Part 2 Is the church the best hope for the world?

I was talking yesterday, about the difference between the institutional church, and the true church which consists of all true believers. This has been described as the invisible church, but is it really invisible, is it intended to be invisible? Well, it won’t be surprised you to learn that I think of myself as a true believer, and I am not invisible! “No kidding you say!” I count myself as a true believer, one whose sins are forgiven and are covered by the sacrificial death of the Lord. I am not perfect, but I am forgiven. I am a mixture of truth and error, righteousness and unrighteousness, sinner in saint, and I am visible!

What I am saying, is that the so-called invisible church is meant to be seen! I said yesterday that it is Christ and His transforming power that is the hope of the World. But that needs to look like something, and what it needs to look like, is ongoing transformation. We need to be seen to be, being changed. It is a process, we are urged to be to present our bodies as living sacrifices, and to be in ongoing transformation (the force of the Greek tenses in Romans 12:1, 2). So when Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like leaven (Matthew 13:33), and that the kingdom is within us (Luke 17:21), then the leaven needs to be seen to be working first on us, on you and me. The Lord has showed me a number of different times that I need to show those I am praying for, those I love, the way to freedom. And I cannot show them the way to freedom, if I am not in ongoing transformation mode!

So then the picture of the leaven starts with the individual. It is intended to move from there to that person’s circle of influence, then from that circle of influence to the community, the city, the nation and then the World (the whole lump Matthew 13:33). Does the task seem daunting, impossible? The Scripture admonishes us to not be weary in well doing? In the end I am the only one who, with God’s help, I can change. I am the only one who can commit myself to ongoing transformation. God is at work when I fully surrender (Philippians 2:12,13). I need to do my part and then leave the results to Him. But I do need to be faithful.

Father, in this life we will never be perfect, in fact Your Word tells us that in many things we all fail (James 3:2). But I believe our ongoing transformation will eventually becomes visible to those in our circle of influence. We can’t expect this to be instantaneous, since those in our circle of influence know us very well, and we have likely blown it over and over. “A brother offended is hard to be won than a high tower" (Proverbs 18:19), but even high towers can be won. Please continue Your work in me father, and in all those reading these posts in Jesus Name Amen