It's been almost 2 years ago God began to show me the church today. He also showed me a picture of what the church could look like. It reminded me of this picture of Jackie. Absolutely perfect, coming to be presented to me by her father.
Some want to know why I am so one-track minded and so focused on the church.
Some seem confused. They want to know why I would propose a different version of church where everybody doesn't just go into a big building on Sunday and then when that gets shut down I go to work defending it.
The reason is because when God showed me what church could look like:
He showed me it could be not gathering once a week with tens or hundreds or thousands for information and worship, but that it could be gathering daily with a few.
It could be bringing meals together to eat them in one home.
It could be our children in the room while we talked life and struggles in light of the power of God instead of off in "Sunday School" learning theological concepts absent application.
It could be about using our money to meet each other's needs as we are the temple and the priests, and using the leftover to meet the needs of the poor and oppressed around us.
Because of this it could be more about the heart of following the Lord over the head knowledge of knowing Him. Church would be less about the information of God and more about the practice of God in each other's lives.
God has shown me much about what the church should look like. And, something I've been forgetting lately, that it isn't my job alone to change her. So, we wait patiently and we defend her.
We defend her because he showed me that it is ALL his bride. He died for ALL of it. The new and the old. He showed me that even though David was the anointed King of Israel, he didn't dare to touch a hair on Saul's head. Because God wasn't done with him.
So why do I defend the church building today? Why do I still go to churches and speak and share in communion with other believers there? We are one Spirit. We are one Baptism. We have one Lord.
It is His bride.
However you are "being" the church in this trying time know this: God is not done with you, yet. Be open to the obedience of what he is calling you to do next in building up brothers and sisters around you into the head who is Christ. Don't get stuck in a rut and end up disobedient.
One day He will present us to himself as his perfect bride, as his prize, without spot or wrinkle. What a glorious day that will be.