We Are the Church

Those of us who have been saved by God through the blood of Jesus and are now walking according to the leading of the Holy Spirit are the Church.

Wherever we go the Church is. The Body of Christ is walking the earth today through the lives of God's people.

Many of us come together on Sundays, but is that really enough? I think not. Each of us has a different place that should also be a meeting place: our homes.

I have just finished reading "A Church in the House" by Matthew Henry.

As I told a friend, it's got me praying for the home I live in now as well as the home I hope to have someday and especially the man that will be leading it.

"A Church in the House" challenges each Christian home to BE the Church. Like the early Church, we must be dedicated, devoted, serious about knowing God and making Him known.

Our homes will be places where the Bible is read, and prayers, praises, and confessions are taken to the throne of God each and every day.

Our moment by moment lives will be manifestations of God's work in our hearts.

Is your home a church?

As women, how can we encourage the men of our homes to lead in this great calling God has placed on their lives?

If It Doesn't Cost, It Doesn't Pay

"No pain, no gain"

"Nothing is really free"

These are two sayings that are quite common. Who would have thought that they apply to Christianity?

So often, we are told that being a Christian is free. We must realize that it is not.

Being justified and regenerated and sanctified costs much.

Now, justification and regeneration are free to us. It is God who has paid for these. It is Jesus Christ who gave up heaven for about 33 years to live, work, suffer, and die on this earth. It is Jesus that died on a cross and said "It is finished"! The Holy Spirit has been our Helper since Jesus Christ rose from the dead and joined His Father in heaven.

We've done nothing but have faith and yet we are justified and regenerated.

Ephesians 2:8-9

So, where is the cost for us?

In Luke 14:25-33, Jesus tells anyone who would come to Him, to count the cost.

I think we feel the cost most when it comes to sanctification.

It is in sanctification that we are putting off our sinful self and putting on the holiness of Christ.

The cost is trouble, time, thought, care, pain, reading, praying, self-denial, conflict, working, labor.... The cost is being devoted to the teaching of God. The cost is understanding this teaching so well that it becomes a part of who we are. We are literally after gaining the mind of Christ. With such a mind, we will be applying these truths to our lives.

There is always something we'd like to be doing, but there is so much more that we ought to be doing.

Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve....

Mark 10:45

So, we've seen the cost. What about the pay?

The pay or reward for genuine Christianity is that you will never be destroyed. The life you live now will continue on forever. You get to leave this earth and continue your life in the literal presence of God.

How's that?

J.C. Ryle puts it this way:

"It may cost much to be a true Christian and a consistent holy man; but it pays."