Rightly do I love Him

Today's title comes from the Misty Edwards song Only a Shadow from her album Eternity. So good!!

Rightly do I love God for He alone is worthy. Last night I spent the evening at church because my parents went to a church health meeting. While they were in the meeting, I spent time in the prayer room.

I have been reading in Ephesians lately because God kept telling me to read it, so I've been reading it. He actually started giving me Ch. 3 of Ephesians over Spring Break, and that has been an ongoing theme with me ever since.

Well, last night I decided to move on to Chapter 4, and it was one of those times when you feel like the words just jump off of the page at you.

I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3

I read that and felt like it was just bolded and highlighted in my Bible. Lead a life worthy of your calling. We are called to be salt and light of the earth. We are called to be set apart and holy, but are we living a life worthy of that calling?

Within the church are we living with humility and gentleness, with patience and love and peace, in one Spirit with each other? I would suggest that we are not. Why else is there denominationalism within the Body of Christ? This is something that God has really been burdening my heart with: the unity of His Church.

There is one body, and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6 (Emphasis added)

Paul is trying to get a point across here. One body. One Spirit. One Hope. One Lord. One Faith. One Baptism. One God and Father. People get really wound up about whether they are Baptist or Methodist or Lutheran or Assemblies of God or whatever.

This is the problem with the church in the West today. We are more concerned with our little issues such as how we take communion or how we baptize new believers than we are about living our lives as God desires us to live. We are more concerned about our views about speaking in tongues and prophecy and healing than we are about following God. I hate to break it to you, but God doesn't give a rip whether you believe that someone has to be fully immersed or sprinkled to be baptized. He doesn't care if we take communion by dipping the bread into the wine (or grape juice) or by taking them separately.

God cares about our hearts. He cares about what our relationship with Him is like. If our walk is right before Him, if our hearts are in the right place, that will be revealed in our lives. God doesn't want us to be tied to rituals or legalism. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying we shouldn't have baptism or communion. I personally love to partake of the Lord's Supper. I love watching a baptism service. What I am trying to get at is that we have become way to wrapped up in how those things occur.

And we wonder why the church in the West is dying! We wonder why our churches have problems. Why don't we turn back to the Word? Why don't we start seeking God out? Americans will read the latest inspirational book in a heartbeat, but trying to get someone to read their Bible is like pulling teeth.

if My people who are called by My Name humble themselves, pray, seek My Face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

If we want healing in our land, healing in the church body, healing in our families, God gives us the key. Be humble. Pray. Seek Him. Repent. I wonder what would happen in the church if we actually started to do this. What if we started admitting that we don't have it all together? What if we started coming humbly before the Lord? What if we started to seek His Face through the Secret Place and through His Word? What if we started repenting and asking forgiveness from those we have wronged and from God? What if we truly started living lives of Love?

God does hear us when we pray to Him. He does forgive our sins. He will heal our land, our church, our people, our country. I believe in One Church, One Body, One Lord, so I am crying out to God to heal that Church, to bring unity to that Body, and to bring us back to our One Lord and Love.