A Christian Viewpoint

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

The question is when are we to be conformed to the image of Christ so that we reflect his image? In our lives today we, who seem to be or are, the called undergo some transformation of character. Yet elsewhere in scripture there is a picture of being perfected when we meet the Lord in the air at our resurrection. If this is the case then it is something that will only be revealed in the future. Add to this that “many are called but few are chosen?” It is enough material to get the best conversations and the worst arguments going.

🙂

The church is made up of those people who have accepted Jesus as Saviour and Lord of their life. The body of Christ is this church and the church is the body of Christ. It is a spiritual institution.

Believers have organized themselves into various expressions of the church. They can be highly organized or loosely affiliated. They are as small as two or three coming together in his name or as great as a billion+ people. These are the places (groups) where the saved and the unsaved gather together for fellowship. The saved and the unsaved have positions of authority within these organizations.

Not all who belong to a church organization are saved. There are saved in every church organization. There are those who are saved outside of any church organization. There are even false church organizations that have zero believers in the body of Christ.

It is the body of Christ that needs to come together and be as one with God. The organizations are not only made up of the body of Christ but also those who have no place in the body of Christ.

RCC, OC or any other manifestation of “church” have these things in common.

🙂

I lay my hands on the sick and sometimes they recover. Others I know do the same and it is a hit or miss exercise. HisGirl, talking about Mark, is correct in that laying of hands on the sick and they recovering is a sign of those who follow Jesus. That does not mean we are free to interpret James 5:14 to mean anyone can do it (anoint with oil). God imbues his authority into various people for ministry, government, etc… It is the ministry of the elders of the church to go and anoint the sick with oil and pray for their healing. They carry a special anointing given by God for this purpose. Can all pray and lay hands on the sick, yes. Can all anoint with oil and pray for healing, no. Will some who are not elders do it, yes. Is this God’s way, no. Thankfully the grace of God is great enough to overlook for a time our misuse of the word.

🙂

Someone wrote about his troubles regarding anger towards the person who recently stabbed two Illinois girls to death.

There is a righteous anger. When the people of God hear or see something that is an affront to God it is difficult not to become angry. Jesus was angry when he saw the money changers defiling the temple with their trade. He acted. That you get angry at the person who killed the girls is a natural response of the soul. The challenge isn’t to avoid being angry but to channel that anger into an activity that will bring about a positive change. Examples are: the mothers who got together and started MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, another example the people who got together and brought forth the Amber Alert system. There are many positive things that were brought forth because of anger.

What needs to change is not the anger in the soul but the hate in the spirit (heart). If you do not hate, that is good. Channel the anger and bring something good from it. Do not let your anger burn from day to day.

Be angry and sin not.

🙂

Misnomers… the bane of the debater.

:crazy:

Where faith ends, speculation begins and its child is called presumption.
🙂

Are there really that many in the body of Christ? Are all Roman Catholics part of the body of Christ? Are all Protestants? When a truth comes forward does labeling it make a new body part? In both there is a remnant (large? small?) who belong to God and the rest are ???? Labels are interesting but they do not define the body of Christ. They do, however, define the clubs.
🙂

Many, many years ago I went to church with my wife. We sat in the middle of the sanctuary. I was tired but determined to partake of the meeting. The singing came and went. The announcements came and went. Then the pastor arose and began his sermon. After about ten minutes I heard the sound of someone lightly snoring. Ha, someone is tired I thought. In time the snoring became louder and louder still. I thought someone should give the guy a shake. Still the snoring got louder. I could see the pastor was getting annoyed. People were beginning to grumble. I thought someone should give this person a sharp elbow. Just then my wife elbowed me in the ribs. Suddenly there was a deep silence. The pastor continued and a good time was had by all.
🙂

Billions of years or thousands of years? Doesn’t matter for me, I can take either date and my faith remains the same. Whether there was a process of evolution or not before 6,000 years ago… does not matter. What does matter is that Adam was the first man and Eve was his wife, taken from his side. That Adam fell and that the Second Adam came to redeem those sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. All life currently on this planet is from that time. All life before that time, if there was life, is nonsequitur to our own genesis timeline. I certainly enjoy the discoveries but I do not necessarily accept their conclusions. When you get down to it, that man (or life)evolved over a long period of time and that timeline is our own, is a faith statement. This is not a contradiction of science but a different view of the “facts”.
🙂

From my understanding…

When you receive the seal of the Spirit you are baptized into the body of Christ. As happened when Jesus breathed on the disciples in the upper room the Sunday evening after his resurrection. Being filled is the Pentecost anointing and can also be called the baptism of fire or being baptized with the Spirit. The first example is for salvation. The second is for power to walk and minister in the truth.

🙂