{"id":3570,"date":"2024-05-17T12:08:15","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T12:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/67.223.117.105\/~gracetruthpress\/?p=3570"},"modified":"2024-05-17T12:08:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T12:08:15","slug":"christ-is-worthy-of-a-healthy-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/17\/christ-is-worthy-of-a-healthy-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Christ is Worthy of a Healthy Church"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I had laid in bed an hour already, eyes wide awake. It was late. We had an unexpected and very difficult ministry meeting at church. My wife and I had stood in our kitchen for a long time crying together. Our middle daughter, seven years old at the time, had come into the kitchen at one point and asked if we were fighting. \u201cNo, honey. Mom and Dad are not fighting. We are as close as we have ever been. Go back to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now I was lying awake with a million thoughts racing through my mind. I could not sleep. I got up. It was a cool, not cold, October night, and so I walked. I walked through our town. I wept. I prayed. On repeat, I listened to\u00a0Worthy<\/i>\u00a0by Beautiful Eulogy.<\/p>\n

I walked a couple of hours up and down the streets of the ghost town. Perryville shuts down at 9:00 pm. This was closer to 2:00 am.<\/p>\n

At this point, it is not necessary to divulge the details of the meeting. Suffice it to say I was presented with the opportunity to give up or push back. By the kind mercy and grace of God, I chose to push back.<\/p>\n

I know the proclivities of my sinful heart. I know there is pride always lurking. So, I do not say this as one who is as sanctified as he needs to be. But I believe the one driving motivation for not giving up was this:\u00a0Christ is worthy of a healthy church<\/b><\/i>.<\/p>\n

Here is the first verse of Worthy by Beautiful Eulogy that I seem to have mulled over thousands of times:<\/p>\n

“What a joy it is to stand in Christ forgiven
\nRighteousness and eternal life when salvation is given
\nAll my sins paid for and I could never repay You
\nBut now my greatest delight is to trust You and obey You
\nMore than a genre of music, worship is a heart-change
\nI gladly bow my knee to the God who never changes
\nEvery day I’m changing, becoming more like Christ
\nAdoring what is good, adorned with the fruits of new life
\nAnd my hope is not a fantasy, it’s built upon a reality
\nThat You will keep Your promises according to Your sovereignty
\nI will see Your face and be safe under Your reign
\nWhen my faith turns to sight and only perfect love remains
\nYour people are my people no matter where they come from
\nThe church exists according to the works of God’s Son
\nSo when the new creation when we’re gathered in His name
\nIt will be obvious that He’s the one that’s worthy of all fame
\nCause the worthiness of Jesus is the reason we belong
\nSo worthy is the Lamb will forever be our song”<\/i><\/div>\n

I am writing this post today to encourage you. Christ is worthy of a healthy church. Worship is not always about feeling happy. Read the psalms. But when we are convinced of the worthiness of the Christ we can worship, we will worship, even in the midst of the darkest night.<\/p>\n

I made it back to bed that night. God granted me sleep. And nearly two years later He has sustained us. And no matter what happens in the future, Christ is worthy.<\/p>\n

Do not give up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What can someone aspiring to missions be doing now to best prepare for cross-cultural kingdom work someday? This article will be a follow-up to the previous article on “What is a Missionary?” It has three application points for young people to consider before heading to the field. These are directed primarily at young people, but are also for pastors who have aspiring missionaries in their churches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-3570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-history","tag-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3570\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}