ok... so here's a tip....
Not mine.... not my tip... just some words from T. Austin Sparks... that I believe with all my heart...
"The Lord has not called upon us to form churches. That is not our business. Would to God men had recognized the fact! A very different situation would obtain today from what exists, if that had been recognized."
"It is the Lord Who expands His Church, Who governs its growth. What we have to do is to live in the place of His appointment in the power of His resurrection. If, in the midst of others, the Lord can get but two of His children, in whom His Life is full and free, to live on the basis of that Life, and not to seek to gather others to themselves or to get them to congregate together on the basis of their acceptance of certain truths or teaching, but simply to witness to what Christ means and is to them, then He has an open way.... "
Sparks wrote this in 1936 .... I was born in 1935... :)
Guess it's taken me a while to finally get it.... and 75 years later.... now I'm trying to say it.... because nothing has changed... the Church is still functioning just as it always has... business as usual... forming more organizations called Churches... "gathering others to themselves or to get them to congregate together on the basis of certain truths or teachings"... lifeless ... powerless ... ineffectual... unchanged lives...
"Would to God men had recognized the fact! A very different situation would obtain today from what exists, if that had been recognized." (T.A.Sparks - 1936)
Hope springs eternal... more and more are seeing it.... stopping what has been... no more business as usual.... just waiting for Him to do... whatever it is He has in mind....
:)
"The Lord has not called upon us to form churches. That is not our business. Would to God men had recognized the fact! A very different situation would obtain today from what exists, if that had been recognized."
"It is the Lord Who expands His Church, Who governs its growth. What we have to do is to live in the place of His appointment in the power of His resurrection. If, in the midst of others, the Lord can get but two of His children, in whom His Life is full and free, to live on the basis of that Life, and not to seek to gather others to themselves or to get them to congregate together on the basis of their acceptance of certain truths or teaching, but simply to witness to what Christ means and is to them, then He has an open way.... "
Sparks wrote this in 1936 .... I was born in 1935... :)
Guess it's taken me a while to finally get it.... and 75 years later.... now I'm trying to say it.... because nothing has changed... the Church is still functioning just as it always has... business as usual... forming more organizations called Churches... "gathering others to themselves or to get them to congregate together on the basis of certain truths or teachings"... lifeless ... powerless ... ineffectual... unchanged lives...
"Would to God men had recognized the fact! A very different situation would obtain today from what exists, if that had been recognized." (T.A.Sparks - 1936)
Hope springs eternal... more and more are seeing it.... stopping what has been... no more business as usual.... just waiting for Him to do... whatever it is He has in mind....
:)
