Community v. Community

For some reason yesterday, I was pondering what happens in the community when people fail. Whether they be every day Joe's & Jane's or people of leadership, status & prominence. Whether it be a relatively private failure or it affects the area of which many people live; there are always consequences.

Sadly, sometimes the community, the body of Christ responds as though the example set by Christ is not available.
Sometimes, the community-at-large, still in need of the saving grace of Christ, responds as it they have already received it.

So, those with Christ, respond as it to ignore Him.
Those without Christ, respond as if He was standing there.

While it's an interesting dichotomy, it's also a disheartening one.

Yes, we have the example set by Christ and truth of how we should live as given through God's Word, so there is a "we should know better" factor. However, we are still sinners save by grace and the very definition of sanctification means we are stilling being worked on by God to becoming more like Christ.

It doesn't make us better than any one or put on a higher moral plain, by any stretch of the imagination.

It simply means we should exemplify Christ in all we say or do and that if anyone should display the quality and character of Christ, it should be the body of Christ and the people of God to a lost and dying world, rather than the world telling the church they don't look like the church they've heard about and think they understand.

(interesting how God times things... i just came across an article that is posted at www.churchleaders.com this morning, and was posted originally at www.desiringgod.com that calls us to pray for our enemies. The author, J.R. Vassar writes the following, "we are not Americans first, but Christians first")

All too often respond in our own might, opinion and belief and not as a follower of Jesus Christ... which we are, as we are not our own, but were bought with a price. There is but one innocent blood by whom we are saved.

Pray, this #communitySaturday, that the church would indeed, model and exemplify the body of Christ, as only those who have experienced His love and saving grace can share. Pray the world would not be found valid, in their arguments against God based on moments when the church "gets it wrong" in their response to situations. Pray the community of Christ effective plants the gospel and waters the seeds of faith, that through our engagement with people in difficult places, they will come to know God loves them, has a plan for their lives; that they don't have to live life alone, fearing what's unknown in the days to come. May those who follow Christ be found living up to the reputation that both precedes and follows the title "Christian".

For the glory of God and the cause of Jesus Christ.

- PNC

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