Whats The Manna?

The Church:     What is it?    What is its mission?    Where is its future?

What is it?

When most of us hear the word “church” mentioned we immediately think of a building and a piece of property where we go once or several times during the week.  Many of us have the wrong idea about the church and its function.

 Jesus left His home with the Father to take on human flesh and dwell among His creation. It was all part of the Father God’s plan of salvation for the entire world. Those of us, who want Jesus, want to have a real relationship with Jesus and want God’s forgiveness become part of His gathering or church  made up of "called out ones".

You see Jesus left the Father’s house to come to earth to find or choose His “bride”. When that number is complete Jesus, the bride groom, will one day return for the church, His bride, to take us  back to His Father’s house.

We are part of a living organism or living stones being built up into a living temple of God. Individually, we all have different talents and gifts to use to build up the kingdom of God or the body of Christ. We are all to be contributing to this body made up of different members with Jesus as the head. Submitting to the head just as our own bodies respond to the chemical-electrical stimulation through our bodies vast nervous system.

This gathering, kingdom or church is to be united together to accomplish many goals one of which is found in Matthew 28:19. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;

What is its mission?

As stated above we are to make disciples of people and teach them what Jesus commanded us to do. In my opinion, we have fumbled and dropped the ball in the area of making disciples.  So what really should we be doing? What did Jesus command us to do?

·         To first love God with all our heart, mind and soul.

·         To love our neighbors as ourselves. Have fun, celebrate life and enjoy each other's company. Laugh, cry and just be there for each other. Occupy until He returns for us.

·         We are to minister to people. This word literally means (under rower) to put our hands to the oars, pulling the boat through the water. Ministry will take up your time, money and energy it means you will get your hands dirty.

·         Have grace and mercy to others around you. Remember walking with God is a journey. Every moment we are alive and awake we need to have our eyes open for God’s divine appointments. It’s really all about making time for people and developing relationships with those same people.

·         Gathering together. We were designed by God to need other people for fellowship. You can’t be a lone ranger in God’s gathering of saints. It’s interesting to consider what Jesus meant when He said “that when two or more are gathered in His name He is in the midst of them”. He said this to support the necessity that we need each other and we were never meant to walk alone. Fellowship brings us closer to each other and to God.

·         We are not to judge each other. We are not to show personal preference to others. We are to treat everyone equally. Especially the poor, widows, orphans and the lowly. In God's kingdom we are all on equal ground.

·         We are to show other's God's love. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care! Actions speak louder than words. So don’t tell people you will pray for them, just stop  and pray for them. Read 1 Corinthians 13. Meditate on it, chew it up and apply it to your journey all the time.

·         Take time to model “The Jesus Style” in your own life.  Teach people about Jesus by the way you live at all times in this world.  

Where is its future?

Our future as the bride of Christ, the church body, sons and daughters of God has been called our “Blessed Hope”. It was really the original destination God desired for His creation from the very beginning. God desires our love, admiration and friendship. We were not made for a world where sin exists. We were not created to be selfish. We were not created to be content with living a life of self centered-ness. God has so much more planned for us to experience that we can’t even begin to imagine it. And the journey can begin now.

Our future, some believe, will be lived both in a non-terrestrial space, an extra dimensional space and partly here on earth. We don’t yet have the entire picture of what some have called “heaven”. We are also not sure if we will be on earth with Christ for His thousand year reign or what our eternal home will look like which has been described as “The New Jerusalem”. The only way earthly writers found to describe these places was with earthly language and examples which pale at best. It really is like looking into a piece of polished silver. We just have to be satisfied with the blurry image that we see. All we really have are the visions and the writings of the  apostle John, Paul and others. For we walk by faith not by sight.

So the church is not a building or piece of property but rather  it’s a gathering of “called out ones”. Called out of the world to be saved by the grace and mercy of God’s love. Sent back into the world to make disciples and teach them all about His grace and mercy. We were never meant to walk alone. Our mission field starts right at the front door of our homes with our families, our next door neighbors and all people even  to the remotest parts of the earth.