| Photo by Khalil Yamoun on Unsplash
The Church is God’s plan to reach the city and touch the world for Jesus. God did not send His Son to die on the Cross to form religion but to provide a way of salvation for every single person!
In Ephesians 4: 15-16, Paul tells us our purpose as followers of Jesus. “Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Jesus, who is the head of His body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the others parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
We see the plan of God for His church:
- To speak the truth in love. We are to speak the truth of God’s Word, which means we do not change the message of Jesus so that it is popular culture. God’s Word is God’s Word, which is the central message that Jesus came to save us and restore us to God. But we do not use the truth as a hammer, we speak God’s Truth with God’s love!
- To grow in our personal walk with God to be more like Jesus. This is the process that every follower of Jesus is on. Our goal is not titles, gifts, and positions, but God’s goal for our lives is to make us more like Jesus. Are we still growing to be more like Jesus?
- If we are followers of Jesus, we need to be connected to a church. We are just one piece of the puzzle, but God takes all the individual pieces and puts us in His body church to make us a beautiful puzzle. How many missing pieces of the puzzle are nowhere to be found? We are all a piece to make God’s church what God wants it to be.
- In God’s church, we all have a purpose to make others grow to be followers of Jesus. So that His church is healthy, growing, and full of love.
Lord, help me to live up to Your purpose for my life! I pray for all of us to be a part of God’s puzzle to make Jesus real in our world today!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Pastor Ronald Squibb has been the International Christian Church (ICC) Lead Senior Pastor at Staten Island, New York, since 2011. He draws many experiences from his over 40 years as a pastor and significant emotional life experiences.
His new book, Following the Journey with Jesus, which he co-authored with Daniel McNaughton, was recently published and is getting rave reviews. His daily devotional appears in this publication.
