The Lord gave us apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, “Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to DO HIS WORK and BUILD UP the church, THE BODY OF CHRIST.” (Eph. 4:12)
How long do we do this work? “Until WE ALL COME TO THE UNITY OF THE FAITH and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; Then we will NO LONGER BE IMMATURE LIKE CHILDREN. We won’t be TOSSED and BLOWN ABOUT by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to TRICK US with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, WE WILL SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE, GROWING IN EVERY WAY more and more LIKE CHRIST, who is the HEAD OF HIS BODY, THE CHURCH.” (Eph. 4:13-15)
This is what Jesus does with His church, “He makes the whole body FIT together perfectly. As each part does its OWN SPECIAL WORK, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is HEALTHY and GROWING and FULL OF LOVE.” (Eph. 4:16) The Bible tells us that Jesus is “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He spoke the truth in love to a woman by a well in John 4. Just by starting a conversation with her and asking for a drink of water, Jesus broke social norms of race and gender that would prevent a Jewish man from even talking to a Samaritan woman. Then He, after pointing out intimate details of unhealthy patterns she had, offered her HOPE and TRUE SATISFACTION through a relationship with Him by faith.
This all happened because, “God saved us by His grace through FAITH, when we believed. And we can’t take credit for this; it is A GIFT from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are GOD’S MASTERPIECE. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He PLANNED FOR US LONG AGO.” (Eph. 2:8-10) My Lord, “You saw me before I was born. Every DAY of my life was recorded in your book. Every MOMENT was laid out before a single day had passed.” (Psalms 139:16)
Your Personal Pastor -Bill Stockham