God's Secret

The whole universe saw the creation of our blue planet called earth. It must have been an exciting time in eternity. The population of the heavens, beyond our vision, was probably horrified when Adam and Eve fell from the grace of the Almighty. However, our God had a mysterious plan of redemption just waiting for the right time. This plan was put into place on earth through several years of our history but Paul claimed to have the final revelation. This is how he explained it in one of his letters:  I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. Eph 3:9-11 (NLT) The purpose of God’s mysterious plan, was to reveal His wisdom through a church which is the body of Christ. Our original reaction to this fact may be to question it. It’s true…we reveal God’s wisdom as part of His church.  

Many people today look at the local church and all they see is a mess made by all the people who are trying to run things their own way. But that’s not what God is looking at. The Almighty sees His Son, the redeemer, and the price Jesus paid for His family. The Bible says:  For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days. 1 Peter 1:18-20 (NLT) Peter explains to us that Christ our savior has been revealed and what a huge price He has paid for His body the Church. When we walk up to our local church, the cross should remind us of the enormous price paid by Jesus. Whatever has happened to us because of other believers does not alter the price that was paid 2000 years ago for our freedom. It is our duty not to allow the people who mess-up to diminish our love for the body of Jesus.

 Because of this great price we are expected to behave as a servant of our Lord. This might seem difficult to us, except that there is another part of God’s secret. Paul explains in this passage: God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you. This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. Col 1:25-27 (NLT) How amazing.  Not only did Christ pay the price to redeem His Church but now He lives in us to show us the path to Heaven. Righteousness is the path to Heaven and with Christ in us the Church is getting ready to advance to the next world. Like Paul, we have the responsibility of serving the Lord’s Church in righteousness. None of us is going to Heaven alone. We all go as a group and serving the Church is the same as serving Jesus Christ. The local church that serves Jesus is a part of the body of Christ.

The fact is we need a good local church. We want to live with the body of Christ forever and it is time we learn to care for our brothers and sisters. God does not have a collection of bodies, families, temples or churches. He only owns one Church and here is a description of it: You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit. Eph 2:19-22 (NLT) It is important that we understand that only “together” are we the body of Christ. Someday Jesus will come for His Church and both the dead and the living Christians will rise to meet Him. Every single member of the Church, from the first to the last Christian on earth, will leave together. There is a silly old story about the person who was not ready to go with the Lord so they tell Jesus they will wait for the next group to go. This is ridiculous because there is just one group.

God has one secret plan and it is all centered on Jesus Christ. Because we have the Bible available today like no other time in history we should all know this great secret of God. Every Church member should have a desire to bring others into the family. The rewards for serving God cannot be described. In spite of our weakness the Lord really wants us to join with Him. Paul gives us this wonderful look at God’s motivation: Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Eph 1:4-5 (NLT) The Church gives God great pleasure. This is something that every believer should want to be part of. Through Jesus Christ we all have a chance for Holy immortality. Let us seek to be the best part of the body and to live a wonderful eternity with our Savior. Remember all of Heaven is watching the church in order to observe the wisdom of the Almighty.

Building a Temple

God is a great builder. If we look around at nature we can observe the enormous amount of detail that He put into creation. Even the human body is a real marvel. However, today God is still building His temple after many years. We are told:  And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 1 Peter 2:5 (NLT) All the creating of the universe was simply the ground-work for the greatest building of all time. This great temple will last forever and God absolutely loves it. It is going to be unparalleled by anything else in eternity. We can say this because God dwells in every small piece of it. When someone builds great high walls with stones it is necessary to fit each stone into place as the wall grows higher. The Bible says we are the stones in this temple. It is very important that we fit into our place so that the building will continue in the plan of God. Remember that the failure of a stone to conform to its place in the wall will cause that stone to be rejected by the builder.

It is difficult for humans to understand the motives of God. To resolve this shortfall our loving God simply teaches and leads us during our everyday walk of faith. The Lord has instructed us to gather together and help each other the best we can. We are the priests of God but we don’t have a ridged schedule to follow. Maybe this allows us to help other stones to fit into place? Our spiritual growth is individual although its purpose is always for the building-up of others. This ties us together. The new temple has a good foundation: And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit. Eph 2:20-22 (NLT) We are a family that must advance spiritually together. Internal support for one another is one of the primary needs of this temple. It’s important for the leaders to seek God because growth always has a price to it. We must learn patience as God slowly builds His great temple. We should use the slow times for prayer and to purify our lives.

God’s temple is a place where we can hear, see and feel things that are not available any other place on earth. Musicians tell us that the sound qualities in some stone temples cannot be duplicated. We can hear some things that we will never hear anywhere else. Some great stone buildings can have a grandeur that takes away our breath. Sometimes the splendor contained in a great building makes us feel insignificant. My friends, this is our only chance to be built into something that will have greatness forever. We are the materials that God is building with and we have a certain responsibility as part of this great temple. The Bible says: Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. 1 Cor 3:16-17 (NLT) The reason we are able to be part of something so great is because the Spirit of God lives in each of us. Our responsibility is to be the kind of righteous stone that will add to the building of God’s holy temple. All the stones must work together.

The local church is the way God gathers His stones together. This is where the stones are prepared to be part of the great building. Paul said this about the church leaders: Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Eph 4:12-13 (NLT) A stone is not able to prepare itself individually to be a fitting part of God’s great temple. To reach the complete standard of Christ we must interact with other members of the church. There is no way for us to describe what it is that each stone will gain from being a member of God’s family. This makes it difficult to convince some people of their need for the Family but it is necessary for every person wanting to have a complete relationship with God. It would certainly be difficult to live with someone forever that we refuse to even tolerate here on earth. May the Lord grant us love for others in the church!

We should remember that by faith everything is possible. Becoming a loving member of the local church may be the final test of our devotion to God. We are never alone when we walk daily with Jesus. Paul reassures us: May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen. Eph 3:19-21 (NLT) If we want to bring glory to God we do it through the church family. Being a “lone ranger” will certainly bring glory to ourselves but that is all it will ever amount to. The Bible says we are being built into a habitation for our God. Our purpose, as part of this new temple, must match that of the Creator and thank the Lord; He only wants the best for His family. It’s wonderful that we are part of eternity. Every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God. Heb 3:4