Category: Christianity

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This is from the Book of Common Prayer according to the Episcopal Church.

I believe in God,

the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

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This is from the Daily Office in the Book of Common Prayer according to the Episcopal Church.

“ So with yourselves: since you are striving after spiritual gifts, seek to excel in them for building up the church” (1 Cor. 14:12).

Most Christian don’t know their own identity. They don’t know what the Ecclesia is. Ecclesia is usually translated as “church.”

What would you answer if I asked you, “Where do you go to church?” The question would not be strange at all. You would answer that you go to such and such church at a particular address. To most people, a church is a building that one goes to on Sundays. Or Saturdays if you are a Seventh-day Adventist.

The Greek word for “church” is ekklesia, which is brought over into English as Ecclesia. And it does not mean a building. As the Encyclopædia Britannica explains, ecclesia refers to a “gathering of those summoned.” Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words says the word literally means the “called out ones.”

Ecclesia refers to an organism, not an organization. Ecclesia can refer to the local gathering of Christians or the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth. It sometimes includes, says The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon, “the assembly of faithful Christians already dead and received into heaven.”

For this reason, I prefer using the word “Ecclesia” instead of the word “Church” when referring to the children of God in Christ. When we confess that I believe in “the holy catholic Church,” we are really referring to the true Christian everywhere, irrespective of their labels. The Ecclesia is the gathering of those summoned by God.

And in the passage above, the Apostle Paul says, concerning spiritual gifts, that we should “excel in them for building up the church” (1 Cor 14:12). Clearly he is not talking about edifying a building, but the people of God. We don’t go to church, we are the church. We are the called-out ones summoned by God.

And Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

You have said “yes.” You have accepted the job offer. Now is not the time to doubt. Now is not the time to be looking back.

No job is perfect, and no job is really secure. Security is found only in God. Stop looking for it in the outside world.

Doubts after decisions are devils trying to sabotage your new job, your new adventure. Put both hands to the plow and don’t look back. It is too late to question, too late to second guess. Plow forward. Move ahead.

It is good, sometimes, to close the book on a past chapter of your life. Indeed, we should be “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:13).

“Be careful about one thing only,” says the Lord – “your relationship with Me.” – Oswald Chambers (cf. Matt 6:25)

Stop getting distracted by a hundred and one nonessential things. Stay focused Jay. The only thing that really matters is your relationship with God. It doesn’t matter whether the Bible is inerrant, what matters is that God is inerrant.

Stop buying books. Seriously, stop! The only thing you should be buying is a good Bible and books on prayer and solitude. And then read them. Pray them. Focus on living the Way instead of studying the Way. You learn in the doing.

Again, all questions should come back to how this affects my relationship with God. If it interferes with my prayer time, my solitude, or my spirituality, it should be avoided. This includes family and friends. God must be first.

But family is second. Their relationship with God should be the priority here. Sacrifice for their good. Spend quality time with them, but not at the expense of your prayer life.

Remember, be careful about one thing only, your relationship with God.