She
Changed Churches!!
NO! Don't be automatically mad. WHY did she
change?
Many people are confused about church membership.
Upon becoming a true Christian believer, a person automatically becomes a member of the
world-wide "universal body of believers", The Church, whose membership roll is The
Lamb's Book of Life (Revelations 21:27). Though Jesus sits at the right hand of God and has
authority over all of heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18), the "body of Christ" is the worldwide
church; and Jesus inhabits that "body" by way of his part in the Trinity (the triune God),
united with the Holy Spirit and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit within each believer in that worldwide church.
So, the issue of church loyalty should be clearly
focused on our belonging (actively and continually) in this "body of Christ". Remember, there
is a church building, a local church, and The Church...and here is a table of comparison.
Our local church membership is of secondarily great
importance. Each person has different gifts to exercise within the local church...each person
being like a different part of a local body (a tongue, a finger, an eye) (Romans 12:1-8). If
you aren't giving and receiving and growing in your local church, ask God to show you why. It
may be that the deficit is your own fault. If you are lead through prayer to think that it is
not your personal fault, then it may be that the Holy Spirit wants to work you into another
local church: same denomination, another denomination...possibly even another Christian arena
(Protestant vs Catholic vs Orthodox, etc.). You need foremost to be in a local church where
you can worship, love, be loved, serve, and grow as part of a community.
I believe that the various Christian arenas &
denominations act as "parts of the body" of the worldwide body of Christ, too. Some act as
reservoirs of simple Christian living; some are food producers for the people in depressed
countries; some reach out stronger in local and foreign missions; some are societal
reservoirs of education in Christian schools; and some are really strong on evangelization,
etc.
check out the Highest
TRUTH
posted
June 1998
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