What Does Church Mean?

November 20, 2014

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Dear Family of our Lord Jesus Christ,

WOW WEE!

Just got off the phone this morning with Pastor Richard Gordon. What a joy! We both left each other better than we found each other! LOL! LOL! It is so Godly to make sure you and I leave people better than we found them! Amen PRAISE GOD!!!!

Leslie Mouser was telling me she got a kick out of my story yesterday of Reno singing to the fire truck siren! Amen!! Reno sure left those firefighters better than he found them! They had a hoot!Laughing so hard!! Laughter is so biblical!

Please be in prayer for Wanell Pate who will be having cancer surgery. Wanell is such a Dear Sister in Christ, been our friend and mentor for years. Wanell has breast cancer, her prognosis is very good! Wanell serves on the FGGAM Board as does long time friend and mentor Kathy Garcia who also has been diagnosed with cancer, early catch, meaning good prognosis, Kathy will be having surgery in December. We are praying healing over both Wanell and Kathy and believing in complete healing! In the name of Jesus Amen!

I just got off the phone with Kathy and she would like us to pray for her sisters Dorothy and Mary. Dorothy has had severe weight loss and is going to the Doctor and Mary is having very bad migraines, so bad that at times she cannot see! So let us pray for healing for Dorothy and Mary, in Jesus name, Amen!

I have included in the CUP a picture of Shannon who we have been praying for. Her dad, Pastor Marty Cooper sent me the picture. Marty reports Shannon is improving a bit, but has a long way to go after being shot in the chest. Shannon is 35 years old. Let us keep praying for Shannon, for complete healing, mentally and physically! In the name of Jesus, Amen! PS.Also pray for Shannon’s children and Mom and Dad, Pastor Marty and Paulette of Christ Full Deliverance Ministries in Rio Rancho, NM.

Let us storm heaven with prayers for Wanell, Kathy, Dorothy, Mary and Shannon.

PRAISE REPORT: I just talked with my friend Mike in Reserve, New Mexico and his Dad James is recovering in good shape after having two stents put in, after suffering a heart attack. It looks like he will, be out of the Socorro, New Mexico hospital this weekend. Thank you for your prayers!

You still can get tickets to the Son Broadcasting banquet this Friday night by calling Kitty at 505-345-1991. You have to call today! Congressman Steve Pearce is the Keynote speaker. It is at the Hyatt Regency at 330 Tijeras Ave. NW in Albuquerque. Reception is at 6pm with dinner at 7pm.

Let me share with you another story! FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER I belted out in song while preaching in Reserve Sunday! I took after Sharon who sang a song at her friends retirement, she shocked everybody! You see when we have the Lord we are not bashful, we share his glory to all around us.

So when I was preaching Sunday I started to sing..HOLY! HOLY! HOLY!

And then I sang it again!!!!

Isaiah says that Seraph’s surrounded the throne of God singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy……

They were emphasizing the greatness of his holiness and this is the only attribute of God in the Bible that is repeated three times!!!!!

Oh, only if people were more HOLY!

This reminds me of the time when God appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush:

God instructed him to remove his shoes because he was on “HOLY GROUND” and Moses couldn’t look directly at the bush because of it’s power and glory! Amen!

Are you holy? How about singing with me? HOLY! HOLY! HOLY!

The sermon I gave on Sunday will soon be up at FGGAM.ORG, I will let you know! It is from a sermon that Pastor Robert Lewis passed along to me!

Okay I am going to write a bit on “What is the Church?”

Please pass this along to your Pastor, leaders, and all…………..

Thom S. Rainer wrote in then Sept/Oct edition of “Men of Integrity” that some Church leaders view membership as a modern business or organizational concept, so they reject the label as unbiblical. Membership, to the contrary, is very Biblical.

The Bible explains “members” differently that secular culture. Look at the term in 1 Corinthians 12:27-28: “Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it. And God has placed these in the Church” (HCSB)

Do you get the difference? Members of a church comprise the whole and are essential parts of it. The Apostle Paul would carry the body metaphor further and explain that members are individual parts of the body. That is why he concludes “The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ” 1 Cor. 12:12

With Church membership, everyone has a role or function. We are all different, but we are necessary parts of the whole.

Each part, therfore, has to do its work. If each part does not do its job, the whole body does not function well. But if each part does its job well, the whole body is stronger.

When Paul was using the metaphor of the body to speak of the Church in 1 Corinthians 12, he did so for two primary reasons. First the body is a unified whole. Likewise, the Church is to be unified in its mission, purposes, ministries and activities.

Second, the body is not only unified, it is made up of many parts. Think about the parts noted in 1 Corinthians 12: 12-26: the foot, the hand, the ear is to hear, the eye is to see, the nose is to smell.

We who are Church members are all supposed to function in the Church. The concept of an inactive Church member is an oxymoron. Biblically, no such Church member really exists.

Such is the reason we are exhorted to know our gifts and abilities, so we can use them best to serve the Church for the glory of God. The fact that there is so much diversity in our Church is our strength. Everyone has a function. Everyone should be functioning. Everyone should have a role.

1 Corinthians 12:27…..You are the body of Christ; each and every one of you is a vital member.

Ephesians 4:16………….Christ makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. WOW! AMEN!

Is your particular Church healthy? Does it pass the test of the Word of God?

Please visit these stories we have for you at FGGAM!