Five Reasons to Go to Church #3

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Wednesday, August 14, 2013     Jeff Lampl

Reason #3

 

"This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head."             

Ephesians 1:10 (TEV)  

"(so that there) are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people
and members of God's family"       Ephesians 2:19 TEV

“Attending church”   is a really bad phrase.   Showing up on Sunday morning is in reality showing up at your weekly family gathering with your brothers and sisters in Christ and with friends you have invited in.   While there you get some Bible instruction on how to live this new kind of life in your new family geared toward growing your family so large that everyone is included, none excluded.  

That’s God’s plan;   to unite the whole world under the loving, generous, leadership of Jesus Christ.    In fact this plan can’t not be completed.   It is what will be completed when Jesus returns.  

There are only two options for all human beings:  to have gladly accepted God’s invitation to His forever family or to have received the invitation and turned it down, either with blatant refusal or by passively ignoring it.    In the end all who end up with God in the New Creation are there by invitation and by Grace and those who end up outside of it are there because they chose to opt out (Jesus called this destiny the “outer darkness” where each, having chosen to be captain of his own ship finds that everyone else in the outer darkness is also captain of his own ship and therefore each is sailing further and further apart into their own lonely self contained world – no community, no fellowship, no other).  

God’s plan is togetherness, family, unity, community with God, Christ, Spirit and each other.   He’s done all necessary that none must be excluded.    Yet, it seems, that God in all his Grace and Love, will not violate our free will.  

The question becomes, since this is ultimate reality, now what?   It’s a weight on the shoulders of believers that they/we must be in the daily business of inviting “outsiders” to be “insiders” so that God’s family gathering is full.

“ you are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country, and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian."
Ephesians 2:19 (TLB)

 

 

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