"INSTEAD OF TRYING TO GROW BIGGER
CHURCHES, WE OUGHT TO BE TRYING
TO GROW BIGGER CHRISTIANS.
THE CRUCIAL QUESTION IS NOT HOW
MANY PEOPLE ARE IN OUR SEATS BUT
HOW MANY PEOPLE WE ARE SENDING
OUT INTO THE WORLD TO BE THE
PRESENCE OF CHRIST"
-Rich Mullins
We love to talk about heaven today. What a wonderful place it will be. Nobody wants to go there right now but at the end of life, I sure want to inhabit that place. But does not God want to inhabit us NOW? Does not God want to bring heaven down to earth (read Rev.21:1-5). What do we really think Jesus was saying when he taught his disciples to pray "your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?" Does God want to make what is already happening in heaven to happen on earth? Are we supposed to be simply earthy people or heavenly men and women?
I remember reading the exciting biography of Brother Yun and the under ground church. He was a man who lived out things one reads in the book of Acts. He even escaped from Prison like Peter did miraculously in Acts. When Brother Yun was imprisoned for his Christian faith, they simply asked him, "Are you an earthly man or a heavenly man?" If he said earthly man they would of let him go but if he said heavenly man, he was declaring himself a Christian and therefore would be locked up and tortured as a criminal.
Does not God ask us the same today? Are you an earthly man or a heavenly man? Are you showing a glimpse of heaven on earth or are you living in such a way that one can not tell which one you really are? No matter what happens in this world, God is calling forth his beautiful Bride, the church, to extend God's kingdom on earth. Maybe that is why the Bible also calls it the kingdom of heaven?
CHURCHES, WE OUGHT TO BE TRYING
TO GROW BIGGER CHRISTIANS.
THE CRUCIAL QUESTION IS NOT HOW
MANY PEOPLE ARE IN OUR SEATS BUT
HOW MANY PEOPLE WE ARE SENDING
OUT INTO THE WORLD TO BE THE
PRESENCE OF CHRIST"
-Rich Mullins
We love to talk about heaven today. What a wonderful place it will be. Nobody wants to go there right now but at the end of life, I sure want to inhabit that place. But does not God want to inhabit us NOW? Does not God want to bring heaven down to earth (read Rev.21:1-5). What do we really think Jesus was saying when he taught his disciples to pray "your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?" Does God want to make what is already happening in heaven to happen on earth? Are we supposed to be simply earthy people or heavenly men and women?
I remember reading the exciting biography of Brother Yun and the under ground church. He was a man who lived out things one reads in the book of Acts. He even escaped from Prison like Peter did miraculously in Acts. When Brother Yun was imprisoned for his Christian faith, they simply asked him, "Are you an earthly man or a heavenly man?" If he said earthly man they would of let him go but if he said heavenly man, he was declaring himself a Christian and therefore would be locked up and tortured as a criminal.
Does not God ask us the same today? Are you an earthly man or a heavenly man? Are you showing a glimpse of heaven on earth or are you living in such a way that one can not tell which one you really are? No matter what happens in this world, God is calling forth his beautiful Bride, the church, to extend God's kingdom on earth. Maybe that is why the Bible also calls it the kingdom of heaven?
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