You are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country, and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.” – Ephesians 2:19b
You have to take the book off the shelf and apply the principles to your life. Hmmm, what a revelation! It can’t just look good on the shelf if you want to feel good inside yourself.
One day I wrote in my journal, as I picked up the book “Purpose Driven Life”, by Rick Warren,
“Jim and I purchased this book in 2004, while living in Washington. We had every intention of attending the weekly workshops at church and going through the book (together) as a group study. It never happened!
“Here I am alone, Jim passed on to eternity (in heaven) 3 years ago, and I find myself asking those same questions… ‘What is my purpose for being here? And now I have added, ‘Why was I left to carry on alone?’
“Six years from the time I actually put this book on my library shelf, I have decided to give my life meaning – to find out God’s purpose for my life. I look forward to these next 40 Days with God.” – signed, Shila Spice
I had a real revelation this morning after reading chapter 17, “We need to recover and practice the biblical meaning of membership. The church is a body, not a building…You were created for a specific role in Christ’s body, but you’ll miss this second purpose of your life if you’re not attached to a living, local church. We discover our role in life through our relationships with others and significance comes, not from within yourself, but from being a part of Christ’s body.”
I like the way Rick Warren describes this, “We need to recover…” To me it reinforces the fact that yesterdays are gone – learn from what didn’t work from the past mistakes, such as “not needing a church to be a Christian”, or perhaps “I have already served in the church and now it is someone else’s turn”. The catalog of reasons for not being a member of, or not participating in, or regularly fellowshipping with a local body of believers are too numerous to list and they don’t matter anyway – excuses never do!
Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of years I fellowshipped in church with many a great body of believers. Somewhere along the way that fellowship would wane with flimsy excuses that we just moved again and I would have to start all over finding a church and “whine, whine, whine”! We are to fellowship with other believers to encourage us when we did it, disciple us when we lose our way, and to pray for one another – the purpose goes both ways. We are there to learn to live in harmony with our fellow believers, we are there to forgive and reassure. We are there to love one another as Christ loves us. It is a training ground for when we all will live together for all eternity. God wants us to get it right before we get to heaven and with His grace we will if we practice! We are to live in harmony with other believers. Don’t sweat the small stuff and don’t let differences keep you from fellowshipping with the body of believers. There is no perfect church, look for one that is grounded in God’s word and that Christ is in the center.
Life is not about me, it is not about you. It is about God and His purpose for each and every one of us. I am only on day 17 of the 40 day journey. Continuing the fellowship and living in harmony with other believers helps us to develop our own purpose. I have missed out; missed out on a lot of the joy that worshipping with other believers bring by trying to “go it” alone. It is easy to love the lovable, but it takes Christ’s love to love the unlovable or those who seem different. It is true that we develop this love by committing to a local church. We learn to live and fellowship with one another by doing – by repetition.
I have to say that the book, “The Purpose Driven Life” is not going the way I thought it would go. There is no magical pill, there is no unknown secret, there is no same answer for finding your purpose if you seek it with the idea of obtaining things of this world. Our purpose is to live out our lives the way God designed us. All of us have a design that will honor and please Him. We are made to worship Him and we are made to love each other.
The book sums it up better than I could say, “You need a purpose to live for, people to live with, principles to live by, a profession to live out, and power to live on. God intends for his church to provide these… Worship helps you focus on God; fellowship helps you face life’s problems; discipleship helps fortify your faith; ministry helps find your talents; evangelism helps fulfill your mission.”
Thank you God, for helping me to grow into the person you made me to be. Help me to remember that whenever I become careless about fellowship with other believers, I’m moving away from you. Forgive me for the times I’ve gotten detached from your Body, the church. Help me to stay connected and committed, and love your church the way you do. This is my prayer today and tomorrow until Jesus comes again in His Glory.
…and thank you God, for wonderful disciplers such as Rick Warren. If you are not fellowshipping in a bible based church with Christ’s body of believers, I pray you find one today.
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