one day a young disciple woke up, grabbed his sandals and went out into the dusty street. there he saw his friend, a young woman, waiting by a building. they met, exchanged a few words, then walked together into a crowded marketplace…
they met a man sitting on a mat. his twisted legs told his story without one word. a few passed by without glancing, a few more walked into the next aisle, and a few stopped long enough to drop a small coin into his grimy hand….
as the young woman approached, she reached out her hand and placed in on his shoulder. the lame man pulled back…until the young man nodded in agreement…
“we come in the name of Jesus.”
he nodded, but still held out the grimy hand.
“no, we have none,” the young man explained, stooping low to look into the man’s eyes. “but what we do have is one who can raise you from your mat.”
the old man smiled.
“in Jesus’ name, rise and walk.”
the grimy hand reached out and inched up the side of a stall…and the old lame man stood in amazement.
“Praise God!”
nineteen hundred years later, a middle aged man drove across the bridge, looking down on the blue water, now clear of ice, flowing slowly south. he turned away to avoid traffic near the first stoplight…then made a left onto a main thoroughfare….
she climbed into the passenger seat, reaching over…finding the seat belt latch…and they traveled southward…
in a sign of the struggling economy, fewer people came and went, fewer people sat in the food court, and fewer sat in the rest areas dispersed throughout the large building. but one is precious to the Lord, and even then a seed can be planted…even in ground still rocky…
and they came to a man sitting alone in a small circle of chairs. he wore a wrinkled black leather jacket that betrayed his age and condition. they sat for some time discussing the weather…and then, she told her testimony…waking healed…and what Jesus did for her…
but the wrinkled jacket pushed back, bulging eyes fixed on the woman.
but the seed was planted….
while one of these accounts is a fictional account based on the practices of the early first church, the latter is a scene taken from real life, in a Mall in America, not so many hours ago that it can be forgotten by the disciples who went there.
both are accounts of disciples of Jesus living out the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles, doing the work of the church. while others sat inside a building, singing rousing songs and pledging with gusto to be more Christlike, these two obeyed Christ, doing the work of the saints of God.
but what about all the people within the four walls? they were praising God, listening to a sermon, and getting filled…aren’t they doing what the church should be doing?
the answer is no. unless the people within the building take their faith outside the building, meet as the first disciples did, and walk out their faith, picking their cross up daily…
if you actually start reading the New Testament, you will find that many verses, words, and phrases that big building churches have used over the years are actually misinterpreted purposely or ignorantly to maintain a religious system Jesus never came to construct…
I challenge you to read the whole New Testament, without bias. Approach it asking God to make it clear to you. Turn off every “Christian influence” you have, and stay away from “church” until you are finished.
Read passages in sections- where they should begin and end, ignoring the chapters and verses completely. The Bible wasn’t written in chapter and verse (oldest manuscripts we have from the NT show us that)- that was added later- so we should read it with that in mind. Then, ask God to show you what it all means. Go back over it. You’ll find some surprising things that are in there and many that are not. In fact, you will find that the New Testament has been twisted by many power-seekers trying to keep an ungodly system going that God never intended.
That is why God is moving now to break down those walls in the Western World. It is not so much of an issue in places where the body of believers works like they should- like in China and parts of the developing world…
but this post is not an in depth look at that, it is a wake-up call: the new reformation that has started quietly across the globe will break down so many barriers, so much religion, that Christianity will never be the same again…