Thursday, February 16, 2023
The Church That Changed the World
And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. (1 Peter 2:5 NLT)
Some are saying that we need to reenvision the church for today. I disagree. I don’t think we need to reenvision it; I think we need to rediscover it.
We don’t need to redefine what God already has defined. We need to get back to the way church was in the beginning because this is the church that turned the world upside down.
Some people are anti-church. They say things like, “I don’t believe in organized religion. I’m just a very spiritual person. Besides, there are so many hypocrites in the church.” If that is your attitude, then the devil’s ploys have worked very effectively in your life.
Jesus told a story, or parable, about the wheat and the tares. A farmer planted a crop of wheat, but in the evening his adversary came along and planted tares among the wheat. Tares initially look just like wheat, but as time passes, they actually can uproot the wheat.
Wherever there’s something genuine, there will be an imitation. Whenever something has been done well, someone else will do their version of it. Yet imitations remind us that the genuine is out there.
As we look at the first-century church, we see they had hypocrites too. They had heresies. They even had some pretty radical immorality being practiced in their midst.
Yet we should know that Jesus Christ is committed to the church. It is the only organization that He ever started, and there is really nothing in the world like the church. The church has many critics but no rivals.
The secret of the early church was that every Christian believed they were called to do their part. Every person mattered.
We shouldn’t be spectators in the church; we should be participants. It’s easy to play armchair quarterback. But it’s another thing altogether to be on the field as part of the team. That is where God wants all of us to be.
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In this fantastic 90-day devotional, author and pastor Levi Lusko uses illuminating stories, biblical teaching, and eye-opening surprises about outer space to show kids that they’re never alone because God is always with them. A copy of this beautifully illustrated book will be mailed to you when you make a gift of support to Harvest Ministries this month.
