Several times I have talked about modern day church and the way it is way off base from what it should be.
It is not that I am against church, but it is a matter of being clear on the proper meaning of the word. Not that we have to be politically correct in description, but I feel we need to be clear on the matter in regard to our mindset.
Normally when the word church is mentioned, we all think of a building we go to on Sunday to learn about God. We also think in terms of how much we go to church as being a guide to how spiritual we are, or how close we are to God. We think of the doctrines, rules and regulations placed on us by the church as ways to make us better Christians.
We need to reset our thinking. The Church is not a building. The Church is the bride of Christ, all of us who are saved by grace. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Each of us are equally important and useful parts of the body, and Christ is the head. The building is just a place where we can meet and conduct spiritual meetings and Christian social events. As the Church, we can assemble together any day, any place and any time with fellow believers and enjoy real fellowship while talking, eating a meal or just sitting around relaxing.
Just as the mindset we have when we talk about the word of God. We first think of the bible. Of course the bible is special, it is inspired by God. Inspired, not hand-written. God inspired men to write, and that means men still had their twist on it, their thoughts, their background and way of life. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, ‘All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness’. The word of God is useful, but it takes the Holy Spirit to breathe life into the words we read.
The perfect, inerrant, living Word of God is made plain in John 1:1…In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. There is certainly nothing wrong with reading the inspired words of God in the bible, but we need to focus on the fact that the Word of God is alive and living within each of us as born again people. To many times we want to make the bible seem like it is part of the trinity and equal with God.
Although sometimes it may seem unimportant of how we think of church or the Bible, it is very important that we understand what is really meant. The old mindset of a building and a book need to be replaced with the fact that the Church are those of us who are redeemed through the blood of Christ and the Word of God is Christ Himself, alive and living within us.
Done with Religion 