IDOK DEVOTION FOR FRIDAY, JULY  2, 2010

Praise Reports, Prayer Requests and Updates:

I have been concerned and somewhat dismayed by conduct in churches and my today’s reading Text has addressed it.  And if I am ‘preaching to the choir’ (oh I hope I am); and not one IDOK  is at odds with a fellow church member or their Pastor, I will be absolutely ecstatic with joy.  And if that is your  case, please read on anyway, a little reinforcement in your armor against future attacks is always good.  Here’s the verse.

Philippians 1: 27 Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, . . . that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; (Here’s a link to read the verse in its entirety.)

Standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together  – not against one another – for the faith of the gospel!

One mind.  The Mind of Christ.

One Spirit.  The Spirit of Christ.

Just what is the purpose of the Christian Church?  Would you agree it is  to equip the Saints to evangelize the Lost?

Matthew 28: (New American Standard Bible) ¹⁸And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  ¹⁹” Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,  ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Let me remind you for purposes of this verse in particular that the number 10 in Scripture is the number of wholeness.  It denotes complete, nothing lacking.  And with that in mind lets read  Luke 19:¹³And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.

All of us,  the Servants of JESUS, are called to Occupy ourselves with His Business until He returns.  And what is His Business?

Ephesians 4: ¹¹And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,  ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

So what’s up with American Christian Churches?   What’s up with ‘circling the wagons’  within the Body?  What’s up with this group collecting over here to talk about that group over there?  Do we not have enough politics in Washington?  Why are we politicking within the members of the Church?  Whose Church is it anyway?  The Pastor’s?  The Deacons’? The Members’? Was not it Christ Jesus who died for the Church?  Is it not His to say what we do and what we don’t do?   And did He not say My House Shall Be Called a House of Prayer?

Could it be that the dissention today is because folks are politicking instead of PRAYING and OBEYING?

In three words: STOP IT, NOW!

To review the list of names for prayer, please click here.

DADDY, I am going to do it because You have given it and when it posts what You do with it is entirely with You.  And in the meantime by Your Grace I commit to You before these witnesses that I will not bicker or politic against my brothers and sisters in Your Body, LORD JESUS.  And I will continue to pray for the Local Body You have joined me to and I will be a peacemaker with everything You have put in me.  I will by Your Grace seek You and Your will rather than my own for Your Church.  And DADDY I am praying right now and on and on that You will send Your conviction and Your repentance to us.  I pray You will forgive us, I pray You will bless us with wood-shed whippings if that is what it takes to make us holy in our daily living.  DADDY I am so sorry; please forgive us and change us in JESUS NAME AND FOR HIS HOLY, AWESOME, DESERVING SAKE.  Amen and amen.