Pure and undefiled religion is this: to minister to widows and orphans in their distresses. The compassion of Christ is the breeding ground of miracles, and we must fully comprehend the revelation of the mystery that the fullness of Christ, the hope of glory, dwells in us. We must allow ourselves to be formed into His image, then we can become living expressions of Him and His compassion will flow from us like rivers of living waters! Jesus said that if we touch the untouchables, if we minister unto the least of these with His compassion flowing out of us, then we are ministering unto Him and we will step into the realms of His glory where signs, wonders and miracles are made manifest.
Perhaps, just perhaps, if we were to stop arguing and bickering among ourselves over petty issues, and we went out to the highways and hedges touching the untouchables, then the Church would begin to look like a cross to a hurting and dying world. It is then that we would see the whole world flocking to the Church in order to know the one true Savior. In the meantime, the world sees the Church as hypocrites, having no better character and integrity then the rest of the world. Wounded and disallusioned, people are running out the back door of the church as fast as new people are coming in the front.
There are BILLIONS of people who do not know the message of the cross, and the best way to convey that message is if we ourselves become as living epistles. If we are to be identified with Christ then we must humble ourselves, pick-up our cross and carry it out into the world. We must be dead to ourselves, our agendas, and the things of this world so that the light and resurrection life of Christ can pour out of us. The light of Christ belongs in the darkness. It is not the light of Christ if we use it in an attempt to outshine each other. If that is all we use it for, then our lampstands will be removed.
In the story of Gideon (Judges 7:19-22), he used a remnant of 300 who took their trumpets, torches and empty pots into battle. They put their torches, representing the light of God's Word, into the empty pots, representing ourselves as vessels of clay who were empty before the light of God entered into us. As they went to battle they blew their trumpets, representing the prophetic announcement of victory over our enemies, and they broke their pots, representing us as being totally broken before the Lord, then they held their torches in their left hand, representing the light of God's Word that shines out of us as we allow ourselves to be completely broken before the Lord, and the enemy became confused slaying themselves with their very own weapons!
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds...the stongholds of sickness, disease, poverty and opression. Please Church, take the light, which is your weapon, and go out into the highways and hedges as living epistles, full of the compassion and love of Christ who dwells in you, and touch the untouchables! Then we will truly see God's will being done on Earth as it is in Heaven, with transformation and revival spreading like a wildfire wherever the soles of our feet shall tread!
©2008 Richard Jones
Posts
