[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”2441″ img_size=”full”][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]“The greatest enemy of a good plan,” said business magnate Jack Bogle, “is the dream of a perfect plan. Stick to the good plan.”[1]
Which is fine for businessmen, but it’s terrible advice for people like you and me. We were crucified with Christ. So we no longer live our old lives. Christ lives in us now, so we live by faith in the Son of God, who loves us and gave himself for us.[2]
Once upon a time, Eve had a “good plan” that she got after consultation with an expert. When she launched it, though, it turned out to be a very bad plan and got us all evicted from Eden and robbed us of our daily walks and talks with God.
Fast forward.
Eve got what she wanted. She learned about good and evil. But the knowledge came with a new nature, the nature to sin, and there was no way back, no matter what we did. Thankfully, however, God had the solution. And at the perfect time, he came to earth to restore things.
While he was here, he created a church. A perfect church, not a good one. It was filled at first with imperfect people, but he went to the cross and resolved that too.
The church he created was built, Paul said, “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.”[3] And it was powerful and glorious, and the men and women God redeemed began to tell everyone how they too could escape their broken world and enter God’s kingdom.
Over thousands of years, however, the church devolved into little more than a clubhouse that barely resembles the church Jesus created. Today, the church is mostly about entertainment. It’s powerless and directionless, keeping to itself and leaving the rest of the world to go its own way.
But God will not allow the church or the world to continue like this much longer. He’s about to resurrect it—not merely to look like the early church but to look like him.
And he is speaking to the church today as to the churches in the book of Revelation.
“You have abandoned the passionate love you had for me at the beginning. Think about how far you have fallen! Repent and do the works of love you did at first.[4] Wake up and strengthen all that remains before it dies!”[5]
The church today needs to read the gospels and the Book of Acts to see how far it has drifted from the Throne, then go to the Lord and let him show us the way back home.
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[1] Bogle, John C., The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, Wiley, March 5, 2007.
[2] Galatians 2:20.
[3] Ephesians 2:19-22 NASB.
[4] Revelation 2:4-5 TPT.
[5] Revelation 3:2 TPT.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
