How did Jesus do it? How did the early church do it? That’s what I want to know, and it seems others are having that same hunger for knowledge. While in the midst of this modern church system, some are growing ever more hungry for what Jesus DID.
In this series I hope to share thoughts and insights about where this hunger has taken us, because I believe it is essential to the real changing of hearts. First I spent several months searching my own heart and studying church history up to 300 A.D. when Constantine begins affecting everything. I eventually came to zero in on what I call the “Missing 200 Years”, because most Christians have so little knowledge of them. A time period that should be of utmost importance to us, and yet we know next to nothing? Why? How? How has our professional clergy failed us so? Have they become like politicians, with a personal agenda to hide?
So…the first thing that impacted me about what Jesus and the early church DID, was the simplicity of it all. I had a great hunger for this simplicity.
The last modern church I attended actually had name-tag machines we were strongly recommended to always sign in on, get your tag, and wear it, please. I don’t need to go into details of the many ways church has become a complex system of programs and events which feels more like a machine, than a family. Nuff said on that.
As I began feeling led of the Spirit to start a “Fellowship”, the first thing I did was “simplify”. What are the basics of following Jesus? I call it “Simple Church”. I call it “Church Everywhere”. I have various names for it, but we keep it SIMPLE, FREE, OPEN-HANDED, and we ask mainly one thing > Come to “FELLOWSHIP”.
My rule is very simple. As long as you are here to “fellowship”, then you are most welcome. If you begin to sow “discord”, then you need to leave until you have a desire to return in “fellowship”, at which point you will be most welcome again.
So…having spoken of SIMPLICITY and true FELLOWSHIP… I’d like to give 3 scriptural points I like to focus on. These are main ingredients of our teaching, and I believe the pathway to the POWER of Changing Hearts.
#1> FELLOWSHIP : “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
#2 > Our Dilemma : SIN > “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2: 16-17)
#3 > God’s Power – Holy Spirit > “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses unto Me…” (Acts 1: 8a)
I believe we’ve got to get back to the “supernatural” power of #3. It is the dynamos that enables the born-again priesthood of God to deal with the responsibilities of #1 and #2. This Kingdom of Priest God has called is supernaturally powered, or it does not work. It is not by our own works that we have been saved, or save anyone else. We REST in God’s work. We live in the 7th Day. (L7D). By faith. And God grows us from the inside out, changing our hearts, and giving us the power to draw others to Him, so they can be transformed too. We change the world through the transformation spoken of in Romans 12:1-2. The priesthood involves living sacrifices who transform the world one person at a time. And a bonus to that is…if the world is truly transformed…you won’t have to worry about how they vote… and we will have better candidates to vote for. America will be transformed too, in a godly way, because perfect love does not sin.
Each of the above items need to be discussed in greater detail and likely to be future episodes.
I named our Fellowship: “Fellowship of the White Path”, because Jesus walked the red path of His own blood, so we could walk the white path of His own righteousness. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name sake.
I think this is a good start to understanding our Fellowship, and where God has led me in the changing of hearts. If anyone in Indianapolis area would like to meet and talk, that can be arranged. Simply leave your request in the comments and we will choose a place.