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Major Kingdom/Apostolic Articles
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The Church In Transition - By Ron McGatlin
Mark 10:28-31: Then Peter began to say to Him, "See, we have left all and followed You." So Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, "who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time; houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. "But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
The church is in transition. The glorious presence of God is bringing fresh reformation to the church through the transformation of God's people. Many are again being faced with the decisions the early disciples faced. To follow Jesus into new realms of spiritual reality or to continue to maintain the status quo.
The cost is great when one considers leaving all. One's identity seems to rest in who one is in the church, community, family, business, not to mention financial security and relationships and so on. What we own and what we accomplish and who our friends are weigh heavily on our feelings of mental well being. There can be a significant crash into a deep valley when one sees everything that made one who he is going away.
The deeper the valley - The higher the mountain. God's lovely Bride is being prepared. Those who leave all now are promised along with the early disciples one hundredfold now in this life with persecutions and eternal life.
As sincere people of God we believe we are right in our views. If we believed we were not right in an area, we would change. We have great difficulty truly seeing ourselves - our weaknesses and inner lack that works itself out into our life. If we do see our own lack or need we often do not really know how to change what is in us. Yet, as the purified Bride we must be fully cleansed and renewed.
We cannot always see our needs. Our own harshness and strong religious convictions and strong souls will stand in the way of the love and power of God flowing through our lives. Brokenness - total loss - despair and misery are sometimes part of the breaking tools. How wonderful to see everything we thought we stood for crumbling before our eyes. And finding out that standing really means loosing it all that we might truly have Him. This is the essence of transformation into Bride Church leadership.
It is real - becoming as Christ in the world will cost us everything - Only in death is there resurrection - at death all we have is passed to another. There is no such thing as a new beginning without an ending of the previous. Yet, for the season death never feels good - the pain often seems beyond bearable - the frustration may seem more than anyone can cope with.
Somehow we emerge scarred and broken - crippled for life - never again to rise in the strength of our own souls - never again to feel the press to reform others to our way - simply filled with His love and seeking to give it to others - looking past their foolishness and lack of conformity to the depth of the need of their hearts. Compassion leads to passion for Him and passion for souls. We live only for Him as He literally lives in us and we become in this world as Christ is in this world. We weep a lot and have nothing of which to boast.
But, in Him and in those whom we love and who love us there is the reality of 100 times more.
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