Thought of the day:
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; Ephesians 4:11-13 NKJV
We are all called to work in The Body Of Christ. We need to learn where that is and give it our best.
I heard something about this passage today that had me start thinking about where our concentration needs to be, again. If you notice that there are some that fill different roles but, if you follow this passage through, you see that it says, “for the edifying of the body of Christ”. We tend to get so focused on evangelizing that we forget that we are supposed to build each other up.
Yes, there is a need for evangelism and I don’t knock it at all. In fact, it’s one of the things I get to do. What we miss is that if we are not building each other up, holding each accountable, edifying each other, we become ineffective. This brings unity amongst The Body Of Christ and enables us to be able to help each other and others.
The Great Commission even reminds us of this:
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Reference Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV
If we are not building disciples, everything else doesn’t matter. It goes to what Jesus was talking about at the Bema Seat, when we are standing before Him, if we say, “Look at what I did in Your Name.”, and we have not spent time in getting to know Him, which is what being a disciple is and what it means to disciple, His Response will be, “ Be gone, you worked of iniquity! I never knew you!”
Let’s make sure we are being and making disciples of Christ today so we grow in our Relationship with Him. This should also mean to us that we need to meet regularly, as The Body, to edify each other, especially, in small group settings like a Bible Study.
Quick note: Men’s Conference this Saturday. Would love to see you come. You can get info and register at www.crossfellowship.com. If you want to come, or know of someone who would, and need help with cost of registration, let me know. Men need to be at least 16 years old to attend
