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A Glorious Church
Theme: A Glorious Church
Eph 5:27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.
Eph 1:9 God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure.
Eph 1:10 And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ-everything in heaven and on earth.
Eph 1:11 Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago.
Eph 1:12 God’s purpose was that we who were the first to trust in Christ should praise our glorious God.
Eph 1:13 And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.
Eph 1:14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.
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Col 1:26 This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to his own holy people.
Col 1:27 For it has pleased God to tell his people that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. For this is the secret: Christ lives in you, and this is your assurance that you will share in his glory.
God’s church stands above reproach as a glorious entity, placed in the world as His gem and bride to hinder evil and provide a place for lost souls to find, grow, and function in Him.
The true church of Jesus Christ is not a building, but it is composed of people who have been redeemed and have surrendered their lives to the Lord. The nature of the church depends on the people who often worship in the church building. If they are individuals who have given themselves wholly unto the Lord Jesus Christ, then they will exhibit the nature of Jesus Christ as part of His church.
Salvation involves more than only a single act of repentance. The scriptures refer to Jesus as Lord far more than they refer to Him as Savior. In other word, we receive Him as our Savior through obedience to the plan of salvation, but we also must live daily lives that demonstrate He is our Lord.
Rom 12:1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice-the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?
Rom 12:2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.
Basically, the church is composed of people who have turned from their old lives of sin to lives completely dedicated to God. Church buildings are only edifices that provide a meeting place for the members of the church. Believers have met in caves, under the trees, in homes, and in modern church building. Today at CNLC, we thank God for our new building, because we would like to have the House of Worship to be better than our own home.
Comfortable buildings are enjoyable and desirable, but it is far more important that believers have God’s Spirit with than it is to have a magnificent edifice without the Spirit of the Lord.
As the beauty of the Tabernacle was inward and not outward, so is the beauty of the New Testament church. The beauty of the church is glorious because the believers whom comprise it. The church is glorious because the believers are glorious before the Lord. As members of the church of Jesus Christ, we are pure, freed from sin, and completely dedicated to God.
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I survive by God’s grace!
Was this really happen to me? I ask myself each day.
I am one blessed individual who survive through Cambodian holocaust, and I thank God each day that I am alive and able to worship the true living God of the universe and acknowledged His salvation. During my 4 years in Khmer Rouge regime, I saw it all and lived through the unimaginable genocidal regime.
April 17th, 1975 Cambodia was liberated by communist Khmer Rouge, I was 12 years old and lived through war almost all my childhood life. I was rejoiced when realized that the war had come to an end, unfortunately my overwhelming happiness was last only 24 hours. So, at short notice and under threat of death, my family and the inhabitants of towns and cities were forced to leave. The ill, disabled, old and very young were driven out as well, regardless of ours physical condition: no-one was spared the exodus. People who refused to leave were killed; so were those who didn’t leave fast enough, and those who wouldn’t obey orders. The new chapter of year zero had just begun for Khmer Rouge revolution…
From 1975 through 1979 Under Pol Pot’s leadership, and within days of overthrowing the government, the Khmer Rouge embarked on an organized mission: they ruthlessly imposed an extremist program to reconstruct Cambodia on the communist model of Mao’s China ideology. The population must, they believed, be made to work as laborers in one huge federation of collective farms. Anyone in opposition – and all intellectuals and educated people were assumed to be – must be eliminated, together with all un-communist aspects of traditional Cambodian society.
All political and civil rights were abolished. Children were taken from their parents and placed in separate forced labor camps. Factories, schools and universities were shut down; so were hospitals. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists and professional people in any field were murdered, together with their extended families. Religion was banned, all leading Buddhist monks were killed and almost all temples destroyed. Music and radio sets were also banned. It was possible for people to be shot simply for knowing a foreign language, wearing glasses, laughing, or crying. Two of Khmer Rouge slogan ran “To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss.”, and another one ran “Starve you to dead is better than shoot you and waste the bullet”
Working for impossibly long hours with a small portion of rice soup and vegetables, and I barely carried myself to perform daily task job assignment. My body was nothing but skin attached to my bones, all I my day and night dreams were food and food and more food.
If I would had known about Bible, I would had said this must be another Moses trip to the promised land. Unfortunately this trip was not led by Godly people, instead it was led by the evil one. We slept and ate along the rice field, no roof on top our heads and were given a small portion of rice. Personal relationships were discouraged; so were expressions of affection. People soon became weak from overwork and starvation, and after that fell ill, for which there was no treatment except death.
I personally still have a vivid memory, after we reached to deep jungle labor camp called “Punley” in Battambang province. There were thousands of innocence people die along the way and in the camp, including my mother. When dead had overwhelmed the living and there no one can bury the death. Khmer Rouge forced us to another camp. Again starvation, disease and execution continuo to haunt us each day. On a personal note I lost my parents, brother, sisters, nieces, nephews and many cousins through starvation, decease and execution. Civilian deaths in this period have been estimated at well over 2 million.
In late November, 1981 I arrived in United States, and my new life in third country has began. I used to constantly searching for the meaning of life, and questioned to the high power why this happen to me and is life really fair?
In early 1982, I was introduced to Jesus Christ at Lakewood Church (Pastor John Osteen), but I still don’t know who is Jesus and what is the difference between Christianity and Budhist. Then I quit going there after a few Sunday. It seemed the weight of my sin is more heavier than God’s righteous conscience. Two years later I attended Christians World Center (Pastor C.L. Dees), and my Christian maturity seemed to start taking root there. With Sunday Bible study and elders guidance of theirs profound explanation, my little seed of faith has began to grow.
My doubts and foggy question in my head about life on Earth had evaporated. Now the true meaning of life is realized when I keep my heart tune with God’s heart.
Without Jesus Christ everything is vanity, a waste, or boring. Life in this present world is based on profit and loss. Solomon apparently thought the profit of life only involved eating, drinking, pleasing one another, and fulfill lusts of his flesh. But those experiences are the most shallow experiences of the temporal person. They are only vanity, for unredeemed mankind knows nothing about life of fulfillment and service in Christ Jesus.
While fallen mankind pursues his dreams, he fails to appreciate and understand the cycles of nature and the true meaning of life. The law of sowing and reaping is a law set in nature by the Creator and nothing can or will change the law.
However, without God mankind quickly becomes disillusioned and bored with the cycles of nature. Mankind needs to realize that God’s unchangeable nature and mercy account for the continuance of this world. Only by His mercy does life exist and continue, and every good thing comes from His hand.
It is God’s constancy that allow us to receive any good and perfect gift from God, including our redemption. If God were changeable and indecisive like other gods of mythology, mankind would never have a hope of knowing the condition of his soul. God’s constancy is our ally. God’s unchangeable Word is basis of our hope for eternity which is called faith.
What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. Hebrew 11:1
Now if there is not Jesus at after death, I would be the same condition as everyone else who passed through this Earth.
Today I am glad that I am free from oppressions and knowing Christ Jesus is my only savior and I will be rejoice by choosing the right God. Thank to the Lord Jesus Christ who die for my sin, and allow me to understand the meaning of life on Earth and beyond which called eternity and I know He lives.
