Concerning the Church: Life inside and life outside it.

     Jesus Christ was the ultimate agent for change. I propose that anyone who came in contact with him was A: changed forever because they were looking for him or B: unchanged because of being unable to comprehend who he was, nevertheless they were convicted deeply inside and made a conscious decision to reject his claims and teachings.  

     Life inside this new "way" of living required a different conduct of living.  Almost anyone who converted to early Christianity was changed and adopted the many teachings of Christ based on a new morality of "sinning no more" these words spoken to the adulterous woman who was forgiven by Jesus.  No one threw the first stone because they all knew they had sin in them.  Otherwise all the blood of goats and bulls would have covered them for all time and no other sacrifice would have been needed.  Sin was a constant reminder to the Jews of their separation from their God.  Atonement was necessary part of their religious life.  Required by God himself.  This type and shadow of things to come set the stage for our final redemption in  buying back our life and reconciling us to God through Jesus Christ," once and for all". 

     Because of this buyback of our lives we are joyful of our eternal status with our God.  We as Christians also know that we no longer live for the life we gave up.  It means turning away from a life of self and taking on Christ's nature and doing the things that he did.  In this we must forsake everything that we know without a shadow of doubt that is not of God's kingdom, even including issues of our own morality, choices and things the secular world embraces.  We are challenged in this democracy we live in to rein in our tendencies it gives to us and others and to live in a citizenship of a higher calling. This is especially true in Church Government.  We are facing a time of weakening Churches that submit to secular thinking.  In other words instead of the change Christ preached and the conversion he told Peter about when he said "feed my sheep" Church has gone the other way and it is becoming converted to secular ways.  If one takes on Christianities's mantle then there are things that go with the territory.  If one gets hired by a company, it presumably follows its rules of order, likewise if one goes to Christ's church then they follow his order.  

     In following Christ's way, we must always remember that he allowed himself to be hung on a cross for us taking on all of the pain and suffering we should have had, and he did this for all of us, to give all of us a chance to have life, a life forever changed and headed in new directions.  And this life we live we live by faith and in the power of the Spirit that keeps us until that day when we will be raised up with him at the sound of the last trump. (rev.)