going Fight Club!

At the gathering of the Ecclesia Clear Lake, on January 28, 2007, Jack Wisdom from Ecclesia-Taft spoke. The following are words and phrases that might make a little more sense on where I feel God is truly leading us as individuals walking the “Christian walk” in this localized geographic area south of Houston, Texas.

He warned us right off the bat that we should watch out for people that say there are only two types of people! He then went on to say there are two types of Christians.

1. Go with flow Christians : they do what they are expected to do; they
do what their parents expect them to do; they have to look a certain way in which they groom and dress themselves; they tend to stay in Holy huddles not venturing out into the sinful world of heathens; It’s a safe bet to go with the flow and it’s comfortable

But this was the actual group that Jesus was against: The Pharisees and Sadducees of the Jewish religion.

2. Call to fight the powers Christians : In Mathew 16;13-16 Jesus asked the disciples “what are the people calling ‘the son of man’?” …… John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets….. Who do you (the disciples) say I am? Peter answers saying, you are the υἱός “hwee-os” Χριστός “khris-tos” (Greek) meaning the anointed one. You are Christ the son of the living God. You are the liberating King! Mark 1:15 Jesus states “ for the kingdom of God is at hand, repent……” To the Jews and especially Peter this was the prophesy that had been foretold in the old testament (2 Sam7:8-17;Isaiah 11:1-9;24:23; Jer. 23:4-6) they were expecting a ruler to establish himself on earth.

Another ruler had already established himself on earth and this was Satan and his Kingdom. Two kingdoms were now on a collision course; Satan’s kingdom who has hostages of sin and death and the Kingdom God with Christ as the liberating king of sin and death saying “I’ve come to set the captives free” (Luke 4:18).

Peter when asked realizes when he answers Christ’s question that the battle is now “on”. For Jesus says to him “blessed are you for this is a disclosure from God Himself.” And then for the first time we see this word mentioned, Ecclesia. Jesus speaks to Peter saying “on this rock I shall build my Ecclesia (church) on this confession that I am the son of the living God. (When you break the root ἐξ “ek” and καλέω“kaleô” It literally means - to be called out of. We as Christians are to be called out.)

This church, Christ spoke of, was no pansy church, it was called out to fight (to go fight club), to mobilize for a struggle, fight the way Jesus did; sacrificial love in that he died for us; a serving attitude to everyone and sacrificial pain bearing the wounds of lashing, thorns in his head, a sword in his side and emotional verbal lashings. He stated that the gates of Hades shall not be able to come against it (the church). We the church will storm against the gates to proclaim the goodwill of his peace. We will not try to hide in peaceful places as the “go with flow Christians” do.

We, the southern churches of Houston Taft Ecclesia, are being called to this good fight. We are to be doing: small loving things for God and foolish (in the eyes of the world) acts for God that eventually bring people into His Kingdom and free them from the kingdom of sin and death. This is Ecclesia!!!!!

A follow up to this was a true story of a Mrs. Carter in Baycliff. She is being taken home by one of the At the Waters edge men in his car. She says to him as they arrive at her house” this is the first time that a guy has not tried to get a sexual favor from me in a car!” Sometime later when another man from the church is filling up her car with gas , she asks “ How do you know when it is full?” The man responds, “It automatically stops when it is full.” She responds, “I’ve never had my tank full.” Her husband is very wary of the people trying to help them but has come to the conclusion that he does like the shampoo that he gets every six weeks. He has never shampooed his hair. Both of them are beginning to see that Christians are real and trustworthy.

The benediction before we parted said; “May this great God who called you…Keep you broken enough to mend others. Keep you hungry enough to feed others. Keep you wondering enough to find the lost. Keep you secure enough to present the truth. Keep you out enough to see the broken. Keep you real enough to be touched by the hurting. Keep you sensitive enough to feel the others pain. Keep you weak enough to reach out to the strong. Keep you strong enough to reach the weak."

For those of you that weren’t able to attend I hope this gives you an insight into the walk that Ecclesia is on and for those of you that were there a refresher of what we heard. May God Bless you all as you continue to pray on which way the lord is leading you.