Mrs. B

This Bible Study has tied right in with the previous Sunday School lessons that we have had....Summoned to Repentance/be Humble/Labor, etc. Although I did not participate until late in the study, foremost in my mind is always my responsibility as a Christian to others and to God. One concern for myself in the past has been my own judgemental attitude towards others not only in the church but also in other arenas. How has this affected my ability to witness? I shared with my Sunday School class how sad I would be to get to heaven and find that none of my family was there, some of my church family was not there, some of my friends and coworkers were not there....Why? Because I "played undercover Christian" or because it was more important to be liked by everyone than to be truthful....lovingly truthful....and be alienated from them? Am I missing the mark? Maybe I need to remove the "beam" in my own eye before I try to remove the speck of dust in my neighbor's eye. There is more to studying God's Word.....practice is the action of being a Christian/Christlike. I have work to do....personal work to do. But first to steal a cliche', I need to "Let go and let God." By that I mean truly allow God to use me to do His Will...reliquish the "controls." And while God is still working on me, I wll continue to labor in His vineyard because the idea of "rocks cry out" is something akin to a horror movie. It made me look at/evaluate myself but I think that to get the full impact, I need to adjust my schedule and do the entire study. Continue to pray for my time management skills.

I see the church as the Bride of Christ. When I was growing up, girls were taught to look forward to getting married. The wedding gown was imagined to be like no other dress ever seen before but most of all it was to be white, unmarked, unscarred, unwrinkled...perfect. This is how the Church as the Bride of Christ should be.....perfect, holy, blameless. I think that Paul is talking about the future church....after Christ has come. In Ephesians 5:27, it says "To present her to himself..." We are still awaiting His second coming, so we have not been presented yet. I don't think that we are ready anyway. Maybe I am disillusioned by what I have seen in the churches that I have belonged to and/or associated with. I sometimes jokingly say....If I had not known Jesus before I met/worked with some the Christians that I have come to know, I don't think that I would make much of an effort to know who this God is that they claim to love, worship, and serve. That to me is a sad thing to say and I often wonder how many people do we/I adversely affect with our/my un-Christlike ways.

From ANGELONLINE....(Ephesians 5:26) How does the word of God work in the cleansing, purifying process? The Word of God shows that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, that we were cleansed and purified of our sins by His Death on the Cross. How should the word of God be implemented in a congregation to achieve these purposes? The Good News should be the emphasis of the Church. The Word should be used in Prayer, Worship and Praise and should be the priority of the congregation. How can we use the word for purification without relying upon threats of hellfire to scare people into repentance? By preaching God

Thanks for the scriptures.

Q3. (Ephesians 5:26) What constitutes "holiness" of a church? Is the church holy because of Christ's sacrifice for her, or because of her own actions, or both? How can we be holy without being legalistic and judgmental toward one another? 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."[a] I Peter 1:15-16. The first thing that has always come to mind when I think of the word "holiness" is perfection but we are not perfect, so, I don't know. I wonder if sometimes we zero in too much on the "what" to do to make ourselves holy/perfect rather than understanding "why" we are holy. But then maybe they both go hand-in-hand. We are holy because He is holy but also we can strive to be more holy/Christlike when we study His Word and put it into practice. We can refrain from being legalistic and judgemental if we practice agape love. Sometimes I don't think about that as much as I remember that I am a sinner saved by grace and have no right to judge others becuase Christ died for my sins, all of my sins...the open and the secret...just like He did for everyone else.

Q2. (Ephesians 5:25) What does it mean that Christ "gave himself up" for the Church? What does this teach us about God's commitment to us? Was this sacrifice altruistic or self-serving or both? Christ gave up/sacrificed his all and all, his very human being/existence for us/me. (I'm sorry it means more to me if I keep it personal.) I can remember sitting on the fence (being "lukewarm") when it hit me one day just how much Christ did give up for me. Not just Christ but God too. The idea that He gave "his only begotten son" for me was heart-wrenching. I have children and the thought that if God were to ask me for one of them the way He did Abraham was a bridge that I never wanted to cross. But yet God did just that for me. That was what made me get off the fence, stop being wishy-washy and rethink just what my commitment to God was supposed to be about. For me this sacrifice was altruistic. It is God's desire that none should perish. He gave His Son so that we all can have the opportunity to live forever with Him. On the flip-side, my first thought about self-serving was that it implies selfishness which is something that God could never be. But then I thought about how as a believer it is my responsibility to spread the Good News. It brings to mind our Sunday School lesson a few weeks ago...."the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few," think about it...God himself is not down here preaching/teaching about His Goodness, that is what we do...can that be called self-serving? (I am going to stop, I don't want to ramble.)

Hi, I am Mrs. B. I was born and raised Church of God in Christ but am now married to a Baptist minister. It is week 5 but this is my first time on the Forum page. I chose to do the "Vision for the Church" Bible Study because I wanted to better understand what my responsibility is as a Christian in today's society as well as the church. I am looking forward to growing in my relationship with God. Pray for me; I have got to develop better time management skills.