"Jesus In His Church"

"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18

I was watching Christian television last night and a minister came on that I have never heard before. I listened to him and was strengthened by the word. This morning I decided to go to his website to find out a little more about him and what he believes-- it's important that we "know those who labor among us" (1 Thess. 5:12). One of the things he said on his site was that he is "actively fulfilling the mandate that God has given him to 'Bring My Son Back to the Church'". As I read that my heart leaped with joy and was deeply saddened at the same time.

I was saddened because in our modern day church Jesus has been "shut out", for the most part. How many messages have you heard preached about Jesus and the cross lately- or in a while? Most of what we hear centers around all His blessings, wealth, prosperity, self help, etc. So little centers around His sacrifice for our sins, His atonement, the price he paid at Calvary so that we could have eternal life and abundant life here on earth. So little is preached about His shed blood for the remission of our sins, how He took our place and the punishment we rightfully deserved, how without Him there would be no new covenant blessings for us to enjoy, there would be no opportunity to have a relationship with the living God, without Him there would be no remission of sin, without Him we would be lost and on our way to an eternal hell with NO chance of escape, without Him we would not enjoy the forgiveness of sins, there would be no access to the Father, we would be forever lost.

My heart leaped for joy to hear this because all the problems we are suffering in the church, the lack of power we demonstrate, our ineffective witness, our lack of love, our compromise, our selfish/self-centeredness is because Jesus is on the outside "knocking on the door" wanting to get in (Rev.3:20). Much of the problems in the world are because we have left Jesus out of the church. How so? If Jesus occupied His rightful place in His church there would be a difference in us who profess to know Him and this difference would cause us and enable us to "turn our world upside down for Christ" (Acts 17:6). No longer would our neighbors go unwitnessed to, no longer would our lights be hid under a basket but instead shine brightly to a lost and dying world. No longer would we wink at sin, deny the hungry, withhold our hands from the needy, cast out the poor. If His presence was in the church in the way that He desires, His presence would change us- it would either cause us to embrace Him and make us "hot" or it would cause us to reject Him and make us "cold", but either way it would take us out of our "lukewarm" condition. (Rev. 3:15,16)

Have a great day. Let's each one of us that calls Him Lord help bring Jesus back into His church.