Messiah’s Community Verses the Word “Church”

 This may seem like a radical statement, but stick with me and I will very quickly show you the truth.

You would not put up a Civil War flag representing the South outside of your "church" building to attract people who are black to your "church", but you continue to use the words like "church" and "christian" which have a horrible history to the ethnic Jewish person. 

Maybe it is because you don't know that history. Go to your favorite search engine and look up the term, "Pogrom". Here   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogrom#List_of_events_named_pogroms    about 1/2way down the page is a table you can look at. "Christians" or people identifying as "Christians" were at the heart of most of the persecution against Jews. 

Did you know that just before Columbus was "sailing the ocean blue" Spain was expelling all Jews from Spain at the request of the Christian leader?

The Crusades?  Oh boy!  Read all about it here,  https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/christian-crusades-timeline-1095-1258  

More bad stuff to read about (the Inquisition)    https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/dominicans

So, hopefully now the statement at the beginning does not seem so radical.

I hope we will all consider taking down the "Dixie" flag and putting up words like "Messiah's Community" and "followers of the God of Israel" "grafted in branches" and I am sure there will be others if we take a creative approach to this.

As the times of the end draw near and one of our assignments is reflecting the heart of the God of Israel for the ethnic children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob I would hope we would be willing to change.

Unity and giftings in the kahal of God

UNITY and giftings in the kahal of God.

Years ago in YWAM I was taught “Unity is corporate humility”.  I am just beginning to be given revelation as to the meaning of this. 

Unity in marriage is so hard to attain and maintain.  That is just 2 people!  We are called to unity in local, corporate expressions of the Body of Christ.  So, it is impossible to achieve in marriage, and the sooner we come to that “death” the better, how much harder is it among a group of “individually gifted” brethren, who have to submit their giftings to the Lord and to each other?

Part of the truth of the gathering of God’s redeemed at a local level, commonly misnamed the “church”, is being in each other’s lives speaking the truth in love.  All the giftings working together, each one submitted, even to the voice of the Lord speaking through the youngest, newest spirit led member of the group.

“Pastor” is one of the giftings but somewhere along the line, OUT OF FEAR, it became THE gifting.  The other “5 fold” ministries folded and only this one remained.  Then adding insult to injury, we began to educate and train people for this position and it became an unhappy mixture of “gifting and education” and God hates mixture.  The “Pastor” is an important balance in the five-fold giftings that God gave for the gathering of His people, but all by itself it is not a balance but a hindrance to the move of the Holy Spirit!  The “Pastor” is always about protecting the sheep, guarding, keeping everything safe and sanitary.  “Teachers” stretch people, challenge their understanding of God, push people to a deeper place in God, make them uncomfortable and encourage “lively arguments” over the things of God that we are passionate about.  “Evangelists” keep pushing our hearts over the “four walls” and out into the streets, they have an anointing to make such acts normal and every day, they reveal the heart of God for the lost and keep it ever in the forefront of the local work of God.  “Prophets” reveal what God has done in the past, what He is doing in the present and what He will do in the future, they are key in preparing the Body for the future, but they are also equally key in equipping the Body to truly and fully live in the moment.  “Apostles” are (to me) the thumb, being “in God” in such a way as to demonstrate, the “apostolic meekness” that spends itself making the other giftings more effective.  Keeping the other giftings in balance and sharp.  Guiding the local body and connecting them with other bodies or gatherings to strengthen connections and to open the eyes to the greater work of God, the “salvation history” living and active among us.

Only prayer with humility can be used of God to turn this ship around.  I have no idea what that will look like, but I feel it will be “small” and broken and humble and not at all like what we are currently used to.

Psalm 22:22 and Hebrews 2

I will tell of Your name to my brethren;  In the midst of the assembly H6951 I will praise You.  Psalm 22:22

Strongs H6951, qahal, pronounced kä·häl'

blue letter bible reference   http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H6951&t=NASB

saying, 
“I WILL PROCLAIM YOUR NAME TO MY BRETHREN, 

IN THE MIDST OF THE CONGREGATION G1577 I WILL SING YOUR PRAISE.” Hebrews 2:12

This "New Testament" verse is the greek translation of Psalm 22:22, the word congregation is the Greek work ekklēsia.

Strongs G1577 pronounced ek-klā-sē'-ä

blue letter bible reference http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G1577&t=NASB

This verse from James shows another word that is translated in the English, from the same Greek word.

Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church G1577 and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;  James 5:14

Synagogue is the building that Jews were meeting in, in New Testament times.  

Somewhere along the line, we began using the word "church" for the building where we meet.

So our building had a different name than "their" building so we are different from them.  That is wrong.

But ekklesia is not the name of a building and it is synonymous  with the word kahal.

So to the best of my ability that is my point.  

The ekklesia of God and the kahal of God are the same thing.  His story is one story,  His vessel in the earth to convey that story is one vessel.

The Pharisee in the mirror

Off we went to a convocation in Ohio, that seeks to touch and know the heart of God regarding the times of the end.  My wife and 3 of my kids went with me, all the other years it was just Elijah and I.  Every year at this conference, I confess either to a group, a couple or one person that I am not the husband that I know God is calling me to be.  This year about a week before going, God dropped it in my heart that I was a Pharisee in the way that I treated my wife.  I could have mercy and grace for so many people, but for my wife it was always, "this is wrong", "you could do better here", "this could be improved", "this was wrong", yeh I know, really helpful inspiring words.  I began to process God's word to me and repented in my heart, but next to a waterfall on the last day of the conference God parted the waters that divided my heart from my wife and in brokenness we fell into each others arms confessing, forgiving, loving.  God knew what was coming.  We returned home to a storm, but, by the grace of God, we have put up our umbrellas and gone singing in the rain.  A dear friend is rejoicing deeply in her heart, because she has seen the divide in our marriage and has been praying faithfully for unity harmony and love.

The main revelation I came away from the time in Ohio with, on a larger scale, was that the Kahal of God is a beautiful truth.  Words matter and when we act like God started a totally new thing at Pentecost, it re-erects a dividing wall that Christ came to destroy.  (Ephesians 2) The small but very real and very true stream of God that has been flowing through the faith of Abraham and on down to us was widened and deepened at Pentecost, but it was not "birthed".  Words matter and "church" is a word that has been used to harden hearts, justify wars, establish false systems, and worst of all allow pride to grow in the heart of man.  I intend to be intentional about using Kahal of God when God gives me the grace to truly share, why words matter.

That revelation lead me to understand that because it was much more full of grace than the word 'church' the word 'kahal' would be a place of mercy.

That led me to the thought that the only sin that leads to death is the rejection of what the Holy Spirit reveals about Jesus.

That led me (in part) to a dangerous book.

A book called "Oriented to Faith" by Tim Otto.  It makes the case that people who identify themselves as homosexuals should find a safe and welcoming place in our gatherings, gossips do, people worshiping daily at the idol of mammon do, envying people do, malicious people do, pride filled, arrogant people do...
Told you it was a dangerous book.

May God tear down, pluck up, destroy and overthrow everything that He needs to do for His glory and may He build and plant what will bring glory to His name.  And let it begin with us, ChuckLaura

Beautiful truth from Reggie, revealing the heart of God.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4NOZu86Be8