There Ain't No Perfect Church
When you spend a lot of time in church when you’re young, and for me that was practically every Sunday plus bonus week-time church stuff, you tend to want to get as far away from church as you can, as soon as you can. I did at eighteen and have had a love/hate relationship ever since. I used to talk to my mom about my dissatisfaction with organized religion and she would ask me if I preferred disorganized religion instead. I think I could easily reflect back and see that I’ve built up a lot of resentment based on the failings of people within the church, of church not living up to the high standard it should, Catholic and Protestant alike. I don’t like the fact that the church is never as great as Jesus. And really, how could it be?
Everyday both my wife and I have our own devotional time with God. We have certain books we like to read, along with the Bible, of course. One of those books is a interesting little devotional called “God Calling” which is the writings of two anonymous ladies known as the “two listeners”, and consists of a year of them sitting and listening to God at a certain time every day and writing down what He said. As a firm believer in the fact that the Creator of the universe is well capable of communicating with His creation, I’m not skeptical, but keeping my ears open so that I might hear too. This is really a sweet devotional, and this morning I sat and read yesterdays, because for some reason I had skipped it… and I read this wonderful piece that opened my eyes to a different way of looking at the church, actually a different way of understanding the church’s purpose in this world.
God Calling - Feb 17th …
“Do not expect a perfect Church, but find in a church the means of coming very near to Me. That alone matters, then the much that is husk, falls away. Hold it of no account. Grasp the truth and find Me—the true Bread of Life. The lesson of the grain is the lesson of My Church and Me. The real life is all that matters, the outward Church is the husk; but the husk was necessary to present the life-grain to man.”
Without the outward husk, we would not have the grain to make bread, but the husk doesn’t matter come harvest time. Then the Lord comes with His winnowing fork and separates the wheat from the chaff. Here I had been endlessly bothered by the imperfect church never realizing that the church was not the goal, it’s only the imperfect means that is actually the perfect solution to God’s real goal of being close to people and in relationship with them. Without the church, many people would have no place to go when they feel that need for God. How can I deny the fact that this is a doorway for millions of souls? How can I deny that billons of people over the centuries have found a deep closeness to God because the church was there… even in all its imperfection? The church isn’t Jesus, just a place to go when you’re looking for Him. We are His goal, and He will keep the light on and the door open for us, no matter how badly run it is most of the time… but He promises to be there anyway.
Everyday both my wife and I have our own devotional time with God. We have certain books we like to read, along with the Bible, of course. One of those books is a interesting little devotional called “God Calling” which is the writings of two anonymous ladies known as the “two listeners”, and consists of a year of them sitting and listening to God at a certain time every day and writing down what He said. As a firm believer in the fact that the Creator of the universe is well capable of communicating with His creation, I’m not skeptical, but keeping my ears open so that I might hear too. This is really a sweet devotional, and this morning I sat and read yesterdays, because for some reason I had skipped it… and I read this wonderful piece that opened my eyes to a different way of looking at the church, actually a different way of understanding the church’s purpose in this world.
God Calling - Feb 17th …
“Do not expect a perfect Church, but find in a church the means of coming very near to Me. That alone matters, then the much that is husk, falls away. Hold it of no account. Grasp the truth and find Me—the true Bread of Life. The lesson of the grain is the lesson of My Church and Me. The real life is all that matters, the outward Church is the husk; but the husk was necessary to present the life-grain to man.”
Without the outward husk, we would not have the grain to make bread, but the husk doesn’t matter come harvest time. Then the Lord comes with His winnowing fork and separates the wheat from the chaff. Here I had been endlessly bothered by the imperfect church never realizing that the church was not the goal, it’s only the imperfect means that is actually the perfect solution to God’s real goal of being close to people and in relationship with them. Without the church, many people would have no place to go when they feel that need for God. How can I deny the fact that this is a doorway for millions of souls? How can I deny that billons of people over the centuries have found a deep closeness to God because the church was there… even in all its imperfection? The church isn’t Jesus, just a place to go when you’re looking for Him. We are His goal, and He will keep the light on and the door open for us, no matter how badly run it is most of the time… but He promises to be there anyway.
posted by the pilgrim at 1:50 PM
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