Take Heed I send out the Decree

December 30, 2006 - Saturday
Take Heed I send out the Decree...
During my quiet time with God this evening He began dropping things into my Spirit that I feel need to be shared and laid out on the table. The following are snippets of my journal entry. If you aren't going to read it in it's whole content dont' even bother lingering here. But if you genuinely are here to read with an open mind I encourage you to kick up your feet, grab some coffee, and read away.

CHANGE:

Has been the theme for the past couple of months. At times I've struggled with the adjustments but I believe that's typical. I am beginning to find acceptance with what's taken place as You are sustaining me. Plus when change stems from You, it's kind of retarded to argue against it. More and more You're opening my eyes to see how You work in the midst of changes. Because with each change despite how much it may have sucked, or how difficult it's been..something good has risen from it. (Next I listed some examples, which I will not share due to personal reasons. Thank you and please continue reading).

I started thinking about the Church and all the changes that have taken place within the church to which I began writing:

I guess I need to know my place within all these changes. Just as does the rest of the youth that are left to step it up. I looked around last Wednesday during service at the leaders of the teams (PJ, Tara, Glory, Amy, etc), and I saw hope for I know their heart has not been influenced by outsiders, nor tainted by religion, nor destructed by the changes. And as I sat there I couldn't help by breathe out in relief for the first time. For we can sit around and mope and play with the ashes of death, or we can look up into God's eyes and ask.'what's next" as He resurrects those ashes into beautiful life.

God doesn't turn His back on His children; it is we who shut the door in His face and hinder His hand moving in our churches. Those that are called to go have gone and will continue to go. Those who are called to stay will pick up their swords and run with their gifts into the sunset of new beginnings. Those who are called to fight will war in the Spirit until something breaks. Those who are called to stay put for right now will and fufill their God ordained roles. But life will continue to move forward, and God won't stop moving. God's not going to put His plans and purposes on pause just because the church is going through changes. God's not into how hard you fall but how quickly you get back up. I also believe God doesn't care who leaves and who stays, but He does care how we handle the changes presented to us. If we continue to look at what used to be how will we be able to gaze upon what could be…what needs to be? If we waste our time looking back to the past as Lot's wire did how can we progress forward? We can't and I don't know about anyone else but I don't want to be stuck in a snapshot of time. I don't want God to pass me by.

We as the body have allowed the mucus of religion to dominate our services. We've allowed a lot of crap to enter into the church that has brothers and sisters in Christ talking junk about one another. This should not be!. Why has the church been consumed with competition with other churches and concerned about numbers? If God's showing up and sweeping souls off their feet shouldn't we rejoice for we are ONE body. And if we hear of a misfortune of another church or that another church is struggling, shouldn't we be lifting them up and praying for them? This spirit of division must be broken. Satan's got a foot in the door because of it and it's time to start fighting for what is rightfully ours.

It saddens me for I feel some people are more concerned with making sure service looks and sounds pretty vs how souls are touched and affected because of the open-ness to the Spirit. I could care less if we sing 1 worship song or 15. I'll take whatever comes with the free move of God. If God wants us to sing 1 song over and over so be it. It He wants us to sing 15 songs 15 different ways we should be obedient to that and not cut it off because half of the congregations' stomachs are clearly saying "time for lunch". I'm pretty sure if God was standing before you and wanted 10 more minutes of our time you wouldn't ditch him for Cracker Barrel. (come on now). If the pastor preaches a word…fantastic, but if he's bent over in travail that's awesome too. I'm not going to sit and look at him like a bump on a log. If God dusts the service with a call to prayer by golly I want to be bent over in travail too!!

God's really been speaking to my heart lately regarding the church. The church has not been called to be sissified and oblivious to what's going on around and within it. We should be the first ones to notice what the enemy is trying to do but some of us will be the last. We are called to be inviting, to welcome the lost into our doors so they may taste and see that HE IS GOOD! Which is ironic because I've talked to so many broken souls who have been turned away from the church. Why? Maybe it's because they were covered in tattoos or piercing. Maybe they preferred the color black and were immediately labeled "gothic". Or perhaps they came dressed with holes in their clothes and reeked of alcohol or smoke. Why have they been turned away?????? Why have they been labeled misfits and thrown back into the pit of hell they were trying to escape from??
If God led them to our house of worship what right do we have to slam the door in their face?, or allow them inside but not even extend the love we are supposed to be known to give? Woah. Does it make you sick yet? Or what about the ones who enter our doors, attend services, but then fall or crumble taking a few steps back. So when they do show back up we just look at them not as the person they are, but as the sin they struggle with. Our approach is so backwards. Why do you think people leave the church and often times do not come back? A Jason Upton song comes to mind as I'm writing: We are one in the spirit we are one in the Lord. And we pray our unity will one day be restored..and they will know that we our Christians by our love".

Do they recognize us by our love? Do they feel love when they step foot into our churches? Are we praying and seeking that union as ONE body? The church cannot stay where it is right now. And this is not to one specific church in one specific region. This is cross-categorical and cross cultural. This is not just a call to the Baptists or the Pentecostals. This decree does not come by invite only. This is not for the faith movement only. This extends to the entire body of Christ. Every believer of the most High God. It doesn't matter where you are in your walk with God or how often you read your bible or pray. If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross so that you may have life and life eternally, then I'm speaking to you.

God is speaking to you. Stop for a minute and allow God to open your eyes to what's going on around us. He calls us to action. No more of what we've been doing-which hasn't' been exactly much. I surely do not want to stand in front of God when He asks, "So Jennie what did you do when the church was covered in thorns and pesticides crawled up and down the walls? "oh you know God I just went to work, got on myspace occasionally, hung out with friends. Oh yeah, I prayed a few times and read my bible when it was convenient for me". HAH yeah right are you kidding me? I want to be able to look into His eyes and truthfully say that I did everything I could to help restore the church to her rightful state.

Wake up to what's around you. Get off your butts and start seeking His heart..start falling on your face and cry out for the church. My gosh, how can we help those around us when we can't even attend to family business? How can we pour out our love to the lost if we're in quarrel with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Change has walked through our doors but with it did not come Crippled and Paralyzed. Change is often necessary for growth. I pray God begins burning burdens for the church, the kingdom, for souls. I pray an impartation of love finds you and explodes into your spirits. I end with two things.

1. 2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

2. Why do you go to church?

Jennie Ingram. 12/30/2006