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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | How is the body built? | Eph 4:12 | Mommapbs | 73490 | ||
How is the building up of the body of Christ accomplished? Does Acts 20:32 provide an answer? | ||||||
2 | How is the body built? | Eph 4:12 | EdB | 73536 | ||
Mommapbs Seems no one was in a hurry to jump in. Well I will. Yes your right Acts 20:32 does give us give a fundamental element needed in a building up the body. However the body of Christ is built of all believers so each time we encourage, edify, and exhort each other we are strengthening and building up the body. Each time we gossip, complain about someone, or argue we weaken and tear down the body of Christ. I believe the reason why we see the so much power in the church of Acts was, they were all in one accord. EdB |
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3 | How is the body built? | Eph 4:12 | Mommapbs | 73544 | ||
Thanks for the reply EdB! I am delighted that you have chosen to think on these things. I know that there are issues that "divide" the Forum at times, so it is my desire to not be inflammatory in my questions. As I think about this, I am wondering if we confuse sanctification with "building the church?" Obviously, the Body of Christ will be stunted if the individual members are not growing, but should we be more thoughtful about separating the two processes? What about times when we are not in agreement. I think of the sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas (the encourager!) over John Mark (Acts 15:39). Did this have a weakening impact upon the church, or did the separation that occurred contibute to church growth elsewhere? Can we have unity without uniformity? I am bothered by this because I do not always agree with the "theology" I hear from the pulpit. How can I challenge a teaching without being divisive or being labelled as one who "breaks the unity" of the body? mommapbs PS: If you prefer not to tackle these questions, let me know and I'll re-post! |
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4 | How is the body built? | Eph 4:12 | EdB | 73550 | ||
Mommapbs I always said God is the God of addition and multiplication not the God of subtraction or division. However as I grow older I see God many times allows division to come to get people to move on. We in the church have a tendency to become comfortable and allow complacency to move in on us. There is a world out there to tell about Jesus, but many sit in the pew and cry don’t make waves. Yes your right, the dispute between Paul and Barnabas created two missionary teams instead of letting the statue quo of one remain. I think when we find ourselves time and time again dissatisfied with our situation we should start looking around us. Maybe God is trying to show us it is time to move on. If God shows you it is your time to move on. Please do it rightly. Go to your Pastor with a gift or token of appreciation telling him how much he has feed into your life. If there are any problems apologize for any problems you might have caused him seeking his forgiveness. Then explain that God has shown you it is time for you to go to on in your walk with Him. Make sure you let your pastor know your not leaving in anger but your following God’s leading and you need to move on. Ask him to announce this to the church and have you come forward and to be prayed over and let him send you out. When you get to your new place never speak unkindly of anything that took place in the old church. EdB |
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5 | How is the body built? | Eph 4:12 | Mommapbs | 73602 | ||
Good counsel EdB - since my husband is the spiritual head of our home,the decision to leave the church is his to make. At the present time, he is wounded, but feels not called to leave. Because he does not have a thorough knowledge of God's Word (not do I!), he does not always recognize when things that are preached are inconsistent with the Gospel of Grace. A couple of years ago, the pastor of our church told us that he rejected my husband's offer to help in the church because he had examined our giving records and determined that we were not tithing. Recently, the pastor said from the pulpit that if a person is not tithing, it is a demonstration that he has not settled the ownership issue with God and is not fully surrendered to the Lord. Because we do not feel the need to defend our giving records to any "man," we are able to forgive this and we have learned to wait on God for His direction, allowing HIM to dertmine how HE wants to use (all that HE has given) us. My personnal struggle is in not having the freedom to challenge a teaching that I believe is not consistent with God's Word. In another message we were told that challenges from the body were divisive and only served to break the unity of believers. Several months ago, after seeking God's direction, I went to another of our Pastors to express concern over a message that he had given without noting that he had taken it from another well-known national Bible teacher.(The circumstances that led to my discovery of this were completely a "God thing")Plagerism in the pulpit CAN be a problem and when I expressed my concern, he basically told me that my feelings were not important because God's Word was preached and that was all that mattered. So now, I'm just a tad "gun shy." This has certainly influenced my thinking about the "church" but I'm not about to throw the baby out with the bath water. Through these experiences, my relationship with the Lord has deepened and HE has taught me! Blessings, mommapbs |
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6 | How is the body built? | Eph 4:12 | EdB | 73636 | ||
Mommapbs I am not defending your pastors actions but since he has made the rules about tithing known you have a choice follow them or be against them. We both know rebellion is not of God. As far a plagiarism by your pastor, again not to defend him, God may have lead him to the message as what was needed to spoken to your congregation. If it was word for word there is a bigger problem that plagiarism, your pastor isn’t preaching he is reading. However if it was merely based a sermon on the thoughts of someone else and used them to birth more thoughts and used only bits and pieces of the other sermon I see nothing wrong with what he did. Most of the "big" time preachers have sermon writers, men and women that write all or part of the message researching illustrations, applications, scriptures, past sermons to put together their sermon. I see nothing wrong with a local pastor taking advantage of some of this research using it in his message. EdB |
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7 | How is the body built? | Eph 4:12 | Mommapbs | 73676 | ||
EdB - I so appreciate your thoughts. As far as titihing goes, we MORE than tithe, but our giving has always been God directed - what I suspect the pastor took exception to was that we had given a very generous donation to a parachurch ministry -(shame on whoever leaked that information!) and he most likely was bugged that the church did not recieve the same gift. But when he confronted us, my husband explained that God did NOT direct us to give in this way! So, "We must obey God rather than men!"- Acts 5:39 Since the Pastor has linked tithing as a means (HIS?) to measure of one's spiritual maturity, do you understand why I am concerned? And YES, with regard to the other pastor,the sermon was verbatim.(in fact, it was a message from one of YOUR favorite authors!) The message was sound, but it bothered me that the pastor did not cite his reference since the notes I took could have been lifted from the text I read on an internet site. To his credit, I will say that he has been more careful to give cite references where appropriate in his more recent sermons. I agree, there is nothing wrong with using what God has spoken to others, but I still believe that we must identify it as such. Anything I post is original; and in my writings, I try to be mindful of noting sources that have inspired me. Basically, if God is speaking to little old un-seminary trained me, then I should expect God to speak to our preachers as well. And yes, He does speak to us through others (that's what I thought we had preachers for!) - but please don't plagarize- the world is watching us too! Once again, thanks for your counsel. Hold down the fort as we are off to the cold of the Rockies for the next ten days! mommapbs |
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8 | How is the body built? | Eph 4:12 | EdB | 73731 | ||
mommapbs You got it! EdB |
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