Righteousness

Righteousness defined:
the act of being or doing what is right; completely just; morally upright; the opposite of sin; the character, quality, and actions of Jesus Christ.

Only God is right. We cannot BE righteous on our own. We have no absolute righteousness in ourselves. We were all born sinners, in a fallen world. We all have sinned and fall short. We all are limited in what we know and understand, we cannot see the outcome of our every decision, we cannot read each other’s minds, and therefore it is impossible for human beings to even DO righteousness consistently on our own power. Being "good" does not save us or make us right with God. So God had to make a way for us! Jesus Christ - Yeshua the Messiah - the Son of the Living God! (Romans 3:23; Psalm 14:1-3; Mark 7:21-23; I John 1:8-9; 3:10; Job15:14; Isaiah 53:6; John 3:16-18)

We do not deserve nor can we earn God's love or salvation. Salvation is a free gift from God to ALL people out of His immeasurable love for us! He sent us His Son. Jesus is and always has been righteous. He paid the price of our sins with His life and those who believe in Him and lay down their life to live for Him, live in His righteousness. He was raised from the dead and now lives on in this world through those who are His. We are forgiven and made righteous through Him! Jesus is our One Way to be acceptable and pleasing to God, in terms of being righteous. (Ephesians 2:1-10; 5:8-10; Colossians 1:13-14; 21-23; I John 1:8-9; Romans 3:22-24; Acts 10:34-43)

But for those who are in Christ, we are empowered to also DO righteousness! Salvation is a free gift, but conditional upon the fact that we are righteous AND do righteousness. Jesus takes care of who we are - those who accept the free gift of salvation, believe on His name and turn their lives over to Him become righteous - in right standing with God. Jesus even breaks us lose from the bondage of sin that keeps us from doing righteousness and gives us the Holy Spirit so that we are free in Him to do all that He did while on this earth. But it is us who has to walk this path of righteousness. We cannot "be" without "doing"! (James 2:14-26; John 14:15; Galatians 5:16-25; Romans 8:14-17; Acts 1:8; Ephesians 3:14-21)

To DO righteousness without BEING righteous = legalism
(self-righteousness, judgmentalism, empty and vain acts of good)
To BE righteous without DOING righteousness = indulgence and illusion (false-righteousness, sinful living, acting in the flesh)

We are called to both, to come into unity in ourselves, body soul and spirit. We are to know WHO we are in Christ and to LIVE out a life based on who we are. To "be" righteous without "doing" righteousness, reveals that we are not really who we claim to be. To base your life on the grace of God to cover your actions and attitudes is a lazy and deceived spiritual life, a dying life. We cannot trust in God's grace to cover our willful, selfish, or disobedient lifestyle any more than we can trust in our own abilities to work our way into Heaven. A covenant is two sided; both parties give up something to get something. Jesus gave up His innocent life to redeem us from sin - what are we giving up for Him? We are instructed to work out our salvation, to obey God's Word, to live according to the Spirit and to produce fruit. God's grace covers what we don't yet know while we learn, and allows us room to repent and correct our ongoing mistakes. He knows that we are only human, and that we need to time to develop and grow up into His perfect image, but to remain unchanged or stagnant, only bring spiritual deterioration and eventually death.(I John 2:3-6; Philippians 2:12-13; Jeremiah 7:23; Luke 6:46; Galatians 5:13-25; John 15:1-10; 9:41; Acts 17:30-31; I Corinthians 13:9-12; II Peter 3:9; Hebrews 12:7-11; Ephesians 4:15; I Peter 2:2-3)

In Christ Jesus, we are made righteous. We are reborn new creatures identified with His righteousness to God the Father! What awesome news, to be forgiven and free... free to love and serve Him as we were created to! Now we are to get to work! We have God's Word, and every bit of it educates us of God's character, will, and desires, it shows us plainly what is right. He has commissioned us to be His light and carry it out into the world so let us not slack off in: meeting with Him and learning from Him daily, gathering together in His name to encourage and challenge each other to keep growing up in Him strong, laying down our old life to take on more and more of His character and becoming more like the image of Christ daily, and going out doing what He did - allowing Him to continue doing His ministry through us!
Let us shine Jesus' righteousness through us!


See related post: Appearing Righteous

Camps

I came across a sad thing this weekend, "Christian" bloggers speaking against Charismatics, lumping them all into a general pile with one or two public figures in that "camp" that may be off the mark. How hurtful. Don't they know that God is charismatic? God is Spirit, and the Giver of spiritual gifts for the Body of Christ, the Worker of signs and wonders for the unbeliever, the Healer and One Who casts out demons for our whole salvation (deliverance of body, soul, and spirit) and told us to do likewise. (John 4:24; Hebrews 2:3-4; I Corinthians 12:4-7; John 2:23; 14:12-15; Matthew 10:7-8; 28.16-20)

Valid onlookers could also bash evangelicals for their one or two public figures who have been also off the mark. There are those who go to extremes or fall into sin in every camp. The point is, we as believers in Christ should not have camps! We have one God: one Father, one Savior, one Holy Spirit, we have one written Word, and there is only one Body of Christ. What's the problem? Why can't we be one in Christ? Why are we rebelling against God's will and explaining away parts of God's Word? Are we not all reading the same Bible? Are we not all reading it and studying it led by the Holy Spirit, Who leads us into all truth? Are we not all laying down our human opinions and logic to learn from the One Who's ways are higher than our ways? Aren't we all just believing what God says and doing it?...

The answer is no. And what a heartbreaking answer it is too. If you are a believer - you ought to be in only one camp - the camp of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by no other name (no denomination, no affiliation, no category) should we claim but that of Christ! These labels are unholy. Jesus prayed for us to be one, and His purpose for His church was, yes, to go out and make disciples, but also to not leave new disciples infants, but to raise everyone up into maturity and unity of faith. As far as I'm concerned, there should not be many faiths in Christ! Denominations should be demolished. (I Corinthians 1:10-15; John 17:11; 20-23; Ephesians 4:11-16; Colossians 3:14-17) God's Word is not up for human interpretations, not to be translated through our inferior traditions, comfort, or understanding - and certainly not in ways so that we can control God or reduce Him to what we can handle. If we continue to ignore huge chunks of God's Word, and then look down on others who wish to obey it - we are as good as being last in the kingdom of God, and we lead others to that fate as well. (John 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:7-15: 17:17; Deuteronomy 12:32; Psalm 119; II Timothy 2.15; 3:16-17; Matthew 5:17-20)

Our divisiveness leads those young in the faith to doubt and be confused, those older in the faith to become prideful, and destroys our testimony to those still lost in the world. We are to love one another, and lay our lives down for one another in Christ! A house divided cannot stand, and is it any wonder that we have weak Christians in the church and are making very little impact on the world around us? This infighting has to stop! This sin of pride and arrogance over the handling of God's Word has got to end - and we must begin to cry out in humble repentance before God and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ for our superiority attitudes! We must find a way to shed our systems of classification and come together in unity under the authority of God's entire Word to us, conforming to the image of Christ as one! (John 13:34-35; 15:12-17; I John 3:23-24; Matthew 12:25-30; Ephesians 5:21; Philippians 2:1-5)

Let us leave our man-made doctrines and traditions behind and embrace God's entire Word, likewise embracing all other believers in the name of the Lord Jesus! As Jesus prayed, "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me." (John 17:20-21), so I pray this over believers all over the world. I pray that walls of separatism and loftiness will tear down, and that the whole Word of God be raised up - and that we will all be united in the faith of Christ Jesus our Lord as one!

Worship

The church I'm a member of has phenomenal worship! Full band with excellent musicians and vocalists who have an audience of ONE, who are there to lead by being led by the Holy Spirit - the freedom to dance, cry, raise your hands up high, kneel, and bow down, sing in tongues, with all different types of music building loud, or playing quietly to even all being completely silenced in awe, for as long as it goes - whatever, wherever the Spirit leads. It opens up room in people's hearts for healing and repentance and receiving from God as He pours out on those genuinely seeking His face and worshipping Him with all they are! Everyone fully engaged - men and women of all ages, and even children worshipping free and passionately! It's incredible to just stand there to observe the heart of love of God from nearly everyone in the room, much less to feel the powerful Presence of the Lord Himself as He is welcomed and adored there.

Recently in my search for a near-by Biblical church, I've been only worshipping daily alone in my home, and haven't found a worship service quite as passionate where I've been visiting (you know the services... where half the people are worshipping while a quarter are uncomfortable to worship God openly and another quarter is bored to tears and thinking about the big game on tv after the service). Well, yesterday was my third time to visit one church in particular and I realized just how much power there is in corporate worship and how badly I've been missing it! I was so hungry for it that I was happy to at least get to worship with the half there who were truly worshipping wholeheartedly. It was amateur worship at best - it didn't last very long and it was sort of choppy with human interruptions every once in a while (not a spiritual flowing from following the Holy Spirit's lead but a formula with unnecessary breaks for announcements or "insert prayer here" moment and instructed standing and sitting). But even still, when Jesus was the focus in the worship leaders and in the majority of the people all at once - it was easy to feel the words we were singing and there was an emotionless experience of being rushed into the very Presence of God that made everything else vanish - even if it only lasted for a few moments at a time! It was a small taste of what I was used to in my regular church - but it was enough to remind me of what could be and how vital it is to submit to the Spirit of the Lord in worship when we come together in Jesus' name!

Now, you might be asking, "why are you looking for a new church when your regular one sounds so great?". And the reason is, that my husband and I couldn't get plugged in there. As great as the worship is - there are essentially no home groups, no places or positions open on the worship team (without crazy rotation - too many gifted people, not enough worship services), lots of leadership, but all the leadership also had other full-time occupations that prevented them from giving a big chunk of their time to raising up new leaders or providing opportunities to minister. There are lots of community ministries but those are also unavailable, again (too many people, all positions are already filled). Now that's great news for a church - to have too many volunteers that they have to turn people away... but that's bad for the people they have to turn away! This is when you are probably thinking the same thing I've been thinking for some time now... "why doesn't the church branch off and start a new church somewhere else, if there's that many gifted people, more than enough to spare?" Good question. Maybe not enough people want to split - they don't even seem to want to split up into holding more than one worship service, much less more than one church! So, since there is no room in the inn, I've been looking for a shelter somewhere else.

My husband and I have moved a lot in our years of marriage, and in a majority of the churches where we went, we've been involved on the worship team, even being blessed enough to lead worship in some places. The church that I've been visiting for the past three weeks, my husband has gone with me for the past two. It's the only non-denominational church in our area. There's room to get plugged in and to give from what God has given to us, so it looks like we might be willing to commit to this church for a long season, at least to cover me until God has me released fully into the one I begin. I hate committing to a local body of Christ just because there's no other church in opperation that's more Biblical in the area - but I can see that this church has the potential to become a very Biblical church as it continues! It certainly is of no use to sit around and complain about how things don't line up exactly whereas being willing to dive in and try to help make things become lined up in the long run is very useful. Who knows - maybe my husband and I can become involved in the worship team and contribute to those souls there in sincere worship, helping lead others by being led by the Holy Spirit! There's spiritual power in numbers, for prayer and in worship, and I look forward to seeing this church grow further in both!

Church Shopping Progression Leads to Resolve

I've been in and out of churches a lot lately, trying to find a Biblical church. Do those really exist anymore? It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

In church shopping, to check out churches by website is usually a good "step one" (I call this window shopping - you can see the goods, but you aren't really having contact with them). And to visit one of their services is a good "step two" (I call this browsing - you're in there with the goods see them upclose and to feel them out, but you're not really buying anything). To revisit to the point of being convinced to keep coming back regularly is a good "step three" (like taking a product off the rack and trying it on). You guessed it, becoming a "member" or dedicating yourself to that local body of believers would be the "final step" (buying). I have been in step three for a while at one church, while intermittingly been doing step two at other churches and constantly doing step one all the while. Why? Because even though I know no church is perfect, there should at least be one that's Biblical in my geographical reach!

When I say "Biblical", I don't just mean churches who hold to and do MOST of the Bible, or believe big chunks of the Bible, or back up their own doctrine with the Bible, or place Biblical terms over pagan practices - I mean the real authentic deal... an assembly of people who believe and do God's Word cover to cover. Like church was done between the time Christ lived on the earth and the church became a catholic institution. Where are those churches? I know there must be some out there!

This past weekend, I visited a Messianic church. To be honest, it didn't seem all that different from any other small non-denominational church - which sort of disappointed me. It had a lot of traditional gentile influences, like an order of worship (worship, prayer, message, offering, closing) and passing the offering plate. I may have just gone to the "gentile service" at the church, and there may be something radically different for non-visitors, however I was expecting (hoping for) more. It did have a few distinguishable differences and some great qualities, but I doubt I'll go back again unless it's for a Holy Day celebration. I also went to a Christian church this past weekend - it also left me wanting, but it's actually one of the only churches within my reasonable driving distance that's non-denominational. They also do a "passing of the plate" event, and there's a one-man minister in leadership, but there's lots of room for growth there - so if my husband likes it - we might end up there for a while. I was really looking for a place to submit myself to more spiritual authority... not in general, but to be mentored and trained in more diverse and in-depth ministries.

No matter where I go, I find that only the mega churches have a large leadership team, which is hard to fight through the crowd to get a lot of personal time with, and that the smaller churches have only one or two full-time ministers, and women ministers are even more rare in both situations. Since one-man isn't called to do it all, and one man is usually all a church gets, it's hard to find that one man who can show you how to counsel, take you with them as they visit prisons or hospitals, or evengelize, or show you how they pray for the sick or cast out demons or study God's Word and teach it to others, or how they pray or how they lead and serve their families. Most pastors don't want you that close to see it all to begin with, not to mention that most pastors can't possibly do all those things, much less for everyone in their church body and in their communities. So I look for churches with associate pastors, but these are also specialized. Where is the rest of the five-fold ministers?

Where are the churches that celebrate the festivals and meet for corporate worship on the true Sabbath? Where are the churches that meet in homes and use the gifts of the Spirit to minister to each other and learn God's Word? Where are the churches that hold God's Word and power to grow up strong and win the lost to Christ, to feed the poor and love those in need. I'm looking for the one church that does it all. If one church has even 50 adults in it, then that church should be doing it all - even if it's on a very small scale! Yet - people are not discovering their spiritual gifts, they are not taught the whole Word and raised up into leaders, they are not shown by example the practical uses of spiritual gifts by their elders and ministers, they are not held accountable to grow up past first grade for years and years so that the fruits of the Spirit are not cultivated in their lives, their faith is not built up, they are not trained in service or giving to those who have less, they are not taught spiritual warfare! It's an outrage that so many of God's people are left mere infants in the kingdom! There's a church on every street corner in the South, and not one of them is willing to be the body of Christ that Christ calls for!

I've been doing a lot of praying about this - in where to go now, over churches, over God's hand to reveal an authentic church for us. I know no church will be perfect this side of Jesus' return. I expect mistakes will be made, because Jesus chooses to work through human beings and human beings are prone to be faulty. But to not even try to break from paganistic Christianity and religion in order to fulfill God's Word seems beyond sad - it is damaging. A true reformation that completely returns the church to God's Word is long overdue! If there is not a local church within my driving distance that seeks to be what we are instructed to be, then I must start one! Someone should - and there's no point going on about what the church needs if I'm not willing to do something about it! If I know better, I ought to do better! God's been leading me in this direction for a long time anyway, and it's about time I got to it! I know what my calling is, and I know what God's purpose for me is. I know what God's Word says about His church and what His mission is on this earth - I can't just sit by any longer and look to the left and the right for someone else to take a stand! It's time I got ready and prepared for what lies ahead and to rest in God to make it happen!

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Related blog entries:
Church Shopping
Desperate Housewife or Not • Part I and Part II