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To: My2Cents
Jesus is all you need. Don't let anyone place their teachings, or any intermediary, between you and Christ.

Thanks, I guess I am trying to figure out if the RC church is an intermediary, or a helping hand.

89 posted on 01/01/2005 5:47:39 PM PST by Rodney King (No, we can't all just get along.)
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To: Rodney King
Any church should be a helping hand. In Eph. 4:11-13, we see that certain offices were appointed for ministry in the church, but that whatever the office (apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, evangelist), they all work in unison for one goal: that the people of God would be filled up to the fullest with the Spirit of Christ. (See Eph. 3:14-19 also....Paul's prayer for the people in the church there is that they would be rooted and established in love, and have power to grasp how wide and deep and high and long is the love of Christ for us, SO THAT we might be filled to the fullest with the Spirit of God Himself.)

Someone once wrote that the gospel can be summarized this way: Jesus gave His life FOR us, so that He might give His life TO us, in order that He might live His life THROUGH us. Bringing Christians to the place where they understand who they are in Christ, what they have by virtue of their spiritual union with Christ, and then that they might actually experience Christ living through them, is the whole point of our faith. Church "doctrine" and busywork has little to do with this. The organized church has only one purpose (well, two): bringing people into the Kingdom, and then helping believers to experience and enjoy the life of Christ lived out through them.

In the 30+ years I've been a Christian, my experience and observations are that there are not many formal churches that actually fulfill this role. They set themselves up as intermediaries (and, frankly, this is true of churches regardless of denomination, Protestant or Catholic). As I think I posted earlier, there is no perfect church, or church which fulfills its God-given purpose perfectly. But in the "church universal," you will find many people who understand who they are in Christ, who Christ is in them, and who are growing in their experience of seeing Christ active in their lives. (This is the source of joy, by the way.) I'd say that in asking what your are in this thread, you have an sense of what's really important.

God bless.

138 posted on 01/01/2005 10:41:46 PM PST by My2Cents (Is it OK to wish people a "Happy New Year"?)
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