It has been a while, since I've posted, but since then my wife has undergone a kidney transplant (the kidney was donated by her sister) and they are both on their way back to regular lives! Thank you Jesus! I just had to get that in there, because every chance I get, I'm thanking God for his blessings. OK, on to the topic for the day.
It's odd that last night I spoke to my uncle and he was telling me how their church was pretty much closing its doors. So, this morning I was driving into work and I was listening to a pastor on the radio talking about what kills a church. Ironic? It could be, but I beg to differ. He was talking about how some churches die and how the idea is not new - it has been happening since the New Testament. He went on to say that churches do not die because of outside influences. They die because of the members or from within. As an example of how outside influences affect a church, he used the the church at Smyrna. The church received the most persecution from being so close to Rome, but yet it's members came together and it grew into one of the most flourishing churches (see Revelation 2:8-11).
Now this made me go hmmmm. What in the world could kill a church from the inside? I mean all the members are suppose to be the church right? They are all saved and sanctified Christians, how could that possibly happen? Let's look at Romans 12:4-5. It says,
(4) Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, (5) so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
The church is a body made up of many people and those individuals possess different talents and purposes. As long as everyone is doing what they are suppose to do as an individual, contributing to the body, then the church can flourish. The moment that the many members start to waver or if they lose fire for Christ, the church is doomed. There could be many reasons for this wavering, but it doesn't matter because they have lost their focus. If you lose a member of your body, other members will try to compensate for that loss, but if you start to lose many members then the body becomes in-effective for its purpose. It's from the inside out that a church perishes and it can only look within and to its members to realize what happened.
Be blessed gang!
Regards,
Antoine E. Hall
Blog: http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall
"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." - 2 Samuel 22:33
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