Line Upon Line

After I posted my March 31 weblog entry, "Searching for the Perfect Church," a faithful Line Upon Line reader wrote the following:

Good morning.

I just read your posting on 'the perfect church'. Is this your idea of a joke???? What you describe as the perfect church is God's ideal, yet the reality is VERY far from this ideal.

I personally know dozens of believers who have left the church because they had been wounded by other Christians. I guess we all have. I know I have. They can't seem to get past the hurt, disillusionment. Their disillusionment can blind them of the reality of who Jesus is and bitterness sets in and robs them of their future in Christ.

Perhaps I took your posting too seriously. Maybe you meant it as a joke. I hope I haven't offended you. You know how much I appreciate you. I was just telling someone the other day that your postings have become my newest addiction...

Here was my response:

Nope...no joke. Call me a dreamer.... I dream of what could be, what should be, what can be, if people would only start acting like Jesus is really Lord (novel idea, wouldn't you say?).

I do know the hurt of which you speak (I have been lied to, abused, slandered, and used)...and I know the reality of the state of the Church (I've been in this 30 years and I've seen most everything)...and I am convinced that the world is in the mess it's in because the Church is in the state it's in (I believe the mess is more the Church's fault than Satan's fault)...but, I also know the power of God to take hopeless situations and work MIRACLES. All things are possible to those who believe!

Yup, it will be a miracle alright. :^)

But if you believe in the power of prayer (and I know you do), we have to take seriously the prayer Jesus prayed [as recorded in John's gospel, chapter 17, verses 17-23]:

"Make them pure and holy by teaching them your words of truth. As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself entirely to you so they also might be entirely yours. I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony. My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father-that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are- I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one. Then the world will know that you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me."

Yes, it will be a miracle if the Perfect Church is ever to be seen--but as long as I believe in God, I believe in miracles!

think on these things...

1 Corinthians 1:1-10 (NLT)
This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes. We are writing to the church of God in Corinth, you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did all Christians everywhere--whoever calls upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and theirs. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you his grace and peace. I can never stop thanking God for all the generous gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus. He has enriched your church with the gifts of eloquence and every kind of knowledge. This shows that what I told you about Christ is true. Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you strong right up to the end, and he will keep you free from all blame on the great day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will surely do this for you, for he always does just what he says, and he is the one who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, dear brothers and sisters, I appeal to you by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop arguing among yourselves. Let there be real harmony so there won't be divisions in the church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.

Matthew 19:26 (NKJV)
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.''

Mark 9:23 (NKJV)
Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.''