I Am Christian - Finale

 

1 Corinthians 12:28

And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, 

diversities of tongues.

    I am Christian and I am the body of Christ. With the help and guidance of The Holy Spirit, I am able to do the things which God has called me to do. I have been anointed with oil and fire, that I might proclaim with boldness and fearlessness The Word of God in all aspects of my being. 

    I am prophets who speak The Word of God which is to come. I warn of the coming judgment on the unrepentant souls. I speak the divine will of God in regards to current events. I interpret The Word of God that those who do not understand may hear and learn. 

    I am teachers of The Word of God. I explain The Word of God from my depth of knowledge and understanding to anyone who wants to hear and learn. I am Sunday School teachers. I am adult learning teachers. I teach The Word with both my words and my actions. In whatever setting I find myself I teach. As Philip taught the Ethiopian when The Spirit of God brought them together: Acts 8:26-40. 

    I am miracle workers and healings. I have the ability through God's power to heal the sick, the wounded and the dying. The deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk, the mentally tormented are delivered and the addict restored. In my own self I cannot do this: it is God working through me. 

    I am helpers. Within the church there are many things that need to be done. As in Acts 6:1-7, when seven certain men were chosen to care for the needs of the growing church. 

    I am administrations. I have the divine gift of being able to organize, run and maintain the business end of the church. I am inclined to be mathematical (choosing where to use the tithes and offerings coming into the church coffers) and methodical (a place for everything and everything in its place). 

    I have diversities of tongues. I speak many languages and dialects that I might spread the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ to all nations, ethnicities, cultures and subcultures. This power is divinely gifted to whomever God chooses to give it to within the body of Christ. 

    I am Christian and I am the body of Christ. I am called to first obey The Word of God, and second, to serve with and in The Word of God. To serve Him with grace, integrity (honorably and ethically), divine wisdom, and in the love of God without which I am just a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1). 

    I am the body of Christ and I am here to serve God. Romans 12:1-13. 

    

VOICE OF TRUTH - Casting Crowns 

WHOM SHALL I FEAR - Chris Tomlin 

IF WE ARE THE BODY - Casting Crowns

    

I Am Christian's Body

I am the body of Christ. I am the church, the bride of the Bridegroom. My body is being washed and purified through the power of God in His Holy Spirit: my Comforter, my Companion: The Friend of The Bridegroom, who prepares the body, the church, to receive her King. 

    I am the body of Christ. I have known pain and I have known sorrow. I have known delight and I have known sadness. My eyes weep over the lost and dying souls who refuse to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. I see the lonely, the forgotten and the ignored. I am a Friend to them all: I raise them up and they rejoice with me. 

    I hear the cries of the lost souls and I bring them the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, for He is the only way out, the only One Who can save anyone and everyone who believes. I speak under the anointing of God's Holy Spirit: The One Who is preparing this body of death to be raised in newness of life. 

    With my hands I touch the lame, the ill and the faint of heart. I encourage, uplift, mentor and counsel with my words: my mouth speaks truth and love. My feet walk on the high mountains delivering the gospel to faraway places. Through my actions and my offerings I send Bibles, whether printed or spoken, in other languages that all may hear and know and be set free from their sins. I am the embodiment of Love and I spread the Love of God where He sends me. 

    With The Holy Spirit this body consistently moves forward. Though I may fall I rise again and again until the day that I will fall no more; on that day I will see Him face to face. For this body of death longs to be clothed with life eternal. It groans inwardly to be with its God and Lord. I am Christian's body and I am being changed from glory to glory: day by day, moment by moment. 

IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE - Kent Henry

MY LIFE IS IN YOU LORD - Hosanna Music

JUST AS I AM, I COME BROKEN - Travis Cottrell 

The Green Fir Tree

 

Hosea 14:8

"..... I am like a green fir tree, from Me is your fruit found.'

God is the source of all our blessings and benefits. We are to turn to no other entity in prayer for communion with wood/crystals/metals/nature cannot answer our prayers, cannot speak with us. 

God created the universe and everything in it but the universe cannot communicate with us either. Only in God can we find everything our heart desires for He is our desire.

When we grasp hold of His outreached hand and cling to Him, He will take us with Him wherever He goes. 

But why does He compare Himself to a green fir tree? The fir/juniper/cypress tree is home to birds, who nest in their branches or use their needles for nest building. It's shadow spreads across the land and covers all who live under it, not just draw near for shelter from the heat of the day. 

Psalm 91:1

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 

Both Israel and the Church are God's extension of Himself to a lost and dying people who need saving, saving on God's terms. We are not here to judge each other's sins, nor to condemn each other for sin. John 3:17

For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

As representatives of Christ we are to be like Christ. God is Judge, we are not. We are the body of Christ: His hands, His feet, His eyes, His heart, etc. With our hands we hold, with our arms we cradle or embrace, with our legs we stand and lift, with our eyes we see what He sees, with our heart we love with His love.

John 13:34

A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.

Only then will our families, our friends, our strangers and our enemies know that there is, indeed, a God who loves them. We are not to hate each other, for in hate there is no love; therefore the love of God cannot be extended to another when it is not in us in the first place.

1 John 4:20

If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

We cannot love each other properly unless we have the Holy Spirit, for it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that our love is truly an extension of God's love and mercy towards all of us. Think of Him as being the sap in the fir tree.  God is the Gardener: He not only created the Tree, He planted it. Christ is the Trunk. We are the branches.