FELLOWSHIP Archives - Make Straight the Way of the Lord

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life

Posted on 20/03/202320/03/2023

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” So said St Augustine in around the fourth century A.D. We are born into this world with a restlessness that can only be satisfied when we find our ultimate home in God. That is the location in which it was God’s intention that we should live and exist. Until we find the way to this, our home, we are lost and alone.

The Father ordained and set in motion a vast creation, His Son spoke forth every element of what was to come into existence and the Holy Spirit perfectly executed each divine command. At the very centre of that eternal plan was the creation of a man whom God named Adam. From the very beginning of Adam’s location in the Garden of Eden, God and man enjoyed communion and fellowship. Adam had a Father. He had been created in the likeness of His Father’s only begotten Son. In addition to his body and soul Adam’s was created with a spirit that he might receive the Life of God into him, that he might forever become a perfect son of God, Adam must make a choice. Eden was his proving ground. The fruit of every tree in the garden except one was good for food. Only the fruit of one tree was forbidden for him to eat. Had Adam and his wife, Eve, taken of the fruit of the tree of life they would have become spiritually alive and in God they would have found their home, their dwelling place forever.

On that proving ground of Eden man through his disobedience became a slave to sin, so God ‘drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life’. Genesis 3:24. Adam and Eve became orphans without the fatherhood of God and all their descendants became spiritually dead. However, God left a promise of that one of their descendants would bruise the serpent’s head. Many centuries came and went until the promised seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus came and we read that ‘when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons’. Thus, the sons of Adam through faith in the atoning death of Jesus, might again enjoy the fullness of the fatherhood of God. read more

FELLOWSHIP

Jesus is ‘the Way and the Truth and the Life’

Posted on 17/08/201823/03/2023

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” So said Augustine of Hippo in around the fourth century A.D. We are born into this world with a restlessness that can only be satisfied when we find our ultimate home in God. That is the location in which it was God’s intention that we should reside. Until we find the way to this, our home, we are lost and alone.

The Father established and set in motion an eternal plan, His Son spoke forth every stage of creation as recorded in Genesis chapter one and the Holy Spirit carried out each divine command. At the very centre of that eternal plan was the creation of a man whom God named Adam. From Adam’s introduction into the Garden of Eden, God and man enjoyed communion and fellowship. Adam had a Father. He had been created in the likeness of His Father’s only begotten Son. In addition to his body and soul God had created Adam with a spirit. His spirit had not yet been made alive. In order to become spiritually alive, that he might forever become a perfect son of God, Adam must make a choice. Eden was his proving ground. The fruit of every tree in the garden except one was his to enjoy. Only the fruit of one tree was forbidden for him to eat. Had Adam and his wife, Eve, taken of the fruit of the tree of life they would have become spiritually alive and in God they would have found their home, their dwelling place forever.

On that proving ground of Eden man became a slave to sin, so God ‘drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life’. Genesis 3:24. Man became an orphan without the fatherhood of God and he and all who would issue from him became spiritually dead. However, God had left a promise of the One who would bruise the serpent’s head and ‘when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons’. Thus, the sons of Adam through faith in the atoning death of Jesus are no longer orphans, All who have come to faith in Jesus are now the children of the Living God. read more

FELLOWSHIP

A Fragrance of Christ

Posted on 15/07/201815/12/2018

1 Corinthians 2:7-10. ….but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written, “things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
1 Peter 2:4-5. And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13. And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the body of Christ; Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Recovery Version.
1 Corinthians 14:26-33. What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18. ….but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 2:14-15. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;

As the times of the Gentiles draw inexorably towards their close, the Lord is revealing many secrets to His own which have remained hidden until now; ‘the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory’. He is unveiling more and more concerning the things ‘that God has prepared for those who love Him’….through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

Central within the purpose and plan of the Godhead is that there is to be a bride for Christ. Although it may seem incomprehensible to us, who perhaps cannot imagine that the Godhead could lack or need anything, a desire was created in Jesus for a counterpart, one who will complete Him. His counterpart will one day forever be the wife of the Lamb who shall fulfil and satisfy that desire. In God’s plan, formed in eternity past, Jesus’ bride, His wife, would be comprised of members of God’s highest created being, man. Fundamental to His unfolding plan God created Adam, in the image of Jesus, referred to in Luke 3:38 as ‘the son of God. read more

BODY RELATEDNESS

Built Together

Posted on 02/07/201802/07/2018

John 11:49-52. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
Ephesians 2:19-22. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
Ephesians 4:11-16. And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Caiaphas the high priest cannot have been aware of the true significance of his prophecy, because his motive in uttering those words was murder. However, the statement added by the Holy Spirit informs us of God’s purpose in allowing this deed to be carried out, ‘and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad’. In these words also lies the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham so long before, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” Genesis 22:18.

We cannot doubt that God’s great purpose to gather together all who believe, both Jew and Gentile into one, will indeed be fulfilled. Jesus died for this. We Gentiles, who have found faith in Jesus, ‘are no longer strangers and aliens, but….are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household’. read more

FELLOWSHIP

Members One of Another

Posted on 14/06/201801/07/2018

Romans 12:4-5. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Galatians 3:26-28. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
John 17:20-23. “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity….”

When the Scriptures speak about our destiny in Christ, it is as though we have already attained to it. For instance ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God….’ Ephesians 2:8. Compare this with ‘For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God’. 1 Corinthians 1:18. The Lord Jesus is both the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. That which begins in Him will always be completed perfectly in Him, yet there will be a process to be gone through. The process by which we are saved is described in Philippians 2:12-13. ‘So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure’. The Holy Spirit, who enters the believer at the instant of salvation, is Himself ‘God who is at work in you’. Each one who believes must permit Him ‘both to will and to work for His good pleasure’.

The passage in Romans assures all those who have believed unto salvation that ‘we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another’. This follows the Trinitarian pattern of the Godhead. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are members of one another, yet together they are one God. A wonderful expression of this pattern as applying to believers, is found in Revelation 19. Those who during their life experience have allowed the Holy Spirit to complete God’s work in them according to ‘His good pleasure’ will corporately be presented to the Lord Jesus as His wife at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Following the marriage supper the Lamb, sat upon a white horse, will be displayed at the head of ‘the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean….following Him on white horses’. Surely the ones dressed in fine linen will be the individual members who so lately had comprised the wife of the Lamb. read more

BODY RELATEDNESS

Our Gathering Together To Him

Posted on 07/06/201829/08/2018

Colossians 1:18-19. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him….
Colossians 3:16. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.1 Corinthians 14:26,31. What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification….For you can all prophesy one by one , so that all may learn and all may be exhorted;

The Lord Jesus as the Head of His body, the church, is the sole director of its operation and coordination. Thus, every true gathering together of the saints will be orchestrated in heaven. In the mind and will of God there is no such event as a meeting of God’s people that is pre-planned as to order and content.

Within the saints, who are gathered unto Jesus, exist all the riches of divine life and wisdom available to be expressed as the Holy Spirit shall prompt utterance. Every contribution shared, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, will blend together to glorify our Lord and Master and rejoice the heart of our Father in heaven. If all who are assembled were to speak and act perfectly and precisely in accordance with the leading of the Spirit, then their symphony of testimony, exhortation, admonition, revelation, teaching, worship and praise offered would bring such gladness to our Father’s heart as would, for all those present, be an experience never to be forgotten. Perfection of obedience to the leading of the Spirit may not be possible in this earthly sphere, yet if all those gathered will yield to the leading and direction of the Holy Spirit, then their meeting together will be in such contrast to a regulated religious meeting that those who have experienced it may never want to return to restricted conditions again. read more

Make Straight the Way of the Lord

Seeking, Finding and Doing the Will of God

Category: FELLOWSHIP