I trust you have weathered, and been blessed in, the holidays and this busy time of year. It is also good to be challenged with the opportunity to make fresh beginnings as well. Even if this may all just be of our own design, because in His purpose all days are His days and He is never surprised in them. He meets us in the midst of whatever each one holds , and He declares the end of a thing from its beginning.
[Isaiah 46:9-11 NASB95] 9 “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; [I am] God, and there is no one like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; 11 Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned [it, surely] I will do it.
While not all things are just Que Sera Sera (What will be will be) as the old song says. Neither is His purpose and plan deterred. He is sovereign and, yet, because He is omniscient and cannot be surprised; He is not surprised when we screw up, make bad choices, or spend time in the pig pen of the prodigal. He remains flexible, yet faithful in His love and in His purpose. Paul wrote Timothy “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13.
This is true with us individually. (See Abraham, Peter, Paul…. yourself. ) It is also true with Israel and the church (ekklesia) today.
Art Mealer, a brother in our fellowship, has written an important book regarding the promise of ekklesia in His purpose. I believe it will be published very soon. And, I’m extremely excited for its message, which I have had some privilege to preview, to be available to you, and the church at large, for the purpose of edification through sharing truth from the scripture. I will joyfully let you know as soon as it is available to order so you may be blessed by the insights shared.
But today I will share one segment with you from Art’s writing that speaks of the faithfulness of God in His love and purpose in, to, and with His own. It is important that we consider Whose House Are Building, or, if you will, we are, and that we are given the joy of being a part of building. He is so faithful in his purpose. The excerpt follows:
“Whose House Are We Building?
Following the Babylonian exile and the destruction of the first temple, the synagogue emerged as a way for Israel to retain its identity as a people and pass on its knowledge of God. Across the world, in towns, villages, and cities they assembled to pray and study the Torah. Have you considered there is no biblical basis for the synagogue? They were facing being scattered among gentiles, losing their national identity as the people of God, and being irretrievably assimilated into other people groups.
Israel could have been the greatest nation on earth, a shining beacon leading to the one true God. Their temple would have stood a gleaming house of worship for all, where the promise of God’s presence among men would be kept. But in their disobedience, the world conquered them, and they were dispersed in shame from the ancestral lands given to their forefathers. Clinging to their hopes within the walls of her sabbath schools, what remained of Israel bore only the faintest shadow of her intended international glory. Haggai well rebuffed those faithful few who had returned from their exile to restore the temple:
“DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THIS HOUSE—THIS TEMPLE—IN ITS FORMER SPLENDOR? HOW, IN COMPARISON, DOES IT LOOK TO YOU NOW? IT MUST SEEM LIKE NOTHING AT ALL!” —Haggai 2:3
Haggai’s words were cutting but true in his day. Some of us might say the church has mirrored the failures and fate of Israel. What we call church today has been consumed by the ways of the world, now bearing only the slimmest image of her intended glory. In a gracious if typical “but God” intervention, the Messiah came to this temple and through their lineage. God encouraged His atrophied people to keep on working. I think He calls us to do the same.
“BE STRONG, ALL YOU PEOPLE OF THE LAND, DECLARES THE LORD. WORK, FOR I AM WITH YOU, DECLARES THE LORD OF HOSTS,… THE LATTER GLORY OF THIS HOUSE SHALL BE GREATER THAN THE FORMER, SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS. Haggai 2:4,9
God is faithful, and He still uses His people to accomplish His purposes. God may be grieved, but He loves His people. And so, while we could say everything about the Synagogue that we say about the estranged traditional church, would we follow Jesus there?
“AND HE CAME TO NAZARETH, WHERE HE HAD BEEN BROUGHT UP. AND AS WAS HIS CUSTOM, HE WENT TO THE SYNAGOGUE ON THE SABBATH DAY, AND HE STOOD UP TO READ.” —Luke 4:16
Where His people are, Jesus is in their midst. Perhaps in diminished effect, God will stay by His people and use them in fulfilling His holy purposes. For our part, some of us might choose to foster change from within. Some of us might choose to make a fresh start. But our devotion will be to Him, Not to a cause or an organizational theme.”
Yes, some of us have chosen to make a fresh start; having come out of the traditional church structure, which like the synagogue, was not outlined or ordained in scripture. The temple was outlined at length, but the synagogue never was. It came out of His own being taken into bondage into Babylon. Just so, the picture of the church we see painted in Acts and the epistles is far different than that we see in most Western culture traditions (bondage) today. That does not mean God has abandoned His people in those structures. But, as Art shared so well, our devotion is not to structure and organization, but to Jesus, the Head of the Body, the church, which is the fullness of Him that fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:22-23) Will we look for Him where He is, in the midst of His own, whom He has not forsaken but continues to move in and through? Whatever the structure?
It is interesting that in the next segment in Art’s book he addresses “Decision Making by Consensus” encouraging us to function in Jesus as a body, without authoritarian hierarchy structure, using Acts 15 as a template for how consensus on a controversial issue was reached by, and through, the sharing of all. Not just so called leaders or apostles. It is yet another example of Jesus’ admonishment that “it shall not be so among you” regarding hierarchical position among His disciples.
May we be numbered among those devoted to Him in His purpose, and to one another in love and service, as His body under He alone as our Head. Some fine aged wine is still in older wineskins. But, new wine without any structure is wasted, poured out on the ground. And, if forced into old wineskins burst them. Fresh beginnings, new wine, requires new wineskins. And, lets look for Him, for He can be found in the old and the new.
[Matthew 9:17 NASB95] 17 “Nor do [people] put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
[Mark 2:22 NASB95] 22 “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins [as well;] but [one puts] new wine into fresh wineskins.”
[Luke 5:37-39 NASB95] 37 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. 38 “But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 “And no one, after drinking old [wine] wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good [enough.]'”