What in the WORLD is God Doing?

Image taken from Myutmost.org

Perhaps I have nothing to say these days but commentary on that which has already been said. Alright, we'll go with that. I never claimed to be a great scholar in the first place.

Till we all come…unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. — Ephesians 4:13

"Rehabilitation means the putting back of the whole human race into the relationship God designed it to be in, and this is what Jesus Christ did in Redemption. The Church ceases to be a spiritual society when it is on the look-out for the development of its own organisation. The rehabilitation of the human race on Jesus Christ’s plan means the realisation of Jesus Christ in corporate life as well as in individual life. Jesus Christ sent apostles and teachers for this purpose — that the corporate Personality might be realised. We are not here to develop a spiritual life of our own, or to enjoy spiritual retirement; we are here so to realise Jesus Christ that the Body of Christ may be built up." -Chambers, Myutmost.org July 12, emphasis added.

Is this not the issue we face both in our own lives and in our churches? Wait a minute, let me make this a bit more REAL to my readers. My question should read: Is this not the issue we have faced in OUR church, and the issue I have faced in MY life and leadership? The struggle between seeking to build the church yet doing so not out of a need to find my identity or build a name for myself, and the struggle to maintain the personal relationships with Christ that calls me out of my comfort zone and into struggle while not glorifying self-flagellation and martyrdom as a means of finding my worth- THAT is the struggle. And I would venture to say I am not alone in that struggle. It is a struggle for all of our pastors and church leaders, and even our lay people. Idolatry, to put it simply. We are struggling with idolatry at every step, in our personal lives, and in our churches. 

Let me be even more to the point. If we want to plant a church or replant a church for our own glory, we are sinning. Our desire for church growth must come out of a clear desire to follow God regardless of if it makes us popular or successful, comfortable or of good repute. And if we are looking to our own spiritual walk and first most pursuing more adventure to invigorate us or some retirement by the beach to relax us, we are actually idolizing how we feel and what we want over just pursuing God for God's sake. There you have it. Blunt Megin. What I really think. Judgment cast upon myself and my contemporaries.

Chambers continues,

"Am I building up the Body of Christ, or am I looking for my own personal development only? The essential thing is my personal relationship to Jesus Christ — “That I may know Him.” To fulfill God’s design means entire abandonment to Him. Whenever I want things for myself, the relationship is distorted. It will be a big humiliation to realize that I have not been concerned about realising Jesus Christ, but only about realising what He has done for me.

My goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God.

Am I measuring my life by this standard or by anything less?" -Chambers, Myutmost.org July 12, emphasis added.

Do these words convict you? They convict me, and they have for quite some time. I've sought to live them out, and to encourage our church to live them out, but I haven't done it perfectly; we haven't done it perfectly. Perhaps you sought this ethic as well; THANK GOD, He takes our attempts at life and godliness and actually makes them into something of use. Thank GOD, He takes our plans for churches and for our own lives and works it all out. Thank God any of us remain together as we struggle on this pursuit to follow Him. Thank God there are pastors left in churches and people left in churches. Because certainly pastors have left, and peoples have left. Driven away? One could accuse, but perhaps the honest truth is that pastors and people alike leave for a great many reasons that ultimately have to do with what is going on in themselves. We cannot blame ourselves or others for why a person chooses to leave or to stay somewhere or to what a person dedicates him/herself. We can only look to ourselves for how we respond and what actions we take and how we allow GOD TO CHANGE US in this whole process of redemption that HE is working. 

God has been replanting God's people since the Fall... since Adam and Eve left the garden... Dispersion and reviving of remnants has been a theme from Genesis onward... and typically, the people God chooses to be part of God's remnants are never self-picked. God plucks them out.... and those who remain, remain by God's grace. Those who do not, are taken away in God's sovereignty. In the end, eventually everyone realizes that it is God who is in control, none of us, and that it is God who is accomplishing God's works... crushing plans and dreams, and bringing others to fruition. Taking our failures and making good, that is God's m.o. from day numero uno. Taking the things we thought were good but were actually misaligned hopes and idols, and burning them up, that's what God does. God's plans will not be thwarted... and let's be honest... none of us have a monopoly on knowing what the exact DETAILS of God's plans look like. We just have a monopoly on knowing that Jesus Christ DOES and that Jesus Christ tells us that He has accomplished them for us.... so that we might live in them, (Ephesians 2:10). Thus, we pursue them, often in slip-shod ways, and Jesus makes it work.

And just to be clear here, so that no one has to sit back and wonder, "is Megin talking about her church? And the fact that they planted a church? as well as tried to replant their Chinatown congregation? And now are still in the midst of working all that out?" YES! YES MY FRIENDS! Let there be no shame!! I get it. No one likes to talk about mistakes or place labels on things as mistakes, or venture into having to put the word failure into one's vocabulary. And I'm not trying to say our church is a massive mistake or that everything we have done has been a mistake and that we were not following God! No! In no way... no more than any of our lives are massive mistakes or that none of us follow God with our lives! BUT, we have MADE mistakes. I have MADE mistakes. Let me be clear about that. Our leaders motivations... from the beginning, were they ALL godly and without rebuke? My own? Godly and without rebuke? No! Were some of them godly and on fleek, as our younger generation would say? Yes. My own, some on point? Quite surely. Were our people completely right in their thoughts and without room for challenge? NO. Were our people completely correct in other regards? Yes. I think we have been sorting through this all for a while, and though it has been messy at times, it has been to the GLORY of GOD as many of us see as we talk these things through continuously and struggle together to work everything out...and SEE God continue to be faithful even in challenges. For by God's GRACE, we have been SAVED and SURVIVE. God keeps God's church alive. God keeps God's people alive. God draws us nearer to God's self in personal AND corporate relationships, and God is glorified. None of this is for the glory of any pastor, any leader, any person, or any church name. All of this is about God, God's glory, and God spreading God's revelation of God's self to people and in people in deeper, more tangible ways. To God be praise, amen!

By all of this, I simply mean that none of us has space to think he or she is beyond rebuke and mistake. No not one. That is the truth, of sinners, I am the chief, as Paul (and MeginLea) says. From the start, we are all just attempting to follow God together.... hopefully we are doing that humbly, gently, respectfully, and without strong, domineering hands. HOPEFULLY, we are learning from our mistakes as we go along,  and hopefully we are working together and submitting to one another out of love, and submitting to HIM, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Hopefully...hopefully. 

We are even learning how to do that MORE AND MORE as time goes on I believe... and we are seeing more and more how God works out God's plans... dreams and ideas we would not have imagined had we been told... Let us look unto the nations together, praying bold, big prayers for God's glory... and that God might use us... Let us dream, and hope, and wrestle together... till we all come unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ....amen.