Questions are bolded below. Please answer questions or ask questions about the material to get the blog going. Shannon
Doctrine # 10 Review
We believe in the autonomy of the local church as an independent entity with regard to matters of government polity operation and discipline.
Recap of notes from Bible Study 2/3/10
Paul began to warn the people who were out of order that if they didn't work they couldn't eat. It had been foretold that Jesus was returning and people were waiting for His return. As a result they stopped working. The question was posed Are you busy or are you a busy body?
Are we busy in the church or have we become a church of busybodies? Gossiping and spreading misunderstandings--only knowing half pieces of information, but retelling stories riddled with half truths.
Pastor Christine shared that when one person in the body is infected the infection spreads when it is not taken care of. She said the best way to take care of of someone coming to you talking about someone else, is to just walk away and leave them standing there talking.
Can we walk away? All too often I'm afraid that the lure of drama keeps us at the feet of those individuals who portend to have facts for situations they didn't even witness.
When you are not working--even in ministry you are stealing and snooping. Just like when you perform personal tasks outside of your assigned job duties while at work, in the kingdom we have assigned job duties and when we misuse God's time and His people we are stealing.
We must be consistent. Diligence is the Biblical road to prosperity. It is a hard road, but we must be consistent with God's people and with God's business in order to move ahead.
Bishop Woods 2/10/10
Remember God is just as concerned with how we treat one individual as we are about what we think is important or what we place value on. You matter!
You are responsible for:
1. Your good works
2. Your God given responsibilities
3. The great commission
4. Glorifying God
The importance of the local church is to pull these four things out of each member.
Look at I Timothy 3:15
We need to be in order, which means to be in a right relationship with God. This is why the Word says to seek ye first . . . The first thing we ought to do is to seek to be in a right relationship with God. If we can do that, we will be in order.
We need to act in truth. In this case truth refers to God's righteousness. So we can seek God first and His righteousness. Seek God and His truth.
Look at Matthew 6:33
The Local church is your power source. It gives you the heat that you need to continue growing and becoming.
The church is one of the places the wants to throw people away when they mess up. When your life's challenges come no one wants to be around you, but the greater your gift the greater the measure of grace that God has preordained for you so that you can fight and make it threw.
Think about your own life. Think about all that you have been through. Imagine the measure of grace that God gave you to make it through those things and to this point in time. Why? Because you carry a gift that can cause major damage to the enemies territory!
Consciously consider your role in your local church. What do you do to add to the kingdom? Only what we do for Christ will last. Disappointment, dissatisfaction and discontentment means that you are wrapped up in the personal feelings associated with your works. When we work in the kingdom it is to become a reflection of Christ for someone else, not to prove how good we are or what our position is in the ministry. If people see us and do not see Christ we have failed as Christians. God doesn't give us talent so that we can be glorified. He gives us gifts and skills and talents so that He can be glorified. When we begin to put things into perspective we can see that we are becoming His good works through plugging into the local church. We didn't give ourselves gifts and they are not for our personal benefit or gain; although doors can be opened by our gift making room for us. That's bonus. That's gravy. That's favor.
How can we grow and learn from knowing the importance of the local church?
What does spiritual maturity look like?
What are some ways that people can be encouraged to move away from disappointment, dissatisfaction and discontentment?
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