Thursday, March 22, 2012

HEAL YOUR CHURCH, LORD


The video quality is not good, and the noise in the background is a tropical storm that was raining on the roof at the moment, but Vivian and I were blessed by the singing of these students from the Fiji Bible College.
When we were there, we attended their daily devotion time, and this singing was before I was to speak to them. This was one week ago, when Vivian and I were in Fiji.



I am not quite sure if I hear a couple of the words correctly, but the song expresses my prayer for the church:

Heal Your church, Lord,
Make us strong, Lord,
Join our hearts, Lord, to Your side.
Make us one, Lord,
Be a’ working
In the kingdom of Your Son.

The apostle Paul expressed it like this:
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6 NAS).

In the church today, we are not acting as one. I am not implying that we as individual churches should compromise our understandings of Scripture and become unified at the cost of our standards. I only say that we should resist the feelings of pride that come when we think all other churches except our own must be either ignorant in some way, or living in opposition to the teachings of Christ.

Here again, perhaps Paul says it best:
“As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’
On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.
But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
            Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12:20-27 ESV).

If the past 2 or 3 years have taught me anything, they have taught me that we as the church of Jesus Christ are acting on a grand level how the first century church at Corinth was acting locally:

“... Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I of Apollos,’ and ‘I of Cephas,’ and ‘I of Christ.’
Has Christ been divided?” (1 Corinthians 1:12-13a NAS).

Heal Your church, Lord,
Make us strong, Lord,
Join our hearts, Lord, to Your side.
Make us one, Lord,
Be a’ working
In the kingdom of Your Son.

1 comment:

  1. Very appropriate message for today. Thanks for sharing.

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