Church-Believers Are Connected

"So in Christ we are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."(Romans 12:5)

a. We are connected through faith.
"There is one body and one Spirit-Just as you were called to one hope when you were called-one Lord,
one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."
(Ephesians 4:4-6)

b. We are connected through meeting together.
"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one
another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching."(Hebrew 10:25)

c. We are connected through loving one another.
"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."(John 13:35)

d. We are connected through service.
"It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be
pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be
built up."(Ephesians 4:11-12)

Church-United to Christ

"So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." (Romans 12:5)

1. Our redemption is in Christ.
"and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:24)

2. There is no condemnation in Christ.
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ." (Romans 8:1)

3. We have eternal life in Christ.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
(Romans 6:23)

4. We have love in Christ.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Chris? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine
or nakedness or danger or sword?" (Romans 12:5)

Body of Christ-Personal Application

The body of Christ is the church.1 Corinthians 12:27 says,"Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." We are the body of Christ who have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. Therefore, each Christian is a part of the body of Christ. The body of Christ, like our human body, is comprised of many parts. There are limbs, organs, cells, bones, and various members which make up the whole body. 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 says, "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body....." As a part of the church, we should build up and enhance the body of Christ:

1. We are called to promote truth and unity in the body. "Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body." (Ephesians 4:25)
2. We are called to serve in the body. "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness."(Romans 12:6-8)
3. We are called to worship God in the body. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."(Romans 12:1)
4. We are called to connect to each other in humility. "For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." (Romans 12:3)

By God's grace, be a contributing member of the body of Christ right now. John Piper's comment is inspiring, he said, "It is an amazing calling and an amazing identity: being the body of Christ and individually members of one another. There is more to be discovered about yourself in Christ than you ever dreamed. And Christ will be more and more honored by every discovery you make."

Connection

Paul draws our attention to the human body as the metaphor of the body of Christ. The body is very diverse, but it is the picture of perfect connection. Paul said, "For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one in Christ, and individually member one of another." (Romans 12:4-5) In respond to Paul's teaching on the body of Christ which is the church, our faith that unites us to Christ also unites us to the body of Christ, the church. In this world of virtual relationship, connection managed via facebook, MSN and twitter etc., I wonder if we are losing our fellowship and connection to each other. And yet God designed us to live in community rather than just individual. I believe that the life of the church is an important supplement to the online relationship. The next time you are at church, at least challenge yourself to greet two or three person, and such action will bring comfort and peace to others. Connection with Christ means connection with each other. I sincerely believe that life is better in connection.

Our heart is restless

St.Augustine said,"our heart is restless until we rest in you." For Augustine, the heart is a metaphor for all that is deepest, truest and personal in one's self. The heart signifies the affective aspect of faith in God. As a young man, Augustine pursued a long and painful search for truth that he hoped would provide him with rest. In his conversion at the age of 33, he felt his innermost heart lovingly spoken to by the word of God. He wrote,"The words of your scripture knocked at the door of my heart.""You have pierced out hearts with the arrow of your love, and our minds were pierced with the arrows of your words." From the spirituality of St. Augustine, we learn three things about how to have rest in God.
1. Constant attention to the word of God. "Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ."(Romans 10:17) Each time we hear or read God's word, we are feeding our faith in God.
2. Faith in God and rest in heart. Realized that every believer has been given a measure of faith by God (Roman 12:3), we just have to use our faith. The more we use it, the more our faith grow.
3 Stay in touch with the people of faith. Augustine greatly valued relationship with others. He was a man of wisdom and of faith. People like to connect to Augustine because he reached out to people and blessed them. He was in turn beloved and appreciated by them. "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffer harm." (Proverb 13:20)
"And the peace of God, which transcend all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:7)

Online missionary

Internet ministry is reaching people with the gospel online. Millions of people indicate their decision for Christ and initiate follow up for more information, guidance and discipleship through website. I am greatly encouraged by the Internet ministry and to be a part of the great commission through online. To see millions of people coming to Christ and I am able to connect to people through twitter, facebook and blog is a humble experience for me. It is my privilege to serve as an online missionary.To share Christ by using the Internet and other emerging technologies to convey the Gospel of Jesus Christ across the globe. You can be a missionary without leaving your home. Online missionary can offer online prayer, guidance and discipleship through online ministry. Today when people look for information, they look to the Internet. Online missionary brings the mission field to the doorsteps of anyone with access to the Internet.Online missionary, you can be one.

Parenting out of fear

Parenting is grace, who can do it well? Mission impossible. It is all by the grace of God we live as parents. Parenting is transformation. We make a lot of mistakes and wrong decisions in parenting, but thanks God that He transforms our mistakes and decisions to shape the parents and our children's character. Parenting is scary, when my girl moved from childhood to teen, suddenly things change, lots of scary new developments like staying overnight at friend's house, shopping with friends, party and request for freedom. I forgot to parent my daughter based on what she was, sometime I made her feel that she was untrustworthy. I suddenly realized that she was growing into a woman-a mature woman. she is not perfect, but she tried really hard to do the right things for her faith in God. I found out the root of the problem, I was parenting out of fear."Letting go" in parenting will make you feels a bit of uncomfortable, but God's Word is my strength. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7) "There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear." (1 John 4:18)

Join God in what he is doing

Join God in what he is doing at our time and the world. Jesus said. "I do what I see my father doing." (John 5:19) As Christians, we should accomplish great things for the glory of God. But the question is what should we do? The answer is simple that we need to learn the activity of God. God is working all around us, look for the evidence and when you see it, be sensitive to it.William Carey said, "The world is yet to see what God can do with a man totally dedicated to him. By the grace of God I plan to be that man." "Attempt great things for God and expect great things for God." Daniel 11:32 said, "the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits." Do you want to be a person who carry out great exploits for God? Your respond to the activity of God should be what to do with your life in the first place? Then look carefully at what God is doing and join Him. God works in the family,the oppressed,the poor, the sick, children, women, old folks, campus, youth etc.John 12:26 said, whoever serves me must fellow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My father will honor the one who serve me."
Watch to see where God is at work and join Him.

Faith

What is faith? Hebrews 11:1 said, "Now faith is being sure of what hope for and certain of what do not see."(NIV) According to Message's translation, it said "The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we cannot see."As children of God, we believe that "faith in God" is the faith given by God. Therefore, all Christians have faith. We cannot say that we don't have faith. Paul said, "in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you."(Romans 12:3) This teaching about faith being a gift of God is extremely important in christian life. The 11st chapter of Hebrews has often been called the "Chapter of Faith". When we read through it, we note the following points about faith. Faith is rational. By faith, we understand and see the world called into existence by God's word. What we see created by what we don't see. Faith is possible because of God's revelation. God has. in history, "borne witness", "warned" and called His people. Man cannot know God by his own effort. It is God who revealed Himself in history. Faith is trust. By faith, Noah trusted God and built a ship in the middle of dry land. By act of faith, Abraham said yes and trust God's call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. Trust is the vital component of true faith. Faith involves action. It is not merely a feeling and mental conviction. If faith is to be faith, it must act. Moses choose a hard life with God's people rather than live a life of sin with the oppressors. By an act of faith, he led the Israelites walked through the Red Sea on dry land.
In our Christian life, faith grows by hearing and reading God's Words. God's Words feed and build up our faith. It is impossible to please God apart from faith. By an act of faith, we make our faith grows.

A New Lifestyle

I have good news for you: your life does not have to be so complicated. you can live a simple lifestyle. Many people today live complicated lives that leave them depressed, anxious, frustrated and confused. As a matter of fact, this is not our sole choice of life. You can choose a life of simplicity which is full of fulfillment, peace and joy. You want to renew your lifestyle, my word for you is that the only option is to change your approach towards life. This is the only prescription to treat the source of the problem-stress. As a matter of fact, life itself is simple in nature, the problem behind is that we complicate life. We fight a constant battle to balance our real needs and actual needs, family and work, different sorts of desire and demand. Too many choices make our lives engage in struggle and destined for complication and frustration. One of the patterns of this world that make life complicated is materialism-the one with the most toys wins. "Excess is the devil playground", any time we become excessive in anything, we open the door for the devil. Excess gets complicated. Share your possession, cut what you don't really need, cut your portion of food, talk less and listen more. Jesus said he came so that we may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). Abundant life is simple, and this is the new lifestyle in Jesus Christ.

Watch your pride.

In fact, pride is the root of all sin! Pride is the sin we all struggle with from time to time.Pride is one of those things that God hates. "To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance,evil behavior and perverse speech." (Proverbs 8:13) Paul also warned us that do not think of yourself more highly than you ought (Romans 12:3).King Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful king from 605-562 BC. As king Nebuchadnezzar grew in power and might, he also grew very prideful. God make the king an example to warn us. God drove the king from men and made him dwell with the beast of the field and ate grass like cattle.His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.(Daniel 4:33) Until the king repented and brought back to his senses, he acknowledged God as the king heaven.The king confessed, "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble."(Daniel 4:37) Peter's pride and over confidence made him to deny the Lord three times. He learnt that lesson by saying "God opposes the proud but give grace to the humble."

Problem

When we face a problem, open our mouth and thank God. There is power of courage and confidence in the spoken words of thankfulness work over our life. Ephesians 5:20 said," Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father....." Give thanks to God is part of our daily walk with God. Confidence is strengthened with a consistent walk with God. Thankfulness is solidified with complete trust in God. Philippians 4:6 said, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made know to God." Remember, whenever we face any problem, learn to give thanks to God. It is a blessing in disguise. In the Bible, the most familiar of all of Daniel stories was the lion's den. He was being thrown into the lion's den for not obeying the king's decree to worship an image. Daniel 6:10 recorded that when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to God, just as he done before. Daniel was facing a serious problem, and he gave thanks to God. We all know that the story was with a happy ending. Confidence is strengthened with a thankful spirit. Let us learn from Daniel. There are many lions in our daily living: sickness, disaster, finance, parenting, job, crime, personal relationship etc., give thanks with a grateful heart, give thanks to the Holy One.

Oil and perfume

Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel." (Proverb 27:9 ) Do you have friends who make your life blossom? I would like to congratulate you if you have such kind of friends. Your faith will continue to grow as you fasten yourself to faith friends who give good counsel.They will enrich your life. Life grows through fellowship, and life becomes better and beautiful in friendship.I like the old hymn entitled "What a friend we have in Jesus", Jesus is my friend, but this friendship must be realized in our inter-personal relationship. Love God and love our neighbors are together. "Friend Jesus" and "friend others" are one as well. We cannot sing the hymn on one hand and live alone on the other. My concern in the Christian circle is that it becomes increasingly apparent that many so called spiritual Christian live in loneliness, rather a distorted solitude life. Holiness means loneliness. Again, a distorted image of Mary to whom Jesus praised. The 21st century mysticism is disconnection replace christian networking, loneliness is understood as solitude, friendship with Jesus being taught as true spirituality. Jesus instructed us to love one another, to enrich a friend is the fulfillment of the commandment.

The Gospel

The Gospel is good news which is always good and always new. Why? The Gospel is the plan and will of God. Under this Divine plan, Jesus' ministry on earth is not an accident. We don't view his death just a "great sacrifice" of a spiritual giant in history. We don't follow Jesus who is like some remarkable gurus in history. We don't worship Jesus like the witchcraft who perform supernatural and dramatic miracles. Jesus is the son of God, the works and the words of Jesus have been planned by God. This is the eternal will of God that Jesus came to this world to save sinner and those who believe in Him will become the children of God. The first and foremost of the will of God for humankind is through Jesus Christ, we connect to God and have fellowship with Him. Why should we need God in the first place? the answer is very simple, we need God because he is our source of life, our ground of existence and destiny of our living. The main thing we believe is God has sent Jesus Christ into this world to proclaim to us the plan and the will God that God is love and this love is manifested in the life of Jesus who is the Christ, our savior.

Difficult Task

Discovering God's Will is one of the most difficult tasks any christian must experience. In the Old Testament,God spoke to Moses in the burning bush, Gideon with the fleece and Saul with thunder and lightening.How does God speak to us today? Conventional pattern says that God has a plan for our lives, the secret to the victorious Christian life is to discover what is the plan of God for you and following it.The beauty of this conventional wisdom is that God loves us, he has everything micro-managed the life of each of His children. However, seeking God's individual will is a difficult task. What make you so sure this and that decisions are the will of God for you. This is the problem posted by the gift of prophecy. Such gift was greatly misused among christian circle, and some christian even become victims of this gift."God wants me to tell you" kind of speech keep many Christians in confusion and illusion.I believe that the Bible admonishes its readers to see not God's individual will, but the wisdom to make good decisions based on the good, wisdom, expediency,reason and available opportunities.

The will of God

God's will, first and foremost, is that we have a relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. "In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will." (Ephesians 1:5)God wants us to be be born again in the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit in our heart bear witness and testify with us that God is Abba father, and we are His children. We were born again into church family. The church is the family of God, like our earthly family, we grow towards maturity. God has given us the Holy Spirit for guidance. "Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good." (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21)

How do i know what God's will is for my life? This is a common question we ask as Christians. and this is common question asked by my members. Should I go to this college or that college? should i marry this man? should i leave or stay? should I????? At times I've even felt paralyzed wondering what God wanted me to answer these questions. this is the frustration in pastoral ministry. Thanks God for the Bible, the Word of God is the best GPS. At last, i am motivated to continue my work as a pastor.