8 18 03 church history paper

8a

Colossians 3

I�m doing some Biblical research for a paper I intend to write� or rather, intend to have God write for me. The paper is the history of the church. We�re to spend five pages writing about the history, five pages writing about the present and five pages speculating about the future. There are specific topics we can write about, but I don�t remember what they are. To be honest, I got the list and such about a month ago and was immediately turned off by the idea of studying history so I tossed it thinking I wouldn�t do this class/paper.

Last night, however, as I was attempting to go to sleep at 10, ideas started flying through my brain about the history of the church. Or rather, the present day. The basic idea for my paper� my intention (as long as God agrees) is to compare the attitude of belief pre-Jesus, in the time of Jesus to date and future possibilities. I need to ask Mom about the suggested topics to see if this idea would fit into any of them.

The thing that�s weird? I think I�m going to write it in the style of a sci-fi story. A little Star Wars influence�

Anyway, this chapter falls into the �future� part of the paper quite well. You see, this falls into the whole problem I�ve been having with �services� at the house over this summer. My own religious history echoes my perception of Church history.

We started with a legalistic bent, focused on the rules, good conduct, doing it �right.� Then I was introduced to Jesus for real, I began to understand that there was no way I could ever qualify for mercy, love, grace all by myself. I was then baptized. It was a slow process, but not only did I eventually learn that Jesus was living within me, but that because He did so, I was no longer bound by the law� I was no longer having to �qualify�. And the future part of that, is that because I have a deeper understanding of what it is to have Jesus living within me, because I have experienced being alive through the power of the Holy Spirit, I AM worthy. I am the future of the church. I am the future of God�s creation.

With church services here, the person who has �taken over� (the truth is, we let him be the leader, instead of keeping the Holy Spirit as the leader) hasn�t experienced the �future� of the church. He hasn�t experienced that powerful, freeing, all-encompassing power of the Holy Spirit within and without. He hasn�t had the future of the church revealed within his life yet. And because of that, he is still working on the whole being worthy thing.

I can�t count the number of times I�ve heard him talking about not being good enough. He talks about being a sinner and not being enough to qualify for God-hood. (my own interpretation: being like God, with God)

Colossians 3:12 says it. �Therefore, as God�s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.�

The focus? �Holy and dearly loved� The word �Holy� doesn�t mean �completely loved�, that would be �wholly�. We, when we accept Jesus� sacrifice and claim it as our own, when we die to the physical and become �reborn� into the spiritual, we become HOLY! Got that? Did you really get that? Let me say it again.

When we accept Jesus� sacrifice, meaning we relinquish control of our lives to God, listening to the Holy Spirit for our guidance rather than listening to our own desires, we are God�s chosen people. As God�s chosen people we are HOLY. And, we are dearly loved.

Time doesn�t apply to God. Because of this, when we die to the physical and become reborn to the Spiritual, time no longer applies to us. Because we become God with God, we are no longer bound by the physical laws� the laws of gravity (walking on water), the laws of cause and effect (forgiveness and healing) the laws of time and circumstance� we become the future living within the present.

We are the future. We are the holiness of God reflected in physical bodies. We get the best of both worlds. Oh, I know this may well seem to be quite confusing in many ways, but really, think about it. We had the rules and they were important. They ARE important. Then we had Jesus who taught us how to live a better way. He taught us that we could sum up the entirety of the rules in one word, Love. And, we have the future, living as God with God with God living within us.

Awesome, awesome God. How amazing is He? Oh, so incredible to know that we can be the future in the present encompassing the past. How wonderful it is to know that we are holy. How wonderful it is to know that not only are we holy, but we are dearly loved. And not only that, but we are also worthy. There is no more guilt. No more worry. No more strife. We are holy! The Bible says so.

Awesome, Awesome God!