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Originally Posted by Oregon
Forgive me Igzy for my reactions to your posts. And....I'm sure I am biased also......we all are to some degree. All I am doing is posting what is recorded in the NT which you've probably heard many times. Is God blessing all of his children no matter where they are.....certainly to some degree.....and I am not judging them. I've met with many believers not meeting as a "local church".
I guess I just have a bit of a hard time believing that we are free to take a different way other than what is in the Word.
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Hey, Oregon, as long as we can fellowship, it will alright. I'm sorry if I'm sometimes too abrasive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toledo
The question remaining for us is "Do we just give up hope for practical oneness, and go back to meeting with the denominations and free groups, or do we start over, learn from our mistakes, and try again"? On my part, individually, I struggle to keep my heart open to be one with all believers. I continue to explain the principle of oneness with every believer that I meet, and hope that an expression of this oneness may be built up in my city, so the world may believe that God has sent us His Son.
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There is nothing wrong with being and praying for oneness. But I think we need to be careful about making oneness our mission. It seems to me that can be a distraction. The Lord commissioned us to disciple the nations, to me that means leading people to the Lord and helping them grow.
Someone pointed out, rightly, that the Lord never commissioned us to build
the church. He said he would do that. What he and the NT writers told us to do is to build up
each other. There is a subtle but important difference there. Building up others focuses on people. But building up the church can lead to focusing on an abstract idea or institution. This is exactly what happened in the LC. "The church" became the mission. But "the church" wasn't people, it was an ideal.
The two great commandments--love God, love people--tell us plainly where the focus of our hearts should be. When we start getting focused on some ideal, "the church," "oneness," "sanctification," "bringing the Lord back," "the consummation of the ages," "the heavenly vision," whatever, people always tend to become means to the end of that vision, and become expendable. This, too, happened in the LC.
People are never a means to an end.
They are the end. They
are our mission. If we love God and love people, oneness will not be a problem. You think "practical oneness" deals with your flesh? Try practically loving every single person you meet.
Come to mention, what exactly does "practical oneness" mean? It's a very loaded term, with a lot of LC baggage attached to it. On the other hand, surely Christian oneness should be visible. The Lord prayed that oneness would help the world believe. But what does real oneness look like? Does it mean one set of elders and lockstep Christians. I don't think the Bible tells us that.
The pastor of our church meets with and prays with about 60 pastors from our city on a regular basis. They pray for each other and for the Lord's impact in the city. What will this lead to? I don't know, but I know it shows that the Lord is leading them.
So, concerning the "dreary" option of simply settling for a "denomination" or "free group" (oh, that ingeniously derogatory LC nomenclature), with a pew, a musty hymnal and a weekly bulletin?
Cheer up. The fact is, folks, the Lord is working powerfully in Christian groups.
And guess what? You think you've got something to teach them? Guess again. You are likely to find out you are the one with a lot to learn. I did. Once I got humbled off my LC high horse (still a work in progress) I saw how I had almost completely missed the simple reality of loving God and loving people, and I entered into a completely new phase of my Christian life.
Oddly, things like "being saturated with the divine nature" don't enter my mind much anymore, when just a few months ago I still thought that kind of thing was really profound. But, you know, that stuff sounds real deep, but it's really not. You know what is really deep? Having a genuine relationship with God and/or another person. That's where the real and satisfying depth is. I thank God He showed me that.