[aron]

Originally Posted by Peter Debelak

I have some rambling thoughts which spring-board from John's latest chapter. ... Here's John in blue - I follow in black...

Well-versed LC members have for many years heard about the primacy of the church and the necessity of building it up. Some may wonder why, if the Lord’s four-fold gospel mission is truly comprehensive, He didn’t include “Go build up My church” among His parting commands. But looking at the “preach-repent-feed-disciple” mission and not seeing in it the building up of the church is religious blindness. It is like observing all the things on a construction site—excavation, electrical wiring, plumbing, steel and concrete work—but not being able to perceive in them an emerging skyscraper.


.... problems arise when people claim – or worse, when you claim – that you know what the skyscraper is supposed to look like, that you’ve seen the blueprint. Consider 1 Corintians 12 and the giving of gifts. We could look at this list of gifts in a top-down fashion. The “apostle” sees it all and the rest fall in from there.

...[At the beginning Paul] knew simply that the believers were Christ and knew to obey the Lord’s call. Yeah, he got “vision” of the blueprint at some point. But not before he subjected himself to someone likely far less schooled (Ananias) and having no feeling to immediately join those who did “know” (in Jerusalem). The wilderness was where God called him. The antithesis of “vision” or “skyscraper” – just as it was for the children of Israel. He did not first learn a vision. He first learned obedience. The “vision” was a fruit of that.

... Our action has the most narrow scope possible: that to which He calls us. Whether we see how it fits into the “skyscraper” or not is irrelevant – because to insist that its relevant is to presume a perspective that only God has.

Perhaps this is God’s way. To give us commands that are less than His whole. We’re not entirely sure how they’ll all fit together. We simply have faith that, if I and you and all of us obey those small commands (to preach, to shepherd, to feed, to disciple) – regardless of whether those efforts have a cognizable effect on the ‘skyscraper’ – that Christ is still Building His church.

To start with the last bolded point first -- the realization is that Christ is still building His church. We are not building the church -- Christ is. When I realize that, it takes a lot of pressure off me. Jesus said, "On this rock I will build My church" (Matthew 16:18). The foundation of the building is the realization that Jesus the Galilean is the Christ of God, that God furnished proof to the whole universe by raising Him up from the dead. That is my job -- to believe that God is. God has a purpose, a plan. My part of the plan is to believe into Jesus God's Son, and receive life eternal.

Okay, what then? Well, rejoice, for one. Pray, for another. Read and consider God's word, for a third. Receive the ones who also have received Christ. Repent when I go astray, and be willing to make full restitution, if necessary. Forgive those who likewise err, and repent. Speak to others concerning the hope that now dwells in me. All of that, to me, is 'local', and somehow fits into God's master plan for the universe. The further I get from 'local' the further I get from reality, and thus the further I get from the reality of God's 'universal' plan.

God wisely gave each one of us a portion, a measure. If we stay within the boundaries God gave us, and labor there, we will be rewarded. If we bury the gift, obviously we will lose. But if we go beyond our measure, and stumble others, we will likewise lose.

John Myers makes the interesting point about a 'local congregation' having a collective mission, or vision. He says that the congregants in Ottumwa, Iowa may have different collective sense of purpose than in Chicago, Illinois. Good point. But how far is that from the "one size fits all" policy from Anaheim? This is an example of the error of the "Master Plan" ministry. Witness Lee was not an apostle like Paul. Sorry, LSM people. My vision comes from the Bible, and not the Living Stream Publishing Company.

If people realized that God wants them to be 'local', to take care of the ones He has placed next to them, both believers and unbelievers, and leave the 'master planning' to Him, life would be a lot less confusing for them, and for those whom they care for. Look at the confusion, the division and dissension that has followed Lee the "wise master builder", with disheartened saints and snickering unbelievers. No, take care of the ones next to you, and be one in spirit with all of God's called out ones. And God will do a mighty work that the earth has never yet seen. It requires some faith to do this, some trust, and some patience. But it can be done. Jesus said, "If two or more of you believe it, and ask(declare it), it will be done." (Matthew 18:19).I believe it. Does anyone else?

p.s. It was not until years after I left the Lee system that I got my personal 'vision', or realization, of what I am supposed to be doing to serve God and the people God has placed in my path. First I had to learn to think independently, and then to seek God desperately and concertedly and diligently. Eventually I found my personal vision, which immediately started giving me very good feedback as I began to implement it. In other words, the 'action' and the 'reward' were immediately linked in the doing. I didn't have to wait to go to heaven; God showed me immediately, "Yes! Do it again" with the external responses I got, and the pleasure I felt in the doing and the receiving feedback. I experienced a "flow" that I felt could have only come from my touching my part of God's "Master Plan".

But the Lee system never allowed me the luxury of finding my gift. There, I was too busy trying to follow orders from Headquarters. Good enough when I was an 'infant', but eventually I got an itch I couldn't scratch in their system and I left. Some in the Lee system quite probably do find their gift there, but in my experience, I had to go away from the 'Ministry noise' for a while until I could clearly hear the voice of God within. I got my vision 'in the wilderness', not listening to the exhortations of a Benson Philips or an Ed Marks.