Scripture of The Day
June 2, 2021
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:20-21)
By Ed Henderson (2015)
I recently had to contact our county tag office because of a computer error made by our auto insurance carrier. When they noticed that our truck was titled to a ministry the first thing the clerk asked me was, “where is your church?”. This is not the first time this has happened and it points to a mindset that has helped make a lot of modern day churches impudent. The Pharisees had this same mindset.
They wanted to see a literal kingdom. They were blinded by their own sight! Some people are the same today. When you say ministry, they want to see a brick and mortar building. They have no concept of ministry outside the four walls of a church. The Kingdom of God is in you! It is in me! It is not in a building with a cross or in a church with a steeple. Your ministry, just like the ministry of Jesus, should be predominantly to people outside the walls of the church. You are a sales rep for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The same anointing that raised Jesus from the dead resides in you. Jesus himself said that you and I would do greater things than He did (John 14:12).
Why are we so blinded by religious traditions that have no foundation in the Word of God and have no resemblance to the ministry of Jesus or the home to home ministry of the early church described in the Book of Acts? I was recently flipping channels and watched several Sunday morning church services on television. As they panned the audiences I saw a lot of unhappy and unexcited people with very long and sad faces. These were church members! No wonder young people are turned off. If you don’t have a church that is alive with worship, full of love and joy, and seeing people from all ethnic groups and all walks of life being set free in your services, get out!
It is time for the true church to awake out of their slumber and realize we have a world out there that is going straight to Hell and we are sitting in our comfortable church pews getting fat and lazy. Open your eyes! You are the very miracle someone out there needs. Get out there amongst them and be Jesus to somebody. Don’t you dare succumb to the politically correct crowd. Be the Church!
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel (good news) to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. (Mark 16:15-20)
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