Hello and welcome to this edition of ACTS29TODAY (now its your turn)
CAN WE DEFY THIS TRADITION.
Most of us are completely unaware of what we lost as Christians when we began erecting buildings devoted exclusively for worship. The Christian faith was born in believers homes, yet every Sunday morning scores of Christians sit in a building with PAGAN ORIGINS THAT IS BASED UPON PAGAN PHILOSOPHY.
There does not exist a SHRED OF BIBLICAL SUPPORT FOR THE CHURCH BUILDING. Yet scores of Christians PAY GOOD MONEY each year to SACRIFICE AND SANCTIFY THEIR BRICK AND STONE. By doing so they have supported an artificial setting where they are LULLED INTO PASSIVITY and PREVENTED FROM BEING NATURAL OR INTIMATE WITH OTHER BELIEVERS.
We have become victims of our past. We have been fathered by Constantine who gave us the PRESTIGIOUS STATUS of having a building. We have been blinded by the Romans and Greeks who forced upon us their hierarchically structured basilicas. We have been taken by the goths who imposed upon us their Platonic architecture. We have been hijacked by the Egyptians and Babylonians who gave us our sacred steeples. And we have been swindled by the Athenians who imposed upon us their Doric columns.
Somehow we have been taught to feel HOLIER when we are in the ” HOUSE OF GOD” and have inherited a pathological dependence upon an edifice to carry out our worship to GOD. The church building has taught us badly about WHAT CHURCH IS and WHAT IT DOES. The building is an architectural denial of THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS . It is a contradiction of the very nature of the ekklesia – which is a counterculture community. The church building impedes our understanding and experience that the church is Christ functioning body that lives and breathes under his direct headship.
IT IS HIGH TIME WE CHRISTIANS …. WAKE UP …. TO THE FACT THAT WE ARE BEING NEITHER BIBLICAL NOR SPIRITUAL….BY SUPPORTING CHURCH BUILDINGS.
AND WE ARE DOING ….GREAT DAMAGE……TO THE MESSAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT BY CALLING MAN-MADE BUILDINGS ” CHURCHES. ”
IF EVERY CHRISTIAN ON THE PLANET …… WOULD NEVER CALL A BUILDING…A CHURCH AGAIN, THIS ALONE WOULD CREATE A REVOLUTION IN OUR FAITH.
SO can we defy this tradition OF MAN…..OF COURSE WE CAN, WE JUST STOP SUPPORTING THE BUILDING…..AND MOVE ON TO THE NEW TESTAMENT PATTERN AND START MEETING IN HOMES.
JUST WALK AWAY AND DO SOMETHING NEW AND BIBLICAL, YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES. WE CAN AND WE WILL AND WE MUST, TO MANY PEOPLES LIVES ARE AT STAKE. Thousands of people sit in buildings every Sunday morning LIKE WATER BEHIND THE DAM….SITTING…..WAITING…..HOPING…..BELIEVING……IMPRISONED.
HOPELESS…..HELPLESS….WANTING TO DO SOMETHING FOR GOD…..WANTING TO TAKE PART……FRUSTRATED…..AND KNOWING THERE MUST BE A BETTER WAY.
is it over yet
THESE PEOPLE MUST BE SET FREE FROM THE SPECTATOR SPORT MENTALITY AND BE ALLOWED TO RUSH DOWN FROM THE STADIUM SEATS AND ….ONTO THE FIELD TO PLAY THE GAME AND TAKE THEIR PART IN THE BODY OF CHRIST….EACH MEMBER DOING ITS PART. SO THAT THE BODY OF CHRIST CAN FULFILL ITS DESTINY ….. AS THE GLORIOUS CHURCH….AND NOT THE CHURCH STUCK IN A BUILDING.
Have a wonderful Christmas….Larry
Acts 29 Today 