As I tackle this subject, we will draw from Scripture to understand the difference as it relates to functions and forms in our churches. These principles can be defined as absolute principles or functions that never change with culture or time. The opposite of these absolutes are non-absolutes which are forms that can change with culture and time. It is with these absolute principles that we want to bridge or contrast what the Early Church did (“then”) in Acts with “now” of today’s Church.
Using Hebrews 10:24-25, let’s contrast absolutes (functions) with non-absolutes (forms). For example, is “meeting together” an absolute or non-absolute? Yes, it is an absolute, but how we meet, where we meet, and when we meet, are non-absolutes. Let me ask you: is a church building an absolute or non-absolute? Is “encouraging one another” an absolute or non-absolute? On a piece of paper, place these items in either an “Absolute” column or a “non-Absolute” column. You can do this with the Sabbath, evangelism, prayer, baptism, a pulpit, tracts, different types of music, communion, serving and loving one another, etc. List as many absolute functions and non-absolute forms as you can in the columns and discuss them with others. Be careful that non-absolutes (forms) do not become absolutes, because if they do, you will lose your freedom, joy, and power.
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In God’s Plan for His Church, we begin Chapter 1 with a very quick overview of the Early Church as Luke outlines it in the Book of Acts. This overview gives us a starting point in Scripture where we can compare what was used by the Spirit then with what we are doing today. These comparisons below are a good beginning for anyone to look at and discover what accelerated the movement of God then and determine what are the inhibitors that hinder God’s work today.
Accelerators Inhibitors Authority and Sufficiency of God’s Word Bible Not Enough Increasing Christ and Decreasing Man Increasing Man Churches Planting Churches Individualistic Evangelism Training “in” Ministry Training “for” Ministry Indigenous Leadership Foreign Leadership Self-Sustaining and Debt Free Dependent on Money and Financial Debt Christ, Head of the Church Pastor, or Man as Head of the Church Local Identity Foreign Identity Releasing Disciples and Leaders Retaining Disciples and Leaders Persecution and Suffering Ease, Pleasure, and Entertainment You should be able to add items to this list with points you observe in the Book of Acts versus habits that hinder God’s work in our churches and personal lives today. I wonder what trials James went through. As he opens his letter, he makes a statement that might cause some to shake their heads in disbelief. Let’s not lose sight of the purpose.
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2–4). It is hard for us to remain “steadfast” or steady when our energy is weakened, or our routine is interrupted and changed, or the circumstances become unpleasant or even painful. Most of us are creatures of habit and resist changes that God allows, particularly when suffering is involved. We face a worse situation when we refuse to accept what God is allowing. Rather than letting God test our faith and bring to our attention deficiencies, we become irritated and hard to deal with. This means that we have wasted what God intended to accomplish through the trial. As God’s children, we forget that He never allows a trial without a purpose. That purpose is to make us “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” That is what a loving Father does and He will not settle for anything less! (Read Hebrews 12:3-11). In a village just 45 miles south of Riobamba, Ecuador, there is another group of hungry Quechua believers who are studying Scripture through God’s Plan for His Disciples (GPHD) in Spanish, wanting to establish their faith on a solid foundation. This news is a tremendous reward for us. We made several trips to Ecuador last year to introduce GPHD to the Quechua leaders and this is a spontaneous work of God from those introductions. We remember a conversation with these key leaders as they learned the value of getting back to a biblical foundation. They said, “we are building on a New Foundation!” We did not ask for this expansion to happen. It was simply the Holy Spirit taking God’s Word and igniting a fire in their hearts. This is the way we want our work to expand; not by our pushing the study on others, but letting God lead us to He has prepared the soil, the “good soil.” Will you pray with us about this work in Ecuador that:
There are times when I must interrupt what I planned to write and bring you fresh news from far off places. We just received an email from one of our “Timothys” in Myanmar. He has returned from visiting a brother near the China border who has completed God’s Plan for His Church. This training prepares anyone who works through 216 pages to plant, establish, and equip strong, biblical churches. Because of the risk associated with Christian work in this country, I ask that you pray for Leonard (not his real name). As you can see from the picture, he has a wife and child. The Apostle John describes people like Leonard in this way; “they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.” (3 John 7). In these closing days of this age, God is calling those who have determined to ‘count their lives of no value… except to testify to the gospel of the grace of God’ (Acts 20:24). The goal is to reach every people group with the gospel (Matthew 24:14). I was speaking with a young man this afternoon who has a deep love for the Lord and wants to serve Him in some way. He had been meditating on Psalm 1 and felt challenged to examine where his greatest delight was.
“His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law, he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:2–3). We talked about how the world measures success versus a person that has set their heart on the Lord. Success is not measured in dollars or possessions as the world does but in whether our work contributes to a stronger fellowship with the Lord and accomplishing His work. Paul maintained a wonderful balance between making tents, planting churches, and making strong disciples. This is not a common way of thinking today, but it is following a biblical model. Let us examine our standard of measuring success and be willing to change priorities. Almost every day I receive a text or email describing a difficult situation or a prayer request. I feel the tension of troubled hearts. Often, I think my words and the Scriptures quoted are so inadequate to provide what the person needs. There are times when I just sit quietly asking the Lord to provide words, a verse or some suggestion that will lighten the load and cheer the heart.
My attention was drawn to God’s words through Isaiah; “For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15). God’s promise to provide what is needed requires that we first return to Him, quiet our hearts, and implicitly trust Him. This is very hard for us. “But you were unwilling, and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore, you shall flee away; and “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore, your pursuers shall be swift.” (Isaiah 30:15–16). Naturally, we want to solve our own problems our way which means we really don’t trust the Lord. These attitudes result in a lack of rest and peace that comes from “quietness.” Whether this describes you or someone else, you must return to the solitude of God’s presence and bring others with you, so they experience “rest and strength” to endure. Stephanie Quick Feb 17, 2019 - Desiring God
As young men entering the prime of their lives, they were forced to ask different questions about their futures. What they learned about Jesus and His worth in this early season of adulthood met all the good doctrine they’d intellectually assented to in their heads until it sank into gut-wrought affection and allegiance in their hearts. In the words of Spurgeon, “If Christ be anything, he must be everything.” Glorious awe annihilated their small dreams. Sober responsibility moved their hands and feet. And then, while home for the holidays, John Urquhart’s young body succumbed to an acute, unknown, and undiagnosed sickness suspected to have also claimed his brother’s life some years earlier. He never left Scotland. If your heart just sank reading this, you feel the injustice of his death — but perhaps you will work through the sting in a similar way his friends did when they heard the news. Five of Urquhart’s friends hit the field in his stead and served there for decades. - Desiring God
Hudson Taylor entered the world just a couple of years before Carey went to be with the Lord; by the end of the nineteenth century, both men had led thousands of young adults to give themselves to the glory of Jesus overseas. Many, facing a single-digit life expectancy on the field, loaded their modest possessions into coffins instead of suitcases, sailed across the world, and never saw their families again. It was a powerful (and perhaps tragically unique) hour in the life of the church. John Urquhart entered St. Andrew’s University in 1822 and formed the Student Missionary Association with a handful of friends in 1824. Confronted by lives like William Carey’s, these young students met weekly to study the Scriptures in light of the task, discuss biographies of laborers who’d gone before, and present essays on their findings. Each member paid semester dues that were sent to entities like the London Missionary Society. (More on this tomorrow). Just over two months ago, the world reeled from the news of a young man’s death on the shores of an isolated (and largely unknown) island in the Bay of Bengal. Suddenly, a nameless, faceless twentysomething from America confronted every home and major news outlet with the urgency of what Christians have termed the “Great Commission” since Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives. It was a stark and humbling confrontation, but we have seen this kind of pressing witness in the past. It bore glorious, beautiful, eternal fruit then; I have every confidence it will again now.
John Allen Chau’s witness of a martyr’s heart (in life and in death) perhaps could not have met us at a better time. We are on the trailing tail of a mighty moment in missions history, and we could certainly use urgency’s reminder: the people of Jesus — the ones ISIS nicknamed “the people of the Cross” — have been entrusted with a holy task: preach Christ to everyone everywhere (Matthew 24:14; 28:19–20; Acts 1:8). Yet even now, with nearly half the world still living in profound gospel poverty, we’re quite a ways from finishing our mission. This is not the first time a young adult with a profound burden for gospel proclamation and the prioritization of unreached people groups passed into glory with timing that seemed premature. This is not the first loss of life leaving us grappling. John Chau was not the first young man to stare down the barrel of his own mortality with grief, wondering who might take his place when he died. John Urquhart’s life bore a similar witness and impact under a different set of circumstances. (See the blog tomorrow.) By: Stephanie Quick, February 17, 2019 - Desiring God |
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