House Church Talk - Visualizing Christ

[jim sutton]

DanG <dan.dgordon at gmail.com> wrote:

>When the words offer a potential warning - not an accusation, then a

>warning - I see that tenor as watchman.  I may have that all wrong.

Thanks, Dan for clarifying your point.  See?  You did have some specific words 
in mind.  Please be patient with me as I try to share my answer.

As to being a watchman on the wall, it is a good and worthy work.  But if the 
whole city lives on the wall, then why have houses?  And who needs a watchman?

The difference between a true watchman and Job's comforters should be clear. 
 One is called by God to speak, to warn of danger.  And that person speaks 
whatever God's Holy Spirit gives him.  

But Job's friends tried and tried to help him.

See the difference?  One is prompted by the Spirit of God to speak.  The Holy 
Spirit is the power and the Director, according to 1 Corinthians 12, of the 
activity in any Christian gathering -- even one held in cyberspace.  Our 
so-called gifts of the Spirit are not our own ?powers? or abilities.  They are 
really the activity of the Spirit among us, for the good of all.  God at work, 
not men doing their best.

Granted, God uses us all, not usually just one person, over and over and over, 
as in most IC groups, where they rely on a tiny handful to do everything.  But 
we are not all the same in our place or function.  We can't all be smelly 
feet, like I am.  We can't all be charming smiles, like you.

Job's friends were not evil men, Dan.  They were men who had taken the things 
of God seriously for years.  

When Job?s life came apart, they simply did what any of us might do.  But in 
the church, in the body of Christ, we really need to be led of the Spirit of 
God, or else, as Paul warned the Corinthians, there may well be trouble and 
confusion.  All of us mean well, but in order to do well, we need to seek 
God?s leadership through Jesus Christ ? the true Head.

We all know this already, I know.  But bear with me, please.

On this list, as in any local fellowship, we need to hold our tongue if 
another has something from the Lord to say.  That?s Scripture.  And we also 
need to speak up when the Lord is moving us to add a word, a praise, a song, a 
testimony.

But when too many begin to assume (maybe because someone else did?) that a 
certain brother is in the wrong, and then they proceed to pounce on a word, or 
even a silly idea, and teat it as the work of the devil, then we are not doing 
God's work.  We are not building each other up.  We are just saying and doing 
whatever we want -- possibly at the expense of a good brother in Jesus Christ.

Lee's rage and thrashing about when some yoyo, such as myself, came along to 
disturb the "peace" does not speak very well for his being directed by the 
Spirit of God in his actions immediately before that.  

A man of God will not fight for his right to speak again, or to continue doing 
what he thinks God wants him to do.  He won?t mourn the loss of his "freedom" 
to say and do what he thinks is right.  He?ll simply do again whatever God 
directs him to do -- even to his own hurt.  

The activity here against Phil did not come to a near halt because I spoke up. 
 Who or what am I?  Nothing at all.  But the Lord Himself also must have been 
speaking to the hearts of us all.  I merely bore witness to what God was 
speaking to my own heart.  Others, including Lee, halted their activity in 
response to the Lord, not me.

Neither you nor I can call anyone to be a watchman.  God does that.  We do not 
even appoint ourselves to such a work.  And if God calls a brother or sister 
to watch and warn, then he or she will do that work, no matter what the 
objections.  But if we?re acting in the flesh -- as we all do at times -- then 
we will realize our error (hopefully) whenever the Lord speaks to correct us. 
 

God does not need any man to speak for Him.  God speaks the universe into 
existence.  No, He allows us to be used only because He loves us all.

As believers, we are to love and care for each other.  We are to warn and 
help.  But we need to do so in the Spirit of God, not in the flesh.  In the 
flesh, we are vulnerable to attack and manipulation -- not by other people, 
not even by the terrible and dreaded IC, but by the real enemy who seeks to 
destroy us all.  That enemy will use us against each other, and will turn even 
the most innocent desires into harmful activity, if we do not seek the Lord in 
all we do.

Thanks, Dan, for your continued patience.

Jim