.  He commissions John to speak to the established churches, all of whom have failed.  The major points of failure were losing their first love and looking and listing to the wrong people.  As he did at the beginning of his ministry he called for them to Repent.  Humans need to learn from their history.  God’s kingdom, His House, is already built by Him.  It is too easy to fall into the two evils that were at the beginning.  “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

As it was in the beginning, God’s people will dwell with Him in a place of beauty, where all that is needed is provided, where the tree of life flourishes, the fountain of life flows freely, and those who choose to believe and receive will enjoy being in His Presence forever.