Midnight Thoughts F.R.O.G

God, where have I gotten it wrong?

Abiding with Christ. How do you know you are abiding, remaining in Christ, staying connected to Him who is the source?

John 15:10 ESV

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

John goes on to write what Jesus said His command was,

John 15:12 ESV

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Lord you summed up all the Law and the Prophets by saying,

Matthew 22:36–40 ESV

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

To love you - To love God looks liking following Him and His word. It looks like giving my life to God and for God’s will to be done. It looks like loving People as He loved us.

God I don’t know if I have done that well. In fact, I know that I have struggled to love people like you loved me. Lord you say there is joy when we live like you, love people like you.

In this call to live like you and love like you is to serve, witness, make disciples with the other parts of the body.

The body should not forsake meeting together, so that the leaders can equip the body for the work of the ministry, and as each part of the body works properly, it grows itself up in love, God’s love, Abiding with Christ not just as individuals but as a whole, being matured/being grown in our understanding and faith in Christ.

Follower of Christ - An individual who has called on God to save then from their sin, believing in Jesus who paid the price for their sin and rose again to give freedom from sin and death, has been filled with His Spirit that leads them and gifts them to serve and function as a member of the body of Christ, the Church, and is called to love others as Christ has loved us: To serve, To be a witness, and to make disciples.

The Church - is the body of Believers both Locally/Universally who are representatives, messengers of reconciliation. They gather together to be encouraged and equipped: being sharpened by the word of God and each other to go and fulfill the mission of Christ to love others as Christ has loved us: To serve, To be a witness, and to make disciples. God has structured the church with different leaders/roles/gifts for the body to grow and to fulfill His mission by reflecting Him. The Church is made of followers of Christ, the church gathering is primarily for equipping and discipleship; however there may be nonbelievers who come in and our prayer is that Spirit would convict them of sin and draw them into to a relationship with Jesus; but the church as a whole(every follower of Christ) is living in such a way that reflects them as a witness of Christ(someone who is walking with Jesus) and is sharing the good news of Jesus, and what He has done for all people.

If your aim is to build a church, you rarely make disciples.

BUT

If you aim is to make disciples you always get a church.