... to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ Eph 4:12

In our modern western world there is a massive emphasis put on education and training. Developing people through schools and colleges and in the work place so that they each may be better suited to achieve the tasks or opportunity that arise in their chosen profession or general lives.
How much more should we individually and collectively be trained “to do his work and build up the church”. The word equip, comes from a word which is to fit more correctly. When you go to the tailors, he adjusts and measures the suit so that when it is ready to be worn it fits exactly as it can, in the same way as a bride preparing herself for her wedding goes to a bridal shop for fitting.
Are we the best that we can be for works of service for our Lord or can we develop through Christ and the body of the church, so that we can be more effective for carrying out his plans.
The work of the church is three fold, it is reaching out (evangelism), reaching upwards (Worship) and developing from within. (Training).

There are a few barriers to the third stream of church:-
1– The church does not provide the necessary training so that individuals can grow. This can be down to inexperience or lack of willingness to do so.
2– Leaders are focused on other things that they see are more important.
3– Individual believers in the church don’t see that they need training.
4– Individual believers have no desire to grow and develop any further, that they are happy in what they already are.

These are all honest and genuine reasons that I have heard and seen over the years, in churches I have attended or been involved in.
Brothers and sisters, let us as a leadership, not forsake our responsibilities, and as individual children of God not think that we are above development and training. I include the eldership or any other believer. We must become more open to be tailored into the people that God wants us to be, than we want to become ourselves. So that we can measure up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

Labels: Develop, Equip, Service, Training

Wise words bring many benefits, and hard work brings rewards. Proverbs 12:14

There are two major aspects to our Christian walk which are often belittled or neglected and they are found in this proverb.

The writer Solomon can speak with authority of this subject not just because scripture is inspired by God (which in itself is enough) but also because he has proved it to be true. Solomon chose wisdom over everything else when asked by God, what he wanted (1 Kings 3) as a result he became one of the wealthiest and most powerful of people this planet has ever known, (from a physical perspective). He established a system of work that made Jerusalem and its temple and the other cities to thrive and encouraged hard, but fair work. As a result these years produced a peace that Israel has not known since.

When Solomon turned away from wisdom and became lazy, indulging in parties, banqueting and foreign wives, his kingdom was snatched from him and divided into two, and still has not recovered to this day.

Dear brothers and sisters, there are two sides to our faith, there is the part which God does, which is the only part that brings salvation and heaven, the part that changes us for eternity (justification) and there is our part which builds the relationship with God now while we exist on earth. (Sanctification) This is the part that can be threatened, because it depends on us and not God.

This part is all about our walk, our appreciation, our dependency and our personal holiness with God. This is epitomized by what we say and what we do.

If we say we love Him, but never want to serve him, what does that say about our relationship. If we speak out and gossip about our brothers and sisters in Christ what does that say about the family that we are a part of?

The one single thing that in our society that we cherish most, even more than money, is our time. The past few weeks there has been a mountain of activity and giving of time by so many of the church and as this verse states, it brings its rewards. We had more children at holiday club this year, the toddler groups are flourishing, Crestwood has never seen so many families on one night as we did on Friday (over 200 people came) and our youth and kids works are doing well.

Lets keep working hard, not just for each other, but for our Saviour who gave all for our salvation. Let’s keep finding ways to build each other up with love and strength , speaking wise words over each other and we will see the benefits.

Labels: Hard work, Rewards, Service, Wisdom