The presence of God (3)

I ended my previous blog with the sentence: 'God's glorious presence zoomed in from a universe level, from the heavens to our inmost being.'

It is a great miracle that God came to dwell among men two thousand years ago. Perhaps, it is an even greater miracle that He now wants to dwell in all people with His Spirit. 👉He is always near and we no longer have to travel to a certain place to meet Him.

That was exactly what Jesus promised when He was about to return to His Heavenly Father: And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20). Always, everywhere. A comforting promise, no matter how we feel or wherever we are.

God with us and in us, on an individual basis so to speak. The Bible makes it clear, however, that the presence of God is also something we can (and should) experience when we are together in groups. During a prayer meeting, a Bible study, or a church service, for example.

This does not necessarily require a stadium full of people. Jesus said: For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20).

If there is ever one good reason to keep meeting together, it certainly is this one!

God, a mystery revealed (5)

'Jesus has always been there, He is the eternal God and in union with Him all things have their proper place' I wrote in my previous blog.

It was a referral to the section in the letter to the Colossians that we are looking at in this blog series, a section that deals with the supremacy of Christ.

Let's take a look at Colossians 1:18, it says:

And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

Wow, so much revelation about who He is in one sentence, great! Jesus Christ is the head of the universal Church (all churches in the world), also called His body. His body on earth, as He walked around two thousand years ago: doing good and healing (Acts 10:38). That is the mandate and blueprint of the Church!

He is the beginning! Yes, He is the source of our existence, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Nothing exists without Him. The universe is being held together by Him, as we can read in some translations.

He is the firstborn from among the dead. This is interesting. When reading the Bible we find out that people had been resurrected from the dead before Jesus... but they had to die again one day. So, this verse does not mean that people can physically raise from the dead. I think that Paul (the writer of the letter to the Colossians) is referring to the words of Jesus: I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die (John 11:25). Jesus promises eternal life for those who believe in Him!

In everything He has supremacy! In everything ... whatever we do or invent, He preceded it. Without Him we would not even exist. I hope that He may also have supremacy in your life.

Purpose of the church (8)

Thank you very much for reading this blog series about the purpose of the church and also for your valuable comments.

"The purpose of the church is simple, namely that everyone gets to know Jesus well" I wrote in my previous blog post. Simple maybe, but apparently not so easy to implement. In personal conversations I often discover that people can faithfully go to church for years and years and yet do not know Jesus personally. That is quite tragic and I really hope and pray that we will all experience a refreshing renewal and change in the way we do/are church.

Of course, we can not solely expect that from leadership (sometimes they have no clue either), we are in this together. Let us take a look again at the words in Ephesians 4: 11-13. This time, for the sake of clarity, I used the Good News translation and cut it into pieces because the sentences are very long:

• It was he [Jesus] who “gave gifts to people”; he appointed some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers.
• He did this to prepare all God's people for the work of Christian service
• in order to build up the body of Christ.
• And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God
• we shall become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ's full stature.

Wow, we shall become mature people (a perfect man the NKJV says) attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. What a wonderful purpose. I want that! Even if I have to sit in a pew for a while :)

I suggest that we all compare the above list (the Word of God) with our church setting and customs and ask ourselves some critical questions: Is there a five fold leadership available in my church/congregation to prepare me to serve, so that the church/congregation can grow, and do we get to know Christ better? And finally .... am I on my way to maturity?

I sincerely hope that we will be church, with a purpose!

Purpose of the church (7)

'Biblically speaking, the church will not be built up by programs and methods, but by the servanthood of believers', I wrote in part 6 of this series.

Interesting, isn't it, to read the words in Ephesians 4:11-13 slowly and compare them with the way we do church today. So far we have seen:

• that Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers (Amen, let's not add or distract anything and acknowledge and appreciate all of them.)
• to equip his people (we are not supposed to stay ignorant or dumb, we should grow and be trained.)
• for works of service (not for what we want to do, but for the works He has prepared for us to do.)
• so that the body of Christ may be built up (now, that is the way to do it).

The Body of Christ, that is: the believers, the church (local and universal), is being built up (grows) when the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers train the believers to serve God. But that is not all there is to it ... Let's continue to read:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God

Ah, there is a higher purpose than just gathering knowledge and being of service. We must stop fighting each other and eventually form a unity! In the Today's English Version it is written: And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God. I should have known, we do not play church simply because we have been doing so for ages, no ... the goal is that we will form a unity and get to know the Son of God well!

The longer I think about the words in Ephesians 4-11-13, the clearer it becomes. The purpose of the church is simple, namely that everyone gets to know Jesus well! Equipping leads to service leads to spiritual growth leads to the knowledge of Jesus which leads to unity .... regardless of our background, upbringing, education or religious denomination.

Purpose of the church (6)

'The equipping must always lead to service', I wrote in my previous blog post. We are being equipped in order to serve God. That sounds pretty cool. Of course, deep down in our heart we all want to do something useful for God. But doing good works .... to what purpose? For sure we do not (and cannot) earn God's love.

Let's go back to our base text (Ephesians 4: 11-13) for this series about the purpose of the church:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up...

The NKJV says it like this:

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ...

So, we do not work in His service for ourselves and weird enough not for God either. He does not need anything from us. In Acts 17:25 we can read: And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. No, we do not serve God in order to become a better person in one way or another. We serve, so that the Church will be built up.

There are many churches and denominations complaining about a decline in growth. This often results in the implementation of all kinds of ideas to make the church services more attractive. But biblically speaking, the church will not be built up by programs and methods, but by the servanthood of believers.

We should not expand the number of seats in a church or congregation, but rather call the people in the seats to take action. Whether there are twenty or two hundred people present. We do not grow by gathering more knowledge (let's be honest, how many sermons can a person hear?) but by doing what we have learned.

Purpose of the church (5)

And  He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry... (Ephesians 4:11).

How often can you read such a text? Not often enough, I think. We can learn so much that will help us today to build a healthy spiritual community, a church that is truly the Body (the representation) of Christ on earth.

Jesus gave it like this for a reason; let us not take anything away from it and add nothing to it. I sincerely believe it would be very useful to take a closer look at the forms of leadership in our contemporary churches in light of Ephesians 4:11-13. By the way, I think it is easier to start a new church with these verses in mind, than to reorganize an existing one with the dogma's, patterns and systems already in place, but that aside.

The people (whether you are a hairdresser, construction worker or nurse) who are called and assigned to one or more of the five functions, tasks or ministries mentioned must always bear in mind that they do that work as part of a team in order to to equip (prepare, get ready) believers to serve God. The Good News Translation calls it 'works of Christian service'.

When we think about the purpose of the church these verses keep popping up. We do not come together just to come together (although that can be very useful from a spiritual and social point of view) but to be equipped for work in the service of God. In that sense we could see the church as a vocational school. We don't know much when we enroll, we learn and learn and ask questions and do our homework. We are not supposed to stay in grade 5 or 6 for ten years, we are called to grow and graduate!

The equipping must always lead to service. There will come a time when we will put the acquired knowledge into practice, when we will do what we have learned. There comes a time when we are going to share God's love with a world in need, whether that is around the corner or in a distant land. In doing so it is very possible that we are called once more... to equip others!

Purpose of the church (4)

'The five are called together for a common task ...' I wrote in my previous blog entry. I was referring to the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers as mentioned in Ephesians 4: 11-13. People who are appointed or given by Jesus for a certain task.

For the sake of clarity, let's go back to that text again:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service (NIV translation). What is their job? Equiping believers for work in God's service. The Good News translation states: He did this to prepare all God's people for the work of Christian service...

That is quite a responsibility. Together (as a team) they must equip (prepare, get ready, arm) the believers to be of service to God. There is no one who can do this on his or her own. Nowadays I see shepherds (also called pastors, reverends, priests) struggle to do this all alone. It is, in my opinion, no wonder that many end up on the couch with a burn-out. Only Jesus himself was shepherd, as well as teacher (rabbi), apostle, evangelist and prophet!

It has never been His intention to put all those qualities in one person! He desires cooperation in a team so that we can keep each other accountable and no one will get the chance to rise above the other. There is no hierarchy in these five functions / tasks. If such a thing exists, we must base it on 1 Corinthians 12:28 where it says: And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers...The shepherd and evangelist are not even mentioned here.

I truly believe we are missing something in our spiritual growth and development if we are being equipped by just one (perhaps two) of these people. Suppose you only listen to a teacher (preacher) and never learn from an apostle what it is like to be sent out and travel and plant churches. You could just end up sitting in a pew for thirty years (with a lot of knowledge, yes) without ever going into the world ....

Now, that is unthinkable, right ...?

Purpose of the church (3)

In my previous blog post I quoted the basic scripture I will use for this series, in three different translations. Ephesians 4: 11-13 gives us an idea about the purpose of the church, don't you think?

Of course these verses are part of a chapter and that chapter is part of a Bible book, in this case a letter the apostle Paul wrote to the faithful believers in Ephesus in the 1st century AD. Ephesus was at that time the capital of the Roman province of Asia, in western Turkey.

Let's take a closer look at what the Bible says here ...

And He Himself [Jesus] gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers...

That sentence in itself gives quite some interesting food for thought and discussion, but is also reason for much gratitude. Jesus gave (appointed or called) some people for a specific task. How wonderful, is my first thought, at least we do not have to invent or set up our own system. The GNT says 'It was he who “gave gifts to people”. The callings and functions are a gift, we cannot earn or get them any other way, we can only receive in obedience.

Some theologians and religious denominations claim that apostles and prophets are no longer given today, that they were only given for a season to start the church two thousand years ago. They believe that only evangelists, shepherds (pastors) and teachers are still being appointed ... To me that seems a random selection with a devastating consequence: by deleting some of the people (functions, gifts, callings) Jesus gave to build up the church we  have elevated others, often to isolated positions.

No one is surprised if someone presents himself as 'the pastor of such and such congregation' or 'the minister of such and such church'. But if someone, for example, claims to be 'the prophet of such and such congregation' he will get the stamp 'strange' or 'sectarian' or 'false'. Now, how in the world did this happen? I invite you to think with me. Biblically speaking it is simply not correct!

Because.... the five are called together for a common task!

Purpose of the church (2)

Just the announcement of this new blog series, about the purpose of the church, triggered quite some views and responses. A great encouragement for me and at the same time a sign that I am not the only one who is interested in this subject.

For starters, I want to quote the basic scripture I will be using in my reflection on this topic in a few different translations, so that we will all get an idea (regardless of our denominational or theological background) of what the Bible says about the purpose of the church, also called the body of Christ (see also 1 Corinthians 12:27). That scripture is: Ephesians 4:11-13.

NIV (New International Version)

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

NKJV (New King James Version)

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

GNT (Good News Translation)

It was he who “gave gifts to people”; he appointed some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers. He did this to prepare all God's people for the work of Christian service, in order to build up the body of Christ. And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God; we shall become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ's full stature.

Just reading these verses a few times brings about an idea of ​​God's intention with the church on earth, don't you agree?

Purpose of the church (1)

For quite some time I have been toiling with the idea of writing a blog series about Ephesians 4:11-13. That is a section in the Bible which describes (briefly but powerfully) the purpose of the church.

I kept postponing it for several reasons. First of all, because I do not want to give the impression that I have answers to the problems and issues our churches are facing today. Secondly, because writing such a series involves the unveiling of some weak spots (and that's putting it mildly) in our church 'system'. And thirdly, because I honestly have not experienced yet how a church should function properly. Nevertheless, I have decided to take a fresh look on the way we 'play church'.

The church is of great importance in society, more than we might dare to believe ourselves. This was the outcome of a research by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) which was published in The Netherlands about a year ago. I quote:

"Religion is an important factor in society. Religious alliance is often associated with participation in society, such as helping others, the commitment of volunteers, giving to charities and voting in elections (Bekkers and Schuyt , 2010; The Heart, 2014; Putnam and Campbell, 2012; Schmeets, 2015). Most often, religious persons are more involved in society than non-religious .... Religion also promotes well-being, weekly visitors to religious services tend to be more happy and satisfied than those who are less likely to attend a service (Coumans, 2014). "

There is, and always has been, quite some criticism towards the church and perhaps Christians are some of their own worst critics. But let's not forget that the more drama and turmoil we experience on earth, the greater the need will be for security, safety and a hopeful future. I think that we as a church (also called the Body of Christ) should be recognizable more than ever before, for example as bearers of light in darkness, as peacekeepers in times of war and as messengers of love in the midst of violence.

I hope you will read along and as always, your comments are very valuable to me and a welcome addition to the blog posts.

Give me a T

In my Bible Alphabet Blog Series T stands for Temple.

In most religions a temple is a (prayer) building in which God or gods are being worshiped. The Bible speaks much about the temple in Jerusalem, both in the Old and New Testament.

After the destruction of that temple in 70 AD and with the spreading of Christianity churches and cathedrals have been built all over the world with the same idea: a place for prayer, worship, a place where God is present.

We may indeed 'experience' God in a temple or church, but these buildings are not His residence. The Bible is clear about it: However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?’ (Acts 7: 48-50).

Indeed, God desires to live in a temple that He made Himself: the human body, the most beautiful building that exists. It is a place created by God Himself, a place where He can be very close with us and we with Him. In 2 Corinthians 6:16 it is written: For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” That is God with us ... Immanuel.

In light of this all, it is no wonder there is so much attack on the human body: sickness, mutilation, abuse, you name it. It is certainly okay to restore and maintain our buildings, but I truly believe we must stand up and defend the place where God really resides!

PS: You do not have to look far to experience God. Invite Jesus to come into your heart and live with you. He just loves to grant such a request!

Give me an A

In my Bible alphabet blog series A stands for Apostle.

It is a word that only appears in the New Testament. Jesus intro-duced the term when He appointed (or ordained) several of his disciples as apostles.

In Mark 3:14-15 we can read what was expected of them:

He appointed twelve[a] that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.

[a] Some manuscripts twelve—designating them apostles—

Disciples of the Lord Jesus that were appointed as apostles had a clear calling and function:

• they had to be with (close to) Him
• they had to be ready to be sent out
• they had to preach
• they had to use their authority

Were there more than the twelve apostles Jesus appointed? Yes! Paul, for example, was probably the most famous one after that time. Do apostles still exist? Yes! They are still being appointed today for the benefit of His church world wide. Ephesians 4:11-12 says it like this: So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up...

The five functions as mentioned above are given by Jesus for the building up of the church (the body of Christ on earth). Most churches today still recognize and have evangelists, pastors and teachers, but to a much lesser extent apostles and prophets. That is weird if you think about it, because they are needed to equip (new) believers for work in service of God!

Christ gave them to us until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). Well, I am sorry to say, but we are not there yet. So we must ask the Holy Spirit to continue to appoint apostles for the benefit of the church.

If you have a clear calling on your life (a desire, a passion, an inner conviction) to be with (close to) Jesus, to go out and preach (in your street or the other side of the world) and to use your God given authority, then that is a calling from Jesus Himself. Don't let ANYONE stop you to answer that call!

Church growth

Last month we were in Israel, for the umpteenth time :) It has been more than thirty years ago that we first set foot in that country. And yet, each time we go again we discover new places; villages, beaches, forests, parks and excavations that we skipped during previous visits.

This is so much like my travels through God's Word. I am currently reading, for the umpteenth time, through the book of Acts... and yet, I discover news things again. In chapter nine, verse 31 I read the following: Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

We have come to believe that the church grows best during times of persecution and crisis. This is a principle of all times and places. But here it clearly says that the church grew during a time of peace. So, that is a possibility we should not ignore. It seems to me a great encouragement for the church in the Western world. We do not have to wait for persecution in order to grow.

I have been reading many articles recently about a general decline in church membership. But something has to be wrong in the way we think. From a biblical point of view the number of believers can grow in a country where there is freedom of religion and peace. According to the above scripture there are only two conditions:

• living in fear of the Lord, and
• encouragement by the Holy Spirit

The NKJV says in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied. Well, that is surely good news for all churches decreasing in  numbers. Let's put aside our plans, ideas and strategies and designate a few (Sun)days for all members to fall on their knees and to cry out to the Holy Spirit to do His work.

I would love to hear good reports.

Happiest church

At the moment I am reading an interesting and inspirational book. It is called Faith under Fire, written by Andrew White (the vicar of Baghdad).

Apart from my own books and books by fellow bloggers, I hardly ever recommend or review books on this blog (simply because by doing so, people will try to put me in a box). But books about the world wide (persecuted) church really have a place in my heart. They ALWAYS teach me important life lessons. At some point Andrew White writes:

"Despite the fact that St. George's is constantly under fire, it is the happiest church I have ever served in..."

That one sentence jumped off the page and I thought: wow... It puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

Father, forgive us for being spoiled...

Church homework

Has it ever happened to you? Someone says something really significant and you tell yourself 'gotta remember this' and not even half a day later you don't remember what it was. This is how it often happens with sermons being preached (sorry)...

We speak in different churches and my husband and I are always trying to come up with things to make a sermon practical. We should be doers of the Word after all, not only hearers. Saying how nice and wonderful a message was, means nothing if we don't put the words into practice. First of all we have to learn how to remember things.. The easiest way to do this is through making notes. How do students learn in school or college? By taking notes and going over them again at home. Isn't it logical to learn the same way in church?

A few weeks ago my husband Jan spoke in a church in Holland and the next day all members received an email, it said:

"Jan gave us all some homework to do, so let this email be a reminder! It is important to put into practice what we have learned last Sunday. Grow and develop, seek God and do what you have learned!

• Read Proverbs 8
• Listen to the podcast of the sermon again
• Purchase a journal and start this year with writing down your spiritual adventures
• Bring this journal to the services and make notes to further study at home
• Write down what you have learned (about Jesus) in 2012
• Write down what you want to learn or experience this year, for example: victory in certain things, receiving of spiritual gifts etc.
• Make sure to write down your questions, disappointments en challenges as well

This way, it will be possible to see within (half) a year or so which prayers have been heard, what longings fulfilled and which questions answered. Spiritual growth becomes more clear."

What is your experience when it comes to putting into practice what you've learned? Do you make notes in church?

Baptism unraveled (2)

In my previous post about baptism(s) I mentioned the fact that the Bible says there is only one baptism, but at the same time speaks about a doctrine of baptisms, plural. Is the Bible contradicting itself? How do we read this?

When I was a few weeks old my parents had me baptized. It took me nearly forty years before I was able and willing to confirm the promise they had made to God before the church. I was baptized in 2001 after I gave my life to Christ. Was one baptism not enough and did I have to do it all over again?

Of course not! To be honest, I don't think the baptisms the Bible speaks about have anything to do with age, with being a child or an adult. The more I study Gods Word about this subject, the more I am convinced that there is indeed one baptism that is important for ALL people, and that is the baptism into the body of Christ. The other baptisms mentioned in the Bible are a result of this one, as we will see in the upcoming posts. I have made a very simple chart.

Everything starts with that one baptism, the baptism into the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. I have noticed two things. 1) We were all baptized by one Spirit (and thus not by men, as in water baptism) and 2) we were baptized into one body, that is the body of Christ, the universal church of all believers.

My first reaction when I read this scripture was: Okay, so this is obviously not about water baptism, but about the baptism into the body of Christ. How does someone become a part of the body/the church of Christ? Well, not by signing a membership paper, not through study, status or family tradition... although quite often we have made it to be like that. No, we become a member of that one body through rebirth. Titus 3:4-5 explains this pretty well, But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

I love that, the washing of rebirth... that is not about baptism in water, but about the moment we surrender our life to Christ, a decision He seals by giving us the Holy Spirit to be in us and with us forever. There is no water present at rebirth, or it has to be our tears :) Through rebirth we are being baptized into the body of Christ, into the family of God. In 1 Corinthians 12:27 Paul tells the believers, Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

The most important choice we can ever make is the choice to invite Jesus into our heart. That is a matter of life and death... a step from darkness into light. Personally I believe this is the ONE baptism the Bible speaks about in Ephesians 4:5 (one Lord, one faith, one baptism). Jesus as our foundation... from there on out we will look at the other baptisms mentioned in the Bible.

Church as we know it

The church as we know it is in trouble, big time. Not because of persecution or hardships, but because we've made a mess of things and we forgot to read the Book. There's fighting, debating, corruption, abuse and apathy, all at the same time. The media loves it and Jesus is crying. He must be, because the church was His idea!

The church as the body of Christ on earth, now that He is in heaven, what a brilliant idea. His work continues, we're moving, loving, serving and working. The church, His beloved bride to be. Where did we go wrong? We do know the church the Bible talks about is not a building, but a group of believers coming together. Yet, often we don't know how we should be coming together. Of course, we have programs on how to plant a church, maintain a church,  emerge a church, do church and even on how to grow a church. We have traditional, contemporary, Spanish, renewal, healing and worship services. We have services for young and old, for kids and teens, for seniors and singles. You name it, we'll make it happen, you'll get a comfortable seat and feel right at home.

I am studying 1 Corinthians 12 and when I came to verse 28 I thought about the people that we think should make up a church: a pastor, some elders, a worship team, Sunday school teachers and a deacon here and there. That would be a good start, right? Hopefully the pews will fill up with people who are willing to sit still and listen. However, according to what Paul writes to the Corinthians, church should be a little different:

• And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles,
• second prophets,
• third teachers,
• then workers of miracles,
• also those having gifts of healing,
• those able to help others,
• those with gifts of administration,
• and those speaking in different kind of tongues.

Hhmm, when was the last time you saw a worker of miracles in your church? I mean, seriously! Or a prophet? Let's be honest, do we really take these instructions seriously? If God appoints these people, where are they? Are you one of them maybe?

I know the Bible says a lot more about gifts and services in the church, but in this Scripture Paul writes very clearly about the 8 kind of workers God appoints in the church, any church... Can you imagine what church would be like if we would operate in these gifts whenever we would come together? Wow...

Sobbing through the introduction...

We bloggers just LOVE give-aways, it is such a great way of blessing one another! A while back I won a book through a give-away at Susan Panzica's blog. I was delighted and really believe my good luck has changed for the better, haha, I have never won anything before in my life! She mailed me a copy of The Hole in Our Gospel written by Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision US.

It was on my to-read pile for quite some time and this week I finally opened the first page and began to read. I cried throughout the introduction and all the way through the first chapter... really! Sobbing at a mere foreword is a new experience for me and for one thing, Stearns had my attention! Wow, I hope to be able to write in such a way one day. Stearns touches a very sensitive subject: the role of the 21st century church in the affairs of the world. You can find hundreds of reviews on Amazon, so I'll skip that, but I just wanted to highlight one of the questions he asks in this book, which is really all about building and advancing the Kingdom of God here on earth.

"The Lord's prayer, repeated in churches the world over, contains the phrase 'Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven'. Do we believe what we pray?"

After Jesus' resurrection he went around for 40 days, talking about the Kingdom. His message was huge, it was world changing, it was utterly important, so important that it came out of His mouth until the day He went back to the Father! What are we doing? Are we inviting people into His Kingdom? Are we advancing His Kingdom everywhere we go?