Is The Church Relevant to Society Today?

Is The Church Relevant to Society Today?

First, what does church mean? What is the church? What is it meant to be and do?
So many people think of the church as a religious building, where they go for weddings and funerals. Sometimes they might associate it with primary school, or maybe even high school. Where they had to sit through a boring church service once a term, or even once a week. Well I also went to a church of England primary and yes the services were long and really boring. But that isn’t what church is.

The word church comes from the Greek word meaning ‘thing belonging to the Lord’ also the word meaning ‘assembly’, so if you put them together it’s ‘an assembly of things belonging to the L0rd’. When the bible uses the word church, it never means a religious building. It’s talking about the community of believers locally or universally. The says many things about the church, in 1 Corinthians 12:12 it says,

1 Corinthians 12:12
‘12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.’

The church is meant to the a radical expression of the life and love of Jesus Christ and over the past 2000 years some churches have lost that. Letting the church become a machines to feed human desires. But I believe that the churches represented here are an expression of this. With Jesus as their head and showing this life and love through the way they lives their lives. In 1 Peter 2:9-10 it says,

1 Peter 2:9-10
‘9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’

To understand if the church is relevant we must understand what God’s intention of the church is, that it to be a reflection of Jesus, his life, his love, his teaching. So real question is, if the church is this, it is relevant. To know this, he must look at Jesus, his life, his love, his teaching.

In Matthew 22 Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment, here is the story,

Matthew 22:34-40
‘34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."’
Jesus connects loving God and loving others together and they are both are great or important as each other. The church can’t just love God, they have to love others. They have to love with the love that God loves. The love of God is unconditional, accepting and forgiving. Doesn’t matter what you’ve done, who you are or what you are doing, he still loves you. The church should love with this love.

When I look at the world I see a broken, dying, hurting world. I see a world crying out for love. Whether it’s the girls self harming in her room or the child without a mother because of HVI in Africa, they all just need love. Love is the answer is most of the world problems and if it isn’t the answer love would make the situations better to deal with. If the church will love with God’s love, then they can help sort out this broken, dying, hurting world.

In Isaiah 9 it’s says,
Isaiah 9:6-7
‘ 6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, [a] Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this’
These verses talks about the governments of the world being on Jesus’ shoulders, looking at him as a wonderful conselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. If the government were to look at Jesus and let these as their foundations, where would they go world. In verse 7 it’s says ‘establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness’. If government was to establish and uphold these two value of justice and righteousness don’t you think the nation and the world would be a better place. In Jesus there are the values that I believe society needs to be fixed. If politicians can come up with policies and laws that establish and uphold justice and righteousness, with love at where core. I believe we would be half way there to fixing this broken, dying, hurting world. If government was to look at the church as communities of believers who seek to love others beyond themselves who have some of the answers to this world’s problems. I do believe the real church as real relevance to society today. The problems I see in the world can be solved with the values of Jesus and his church.

The Red Riot?

In this blog I will be making my comments and views known on the politics of the day. Politics is my second biggest passion in life (after Jesus). I often say Jesus is why I get up in the morning, but politics is what keeps me up at night. I believe in this time, as christians, we need to keep an eye on global politics and push for the kingdom of heaven to be brought down to earth.

The name 'the red riot' has three different meaning. The first being red is the one colour everyone in the world has in common, the colour of our blood, it's to show that my views include how it's effects the whole world and the fact that everyone is equal and has the same right. Where ever they are and whatever colour they are. The second is the fact I'm a member of the labour and a socialist through and through and I hope most of my views show this. Thirdly and most importantly it's to show that everything I say hopefully will bring heaven down to earth. I am NOT saying that God is a socialist or that everything I say is the word of God. But I do believe as a christian i am called to influence the powers at be and through this bring heaven down to earth.

This is only about politics and my views, all other 'christian' stuff will still be on this blog, don't worry.

theredriot.blogspot.com

Thanks, I will be blogging on the queen's speech, the general election and the future of the labour party later on today.

Exciting Times (Part Two)

So today we had christian union, I love it. Just sharing life with other Christians is awesome. We spend alot of time telling the others about our plans for the coming mouths, everyone seems up for it, so it's all good.

On saturday some of the christian union went to a training day with new generation, they were training us in how to reach your school/college/uni. At the training day there was a group of lads from a school in bolton. These guys have completely the same heart as us. We decided to partner, we don't know how we are going to go about this, just let, but it's exciting. They were telling us about these outreach meetings they have been doing, with around 300 people coming. Last year they saw 30 people saved, which is awesome. I'm so excited about what God has planned in the coming years

BE BLESSED

Exciting Times (Part One) - Habaukkuk 1:5

I'm so excited about this week, so much going on, some I can and will talk about, other stuff I can't but it's all still good. Do you ever get that feeling that God is just about to do something. Well that's the feeling I have right now. This week is the start of the 'campaign of love' in my college. That the name we, we as in the christian union, have given to describe our outreach into the college. We just want to show the college we are there for them and love them. This Wednesday we will be handing out candy floss as start of that, it going to be sweet.

My mind goes back to a verse in Habakkuk 1:5,
' ⁵ "Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.'
This verse some up what I feeling right now, I don't know what God's going to do, I just know it's going to be good.

This week I really feel God is calling me to blog every night, so I will. I have a number of other things coming up this week, which I will tell you all about, which are exciting as well. God is on the move, this isn't a time for us as the people of God to sit back. This is a time for us to move and get the job done, that job is being his hands and feet in the all the earth.

BE BLESSED

Science Doesn't Have All The Answers

A blog on politics will come but i may set up a whole new blog for that, for now there are my thought on science and where science needs to stop and faith needs to begin

Stephane was a confirmed atheist. But now he's a Christian. How did this happened? He started questioning scientific discovery. He was convinced that science had all the answers. But when he started looking and investigating, he came to the conclusion that science was asking him to believe in a god called 'chance'. By 'chance' the world came into being though the 'big bang'. Yet, everything in science points to an incredible order in nature. 'How could this be?' he asked himself and he found God.

I believe it is possible to believe in science and Genesis, that you don't just have to believe in one or the other. It is possible for the two to go hand in hand, when you consider the questions that science is answering and the questions religion is answering. Religion is there to give people the outline, science is there to give people the detail. As the Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University and Christian, John Polkinghorne, says,

“Science asks how things happened, religion asks why. Genesis is not

there to give short, technical answers about how the universe began.

It gives us the big answers that things exist because of God's will.

One can perfectly well believe in the big bang, but believe in it as well as

the will of God the creator.”

People opposed to this argument would argue that science has found all the answers to origins of the universe and how life began, without a need for God. They would say that scientific discovery is contrary to what it says in Genesis 1.

It is possible to believe in God, the big bang and evolution. The story that is laid out in Genesis 1 shows a perfect plan, with everything happening in a certain order. If you look at the big bang and evolution it seems to follow the same order as in Genesis 1. Also, the Hebrew word for 'day' that is used in Genesis 1, means a set time. Therefore the writer of Genesis could of meant a set time, not day and it has got lost in modern translation. This 'set time' could be billions of years.

Genesis, I believe, was never intended to explain how the universe came into being, but why. It tell us it was God's plan and his intention to make the universe and that it didn't just happen by 'chance'. Genesis gives you an outline and rough guide about the beginnings of the universe and leaves it up to science to fill in the gaps. The Astrophysicists and Christian, Dr. David Wilkinson, writes,

“The bible contains many different kinds of literature: poems, proverbs, history, letters, allegories, parables, ect. The first task in reading the creation stories is to decide what kind of writing this is. Genesis 1 and 2 bears all the marks of a poem, or a hymn, or a teaching to be used in worship. Such poetry has the strength of conveying powerful ideas about God, but all the limitations in scientific understanding that you would expect of a writer of many thousands of years ago limited to their own scientific knowledge.”

Genesis also say that God created the universe for a reason and it was his command that it was created. The Bible wasn't intended to be a scientific book, it was written to give people spiritual understanding and insight. So people shouldn't expect it to give you answers to scientific questions.

If you look into the big bang and evolution it all hangs on one thing, 'chance'. I believe that this 'chance' is God. That God set the thing in place and made the universe perfect and as he intended it to be. In September 2008, scientists at C.E.R.N., tried to find the so called higgs boson, also known as the 'God particle'. If they find it they would be able to explain how the universe same into being and answer the some of science's unanswered questions. Scientists haven't yet found this particle. I believe that this particle and factor in the big bang is God, and with God in the equation you can take out all element of 'chance' in science.

There are to arguments Christians use for God, both of these can go hand in hand with science. The first is the 'first cause' argument is when everything in the world must of come from somewhere. Pointing to one moment in time when everything came into existence. This could point to the big bang, scientists still can't tell us what caused the big bang, I believe God cause to the big bang and that is when everything came into existence. The second argument is the 'design' argument, meaning everything in the world must have been designed by someone. That when you look at nature and how scientists explain how things happen in nature, that it happens with such a structure and incredible order in nature that someone must of designed it. Of cause this could happen by 'chance' but I believe that God designs everything to happen for a purpose.

This is an important issue about so many people have written off God thinking that science has proven there isn't one. Without thinking about what science can and can’t do.

The Church - Expression of the life and love of Jesus Christ

I will come back to the three part series on 'hope, faith and love' but for how i'm gonna talk about something else. God has been saying alot to be about the church over the few years. About what his view of church is and how we do church his way.

So often in the church worldwide, and it's saddens me, we do church our way. We aim it to please our selfs, to make our name famous. But church is meant to aim to please God and make his name famous. I once heard someone say 'church is God's plan A not his plan B' The church is meant to be the expression of the life and love of Jesus Christ on this earth. I wanna in part of and lead a church that are that. A expression of Jesus. I'm not saying we aren't now. I'm saying we need to guard what is of God in church now and cut away what isn't of God. Jesus will return to a pure bride and I wanna make sure we become that pure bride.

God Bless

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest is love (part one - FAITH)

I was reminded of this verse when I saw the new hillsong's album, which is called 'hope, faith and love'. These three things are the foundations of our faith. Without these three things you can't be saved and you can't live your life for Jesus.

Faith is letting what you believe, come out in your actions. It's says in the bible 'faith without actions is died'. We can all say we are 'all in' for Jesus but until we have faith and put that into action, then all we are doing is saying it and that's POINTLESS.

Faith is also listed as one of the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. I believe God sometimes gives us more faith to face certain situation. Maybe your believing for a job or a family member who is ill and you need 'extra' faith to believe for God's to move in that situation.

Without having a faith in Jesus, we aren't saved. You can think you know everything there is know about Jesus, but until you have faith in him. You aren't going to heaven. If you don't have faith in Jesus, i want to ask you why is that?

Faith is about finding it out for yourself, no one can tell you to have faith. But people have point you in the right direction. I want to point you to Jesus, in him you'll found everything you need and more.