BEYOND THE FOUR WALLS OF CHURCH

                            BEYOND THE FOUR WALLS OF CHURCH

¹⁰ For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago {Ephesians 2:10 NLT}

If you read last week's article, you would have seen that God established us as trees of righteousness so that we can reign as kings on the earth. He recreated  us anew in Christ Jesus as masterpieces so that we can do the good works he prepared for us to do.As I look at the world today,I realise that we have failed God and made ourselves a reproach before the heathen.God did His part by making us righteous but we have simply failed to change the world by reigning as kings. To understand what I mean let me show you what He said will happen after we have been established and planted by God as trees of righteousness.When you are done reading this article,I would like for you to evaluate yourself and find out how much of society you've been able to change for good by being a Christian. If our gathering in church every Sunday doesn't  transform society,then we are simply playing routine. In my opinion, the church is to be held responsible for the current state of our endangered world. 

 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

² To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

³ To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

⁴ And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

⁵ And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

⁶ But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.

⁷ For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.{Isaiah 61:1-7}

You will notice that the people in verse one were broken hearted, captives and bound. In verse two they were mourning and needed comfort. In verse three they were mourning, had ashes but lacked beauty, had sorrow but lacked joy, had heavy hearts and couldn't praise God. That was our state before Christ came. A degraded, humbled, disadvantaged and hopeless state. All of that was so because righteousness was lacking. God had not planted any tree of righteousness then. It was for this reason the son of man was made manifest. He came to undo everything that the lack of righteousness had caused. He came to destroy all the works of the devil.

The later part of verse three says that He came to plant us as trees of righteousness and we will be called the planting of the Lord. Once this is done, then every negative thing that was done by our lack of righteousness will have to be undone. He has established us in righteousness and now we are the oak trees of righteousness. That sense of mourning, broken heartedness, hopelessness and beggarly lifestyle is over. It is not time to start living a pitiable life expecting God to come work miracles for us. No! It is time to rise up to the occasion and take charge of the earth. It is not time to walk around with the feeling of condemnation and disqualification. No! It is time to go and preach the good news to others telling them that there is therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus and that they too can be justified by faith. It is not time to be hopeless but time to go tell the world that Christ in you is the hope of glory and that hope makes not ashamed.

If you look at verse four you will notice that the downcast low-live people are no longer living in inferiority complex. They have risen up as righteousness trees and are reigning as kings. They are to build up old waste places. The abandoned government projects, roads, schools, economic sector, power sector etc. are now being rebuilt. The trees of righteousness are not to fold their arms waiting for the world to change in the hands of ungodly leaders. We are to raise up the former desolations, to raise a new city, state, country out of wreckage. We are to take the rubble left behind and make it new. We are the ones who will repair the waste cities. 

During our reign as kings, development will come to every nation and the unbelievers shall see our good works and glorify God. Men shall call us priests of the Lord and ministers of our God. The truth is that every one of us that are trees of righteousness are priests and ministers. Let us rise up and reign over the earth as kings. Men are waiting to see our good works. The sick in the hospitals are waiting for us to bring healing to them. The homeless are awaiting for us to shelter them, The hungry are waiting for us to feed them, The orphans are waiting for us to adopt them and be their parents, The orphanage homes are waiting for people who will donate welfare materials and offer free services. The drug addicts are waiting for someone who will bring deliverance to them, the prostitutes are waiting for someone to come to their aid and rescue them from the degrading lifestyle, The poor are expecting us to come bless them, The rejected are waiting for someone to just visit them. All they want to see is our good works and labour of love and they will accept our Jesus. 

All of creation is waiting for the righteous kings to reign but sadly, we are all confined within the four walls of a church building while the world is perishing. Who will go and tell the world that Jesus loves them, who will have compassion enough to pull men out of fire? Who will dare to reign as a righteous king? Who will give hope to the nations? Up till now God is still searching for a man who will stand in the gap. He is looking down from heaven. He sees servants riding on horses while righteous kings are walking on bare foot. Kings who should disciple nations are being controlled by the nations they ought to disciple. 

The world is now teaching the church when they should be learning from us. They make evil decrees and devilish laws and they bind on us. They have become like fathers and we like their children. Woe unto the land whose king is a child. How long shall this evil continue? While we perform our Sunday-Sunday rituals, Satan is forcefully advancing his kingdom. We are just complacent with weekly church routine while souls are perishing in innumerable numbers. What has happened to the charge of "GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD"? What happened to the apostolic drive? Where is the ACTS OF THE PRESENT DAY APOSTLES? At what point in history did we miss it? Who taught us this modern day Christianity of sitting in church every Sunday waiting for the world to come to us when the original charge was for us to go to the world and preach? Where is our compassion for lost souls? Who will pull men out of the flames of Hell?

²² Try to help those who argue against you. Be merciful to those who doubt.²³ Save some by snatching them as from the very flames of hell itself. And as for others, help them to find the Lord by being kind to them, but be careful that you yourselves aren’t pulled along into their sins. Hate every trace of their sin while being merciful to them as sinners.{Jude1: 22-23 TLB}

 Time is ticking and soon we will leave this side of eternity. When will the righteous kings realize that they are supposed to reign in life? Arise Church, shine! For your light has come and God’s glory is on you.  Darkness has covered the earth and gross darkness the people. The gentiles are waiting to come to your light and the unrighteous rulers to the brightness of your rising. Let the sleeping kings awake and reign over the earth!