C h u r c h i a n i t y

or the

Gospel of the Kingdom of God

 

“Church i an i ty? What’s that?”

 

Could that mean organized religion where the emphasis and structure are actually opposed to Jesus Christ and His kingdom?

 

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock…” In the book of the Revelation, the ascended, glorified Son of God describes Himself as knocking on the door of the church – from the outside.

 

“If any man hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

 

The entrance to the kingdom of God is not through membership in an organization. It is in personal relationship through the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.

 

“Whoever eats of this bread and drinks of this cup shows forth his death until he comes.”

 

But the bread and the wine (or grape juice) are just symbols, aren’t they?

Or is there a deeper meaning – a heavenly reality far beyond Sunday morning?

 

Yes indeed! There have been believers converted from darkness to light during a service of the Holy Communion. Relationships have been healed. Believers have been physically healed of disease and the results of terrible accidents during the Holy Communion.

 

Two of my own children were exposed to the chicken pox at their school. Several of their classmates were home, having contracted the disease. When I heard about this, I watched for the signs.  Sure enough, within a couple of days, I detected the odor that accompanies chicken pox.

 

A minister I knew had announced a special healing service, to include the Holy Communion. These two children and I attended. I tried to keep a distance from other people at the service, to protect them from infection. When it was time to partake of the Lord’s Supper, the children and I went forward to the altar.

 

We believed, that night, that the chicken pox was healed. The smell of the disease left the children, and they never broke out with the pox. GOD IS GOOD!

 

 

The minister who prayed for my children had experienced the Holy Spirit baptism. In describing Jesus, John the Baptist had said:

 

“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  Matthew 3:11,12

 

 

In the sixteenth chapter of Mark, the risen Lord Jesus tells His disciples:

 

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved, but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

 

“These signs will accompany those who have believed. In My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues (languages); they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”  Mark 16:16-18

 

Do we love Our Lord and Savior? Then we will obey Him.

 

Did He tell his first disciples to preach the gospel of the kingdom? Then we must preach it also.

 

Did He heal the sick and raise the dead? Did He cast out demons?

 

Let us read the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Did the faithful followers of Jesus do the works their Lord had done, blessing the people and turning many to Christ?

 

Yes they did!

And we also must do the same works!

 

That is -- 

 

UNLESS WE DECIDE TO PRACTICE

 

C h u r c h i a n i t y .