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Author Topic: The Body of Christ
Aaron
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This is truly one of my favorite topics!

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Aaron

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KnowHim
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>>>>> If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

Yes this is true IF AND ONLY IF each part is pointing to the HEAD which is JESUS CHRIST and only Jesus Christ.

The first commandment is NO OTHER GOD'S

Therefore money, self, building, etc.... are not to take precedence when true born-again people are meeting to worship our Lord Jesus Christ.

When it starts being about the above, it is time to refocus on the meaning of life and the meaning of life is JESUS CHRIST.

May all the praise and glory always go to Jesus my Lord and Savior.

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KnowHim
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Amen Linda!

What is "the ministry"? According to the Scriptures, there is but one ministry, and that is the ministry of directing everyone to Christ as all in all. Now how this ministry functions in each one of us is different according to how God has placed us. There are many operations and many functions, many gifts and many manifestations, but there is only one goal and that goal is Christ.

For example, the purpose of the apostolic ministry is not church planting, or setting churches in order, or taking missionary journeys. The purpose is Christ. Now, they may DO those things. We are not suggesting that Paul did not do all these things; we are simply saying that Paul's purpose was Christ, and towards that end he labored accordingly. Without God's End in clear view, all these things become mere activities, religious carryings-on, but there is nothing ultimate about it, nothing that ties it all together or justifies it in terms of furthering God's Purpose. I have my little work, you have your little work, but there is no harmony, no communion, no relatedness between any of several million projects, ministries, and outreaches. Each one struggles to achieve their own ends, and there is little if any agreement on what exactly that "end" is supposed to be.

The apostle communicates the ultimate Purpose of God, lays the foundation, and then keeps the End before the builders at all times. But many of today's apostles seem to be presenting themselves as church planting or church growth experts. Is this what the apostolic ministry is becoming? Church growth is not God's goal. Church planting is not His purpose either. These are merely things: they are not Christ. You can plant churches and grow churches and completely miss Jesus in all of it.


It is all about Jesus Christ, not about us or how we should all unit but forget that Jesus is the head.

The Church is ONLY the born-again believers that are gathered together. Not the people that come to a Church club house but don't ever talk about Jesus any other place, nor follow what Jesus teaches us.....

The body of Christ needs to wake up and see who the Church is. It is not the building full of people playing country club games. It is ONLY the people that actually meet together to worship Jesus Christ.

How can you tell? They are the ones that love to talk about Jesus, and YES even after the Church Building is empty.

The ones that only talk about them selves and what they are doing and how they can get help, and so on, well....... you get the picture....

They need to come to know Jesus Christ before it is to late and not go to hell sitting on a Church bench thinking that there been in the building some how saves them.

YOU CAN NOT LOVE PEOPLE IF YOU ARE WILLING TO LET THEM GO INTO ETERNITY WITHOUT KNOWING JESUS CHRIST. Not just about Him.

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HisGrace
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quote:
Originally posted by helpforhomeschoolers:
Here is an example and you may not appreciate it; I am sorry if you dont, but for example. If Joyce Meyer were more concerned with the Body than self, Joyce Meyer would never stand in a crowd and say take your checkbook out and write Joyce Meyer Minstries a Check.

May I remind you that this not the "Exposing False Teaching" forum , or the perception thereof.
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helpforhomeschoolers
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This is one of my most favorite passages on this subject. It requires some meditation I think, but there is a wealth of understanding in this passage from Ephesians:

Paul speaking of the unity of the assembled body tells us that there is safety and refuge there...where we are no more tossed to and fro following this one and that one... men who lie and wait to deceive....

Ephesians 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Paul says in the assembled body we speak the truth in love.. we look out for one another...we keep each other on track, accountable, and through our shared wisdom and understanding we grow UP INTO HIM in ALL Things...

15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

I love this picture "fitly joined" "compacted" joined side by side like the correct pieces of a jigsaw puzzle...brought together by what? By that which every member supplieth. That is powerful...What do you or I supply the local body that we are joined with? How can we rightly function and live as Christians apart from the fitly joined assembly? If we try...that means that an assembly is minus our supply and we are minus in our lives that which the rest of the assembly supplies! Think on that a bit. We are meant to be assembled each one of us has a joint to supply. This is how the Body grows Paul says

16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Dont walk as the Gentiles do Paul says... in VANITY of their mind. It is vanity of the Gentile mind that we try to live reliant on ourselves. We must learn to rely not on ourselves and our understanding but on HIM, but we must realize that HE ministers to the Body through the BODY. Ephesians 4:12 speaks to this:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:


17 ¶ This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

To walk as such is to be alienated from HIS life. That too is so powerful. We try to walk this life.... bringing HIM into our lives, when we are supposed to be leaving our lives and entering HIS life.

19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

20 But ye have not so learned Christ;


I fear that we really do not get the concept of assembly or of being ONE body locally. We suffer because of it. You cant have one leg going east and the other west and get anywhere... but this is why local assembly is so important. The issues in Ephesus were different than the issues in Corinth or in Philipi... Our issues are different than those in China, but in what ever our geographic local there must be unity... but that unity can not happen accept that we be assembled and we cannot be assembled as long as we do not know who our head is and that each joint supplieth something to the body in which it assembles. But it must assemble to work.


Did you ever notice that Paul did not go build on another man's foundation? There was a reason. Today we have no assembly...no local church... no elders...we have to many who are lone ranger Christians getting their foundation from some TV preacher that is accountible to no one and was sent out by no one and was called by no one. This is not the Biblical way. I could stand on a soap box all day over the many aspects or issues of our walks that are harmed by this.... but I wont.

Unity... we must have doctrinal agreement to have unity. We must have assembly to have unity; we must have ONE SINGLE head and authority to have unity; we must have ONE single minded focus to have unity; you simply cannot have unity where there is not even agreement on what HE has done and when it was finished and you will never ever have unity as long as people in positions of teaching are more concerned with self than the body.

Here is an example and you may not appreciate it; I am sorry if you dont, but for example. If Joyce Meyer were more concerned with the Body than self, Joyce Meyer would never stand in a crowd and say take your checkbook out and write Joyce Meyer Minstries a Check. Joyce Meyer would say take your checkbook home and write a check to pay for the needs in your local assembly. Is there any there with need? Any homeless? Any hungry? Any struggling to make ends meet? Any Jobless, fatherless, husbandless? Take your checkbook home and care for the needs of the assembly with whom you have been fitted together by God. Then when you have done that, if your whole body feels led let them send some to the brethern in Fenton. That is the Biblical way!!! That is unity in Spirit. That is not what we see today.

Off the soap box. I did not want to take your thread somewhere you were not going, but there is so much much more to unity than taking care not to ruffle any feathers. We ought to be looking to see why we have not unity. We have not unity because we have not all the same Christ and we have not all the same Gospel and we worship not the same God.

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HisGrace
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quote:
Originally posted by helpforhomeschoolers:
Amen. However, there cannot be unity in a body where the parts are not ONE with HIM in the Spirit.

Yes, I believe that is what the scripture in I Cor. 12 is trying to tell us.
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helpforhomeschoolers
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Amen. However, there cannot be unity in a body where the parts are not ONE with HIM in the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 11:19 for it behoveth sects also to be among you, that those approved may become manifest among you;

Divisions in the body serve God's purpose according to this scripture... they illuminate who is and is not in agreement with HIS word and HIS will.

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HisGrace
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It seems as if one of the devil's greatest delights is when he can tear apart the body of Christ, which is often just a simple misunderstanding. If he can divide that unity he has won a major victory.

We should refuse to allow the devil to defeat us and rob of us our joy, and should continue to love our brothers and sisters the way God intended us to do.

1 Cor. 12: 14-20 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

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