A few days ago I asked the Lord for some things to happen in my head. In my 2 day long prayer I begged and demanded for Him. I wanted a certain thing and I wasn't stopping my prayer until it happened. I wanted to stop being distracted and to be consumed with Him. So consumed that the only thing that could "get to me" would be the absence of Him.
The Holy Spirit is a person, the person of Christ. This Spirit has a lot of opposition in a fallen world. This Spirit can guide a person, or a group of people, if they let Him. I have been nudged by this Spirit to spend some time in Philippians(a book in the bible for all my non-christian friends). And then a Brother in Christ pointed me towards reading it in the Message bible which kind of blew my mind.
Brother Paul said this...
"Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let your petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your lives."
Brother Paul wrote that in chapter 4, at the end. What does he say in the beginning? Why are people in Philippi worried? They had differences, they were holding grudges. Brother Paul planted a church. When he left, most of chapter 1 is describing what happened. Basically the Christians were not on the same page. Some acted differently than they did when Paul was with them. What's Paul's response...
"I've decided that I really don't care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, So I just cheer them on!"
Paul also says that my attitude should be the same as that of Christ...
"Who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made into human likeness..."(vs.2:5 says "your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus")
I move to Gainesville last year. We moved here for body life. Most people moved here for Christ, but we already had Christ. I moved here for body life(which is Christ in other people through daily living). I am a part of an organic church group. For some strange reason moving here did not solve all my problems. I still get distracted and start worrying about logistics and practicals. And I still don't understand how hanging out with a Sister for a few ours is what the Lord wants from me, but I do it anyway. It's enjoyable so that part's easy. I see that living community life leaves a lot of room for people to be left out and ignored. Community life is not what's important, Christ is. And I don't think Christ wants anyone left out or ignored so I am still unsure of why He designed His body this way. Instead of cheering that Christ is proclaimed, I get confused when I feel that the Spirit has me on a different path than the main group. I always automatically assume that I am the one that's wrong and I need to change so that I can feel what everyone is saying they feel.
I enjoy the Spirit of God. I like time with the Lord as well as time with other Christians. I realize that I have played all parts... the one of being "first" and the on of being "last." I have also unfortunately judged my Brothers and Sisters that do not worship the same way I do. I thought that I was a better christian because I was in an organic church. I read the new testament and see that the original organic church had the same problems we do today, institutional and organic.
I have spent the last year trying to get on the same "page" with a small number of people. I have been trying to be "one" with about 60 people. Surprisingly, I have yet to "feel" that. And as I read, I see that Christ doesn't require me to be anything with anyone else. He is the One that's joined me to the Body of Christ. For 2 days I have been asking the Lord to show me Himself and truth in every circumstance and situation. I believe He's shown me in Philippians.
We are One Body, but only because He has made us One in Him. Not because we agree on things, not because we attend the same meetings, not because we use the same lingo, definitely not because we get the same "feeling" that we should all do a certain thing together, not because I'm in the "clique" that seems to form in every building, town, or city that girls live in, not because I have a pastor, and not because I don't. We Christians are all one body because He made us a part of Himself.
I have Christ, I eat and drink of Him. I moved to Gainesville for an expression of Him that is something I feel the Lord wanted me to do. I was so consumed with getting community life that it became an obsession. Brother Paul hardly even mentions community life the way I have been trying to "do" it. Brother Paul speaks Christ.
And so I rejoice! And I stop being consumed with getting body life right, because it was right the day I became a christian. And I behave with an attitude like Christ(phil 2:5). Look at the Lord, recognize His voice in my head and follow His direction, not the herd's. The Holy Spirit will guide me if He wants me doing the same thing as everyone else or doing anything at all. He will guide me. Other than that, I think that I am supposed to enjoy and love my people.
My Lord is a lover. And He lives in me! So that makes me a lover of people too. Call it whatever... institutional, organic, body life, small group. The point is that He has joined us all together and all we have to do is live out His life.
Thanks for reading,
Jackie
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