Zegeye

I think submission is the only one thing that the church can offer to Christ for He does everything through our lives ones we submitted ourselves to His service and leadership. Thus submission means the willingness to submit oneselves to the authority od Christ to be used and guided by Him. Thus my own submission to Christ entails that I can't whatever I want to do and say anything I like. A dear price had been paid for my life and I live for His service and His service only. That is why a submitting congregation is one that is prayerful, harmonious, outward looking, growing. This means that the head of the church is Christ, He is the one who is the leader, the provider and the one who owns the vision of the Church. We are His body and we are there to accomplish the tasks as the Head directs and so wishes to accomplish His vision in us and for us in obedience and love.

The main purpose of building a healthy local congregation is to allow the growth of the body of Christ in unity by allowing every one of the body of Christ to serve the Lord according to the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to each one.

Strategically it will be more fruitfull if pastors are involved in equiping the body of Christ rather than being chaplains as tradationally used to be. It is effective for the pastor to train the whole congregation to care for each other than to expect the pastor to do all the visitation, counselling, preaching and administration. Equiping the saints might involve teaching the congregation in the word of God for them to be able to pray, teach others and it may also involve going out togather and minister. This is exactly what Jesus did, when he trained His deciples and gave them the permission to do as he had taught them, they grew in their understanding of how faith in God can be expressed in practical ways.

What does an evangelist in a local congregation look like? An evangelist in a local congregation acts like a bridge between the church and the world. He preaches the good news of Jesus Christ and calls people in the world for repentance and leads them to follow Christ and join the local congregation to worship and grow in the Lord. A local church evangelist usually functions attached to the church that would give him the financial and pastoral backing he needs and he would always attaqch his new converts to his church for pastoral care. In doing so he builds the body of Christ telling the good news; by leading non-believers to Christ and by helping them to ease their way into a church community.

I personally believe that there are apostles and prophets today, and they are there to build the kingdom of God, the church. But when we talk about apostles and prophets we are not necessarily talking about their physical presence only. Apostles and prophets are dedicated servants of the Lord who brought the message of God to His people in time of need, taught His people to live the life of saints and glorify the Father in so doing. Furthermore, the body of Christ is built on the teaching of the apostles and the prophets and that is the word of God, the bible.

God gives us various gifts with grace according to His will and for the purpose of building His Church, our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are thus to use those gifts to their fullest to administer the grace of God and bless our brothers and sisters and fellow man. IAnd this implies, if every part of the whole body, the church, does its part according to the gifts given to it by God and held together by Jesus it will be strong. God ensures that within each congregation there is at least one person with each gift needed for the body to function and grow. If one or more within the 'body' deny their gifts or don't exercise their gifts, the whole 'body' suffers, just as one malfunctioning organ of a physical body can debilitate the person's wellbeing.

I think Love is the most single important thing that I need to practice daily when it comes to unity. And it is also the most important thing I need to check my self and repent about in my Christian life on a daily basis.

In baptism we die for our flesh/sins ald resurrect for Christ through the Holy Spirit, made members of the body of Christ, and called to kingdom of God, for the Father has elected us. In simple terms, Baptism is the symbolic death of our old lives and rebirth as new beings into the fellowship of all believers, not into any particular denomination. Thus there is one batism that unites the body of Christ, the church. The administration of babtism could however be different for different denominations; that really does not matter as long as it has one purpose of uniting christians to the body of Christ. But again this does not mean that our desire to unity should blur our biblical understanding. We have to balance between compromising practices and biblical truths. We can not change the biblical truth in the name of unity. The truth should rather be the only uniting factor.

One Body One Spirit One Hope One Lord One Faith One Baptism One God and Father These are the seven elements that unite all Christians; and I think they are all compelling ones for me. There is no unity as such in the spiritual realm with out the unity of The Father, the Lord and the Spirit; we can not either be united if we do not belong to the one Body of Christ, we were all baptised by faith to share His kingdom having shared the same Hope.

It is the Holy Spirit working in us and through us that brings about the unity in Christ through out His kingdom on earth. The task of maintaining the God given unity is, however, upto us who belive in the One God, One Holy Spirit and One Christ who united us with our father God and our brothers and sisters in Him through His blood. The bond of peace is an outcome of love that incepts from a unity and harmony in Christ and the Holy Spirit in the kingdom of God the father. Therefore, I believe that unity is one of the most important goals of a christian congregation.

Humility and gentleness, patience and tolerance, and love are the most important requirements for Christian unity. Love is the most important character amongest all as it is also the reflection of God Himself is Godly and it is of God. It is also the most difficult one to develop as it requires the giving away of self and the denial of the flesh.

Jesus called me to follow him and and dress Him be like Him. He loves all of us and He wants us to be one in Him and love one another. When we live the life we were called to live, then it is inevitable that we maintain the unity of the church as we all drink from one spirit and all have one God. The unity of the children of God in His spirit is actually the basis for the strength of the kingdom of God. Where ever there is unity there is blessing and there His power and grace works to bless those who believe in Him. It is not thus worthy of our calling to allow divisions to occur, since we are one in Christ. We need to hold on the one God and concentrate on our mission on earth, which is our calling. To follow and serve His purpose is our prime calling.

God dwells in the holy temple and that is the church - the congrgation. As we worship the Lord, cleansed through His blood and learn the truth we are shaped to be His holy temple where He can dwell with confidence The congregation makes this happen when every one of the body of Christ dies for their flesh and start to live for Christ who bought us paying the price that no one can pay. And this takes the shape of one body where evey part strives to give its beat and all make sure that the kingdom of god and His purpose on earth is fulfilled.

The teaching of the apostles and the prohets is the basis for our belief, they guide us in our quest for the truth and assist us in leading our life in Christ who is the cornerstone of the Kingdom of God. Individual christian's life is built on their teachings as is the congregation's. Moreover, Christ is the Cornerstone of Christianity. Christ is the one who died for our salvation. The Church, the congregation is built on the cornerstone and it grows into the holy temple of the Lord God being carved and dressed by the craft of the teaching of the holy scripture which God spoke to us through the prophets and apostles. As the congregation worships God and starves to teach and support one another with the gifts of the Spirit it grows into His Holy Temple. This growth occurs when we fellowship and when the body of Christ becomes one.

The Church is to be considered as a household, a loving and caring family where the Lord is the father and the congregation are the children. As brothers and sisters, the congregation are supposed to learn to love one another and rever the Lord and put all your faith on Him for He is the provider and the Head of the house. Some of our brothers and sisters could be difficult to get with, but you never choose your brothers and sisters, we nweed to learn to love one another. Christ died for all of us and He wants us to be bound by his love. A true congregation of the Lord is His Household, where He is the center of everything and where through His love the children unite themselves to serve His purpose not their fleshly individualistic motives. To be in and with the family of God, the congregation, at good times and bad times in serving His purpose and to keep your faith focused on Christ is what is all Christianity about. Some brothers and sisters may feel that they do not need this company, or that they can do by themselves if God be with them. But the point is this "is it the will of God for man to be alone?" Ofcourse not! No matter how bad or good our brethren might be they still remain our brethren, we need to worship the Lord with them and we need to be built as his holy duelling together.

We are the citizens of the Kingdom of God. As citizens of the kingdom of God we need to be holy for He is holy and live by the constitution of the kingdom, which is the bible.

To be in the presence of God and to enjoy full access to Him is probably the single most important factor in life. One may have all the material wealth a person can aspire, but with out the full access to God it is all useless; there is no peace and eternal purpose that can be achieved through material wealth. Access to God is similar to a diplomatic relation in the essence that it gives you the advantage of communicating directly any time. Adam and Eve had full access to God, but they lost it due to sin. But thanks be to God, this lost previlage was reinstated back to its original intent through the work of Christ Jesus on the cross. Now through Jesus we have full access to our father God. This access fulfils the two great commandments and God's purpose for us. Our continued communion with God will allow us to express our love to the Lord with all our heart soul and mind through worship. On the other hand, if we have the right relationship with God, we will be able to love our neighbor as oneself. And this is God's purpose for us.

God's power works with in us - the church, the believers super abandantly, I mean in great abundance. But this do not seem to be evident in the church of Christ today mainly because beleivers today seem to be caught with the physical world and lack the faith to request God's power to act and the will and thirst to experience it. If we excercise His power however, it brings Him glory for His mission on earth will be fulfilled through us.

Christ is the head of everything on earth, He is the leader and the source of the power for the church. The church as His body is the meanse through which He impacts the world. And thus Christians can excercise His power with faith to serve Him and accomplish His mission on earth.

The significance of Paul's statement that "God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus...." is great. As He holds the authority, power and dominion over all spirits and beings, we are commissioned to excersise this power as His body on earth. Irrespective of our human nature we enjoy the fruits of His truimph and excercise the power through His leadership.

Paul's saying that Christ is seated at God's right hand in the heavenly realm is significant for the gentile Christians. Their life was highly influenced by spirits and they know that; besides knowing that Christ is enthroned in His fathers right hand and that He is above all authority, power and dominion gives them the confidence to believe in Him and to fight all the evil forces through His grace. Christ's power is immeasurably great as all spirit beings and powers are under His feet and by His grace they are also under the believers feet.

Paul's saying that Christ is seated at God's right hand in the heavenly realm is significant to the gentile Christians for the fact that their lives were influenced by various spirits. He is telling them that Christ is enthroned and he is above all rule, power and dominion including the spirits which used to influence their lives. All the spirits and beings are under His feet, He is the authority above all the powers, the king of kings. We as belivers are also supposed to rule over these spirits through His grace.

It is true that the carnal eye is unable to see things in the sprit realm. For this very reason Paul's prayer is referring to the spritual eyes to open to decern His incomparable great power in the heavenly realm. This power operates in the heavenly reralm but it influences our life on earth. The resurrection of Christ is the example Paul used to illusterate the level and type of power that will be avialable for us who believe in Him. Blessings,