You may go to church every week. You may love to sing and pray in public and whatever else the church you attend encourages you to do. But if you don't study the Word you are not doing something that Christ would have us to do. We come to know Him through being obedient to His law, through prayer, fasting, meditation, fellowship and studying His word.*
The Bible is Gods revealed word to mankind. It contains knowledge that we wouldn't easily come by otherwise. It contains Gods laws to guide mankind into righteous behavior. It contains the history of Gods dealing with Israel whom God chose to bring the knowledge of His word and His will to mankind. His word records what happened when they obeyed Him and when they disobeyed Him. It records the praise and wisdom of Israel; what they learned from following Gods word. And, it contains prophecies about what the future holds for nations who have been obedient and those who have been disobedient. The God of the Hebrew scriptures stepped out of eternity and became a flesh and blood human being to walk among us and set us an example of how to live; to offer Himself as a sacrifice to pay for our disobedience and to free us from the penalty of death that sin brings. He now sits at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven and acts as our high priest. That is who Jesus the Christ is. Every letter, every word, every punctuation in every page of the Bible is a reflection of Christ...the Word who became flesh.
The Bible however is incomplete. The whole story has yet to be written. And there is, at least, one other book that reflects the Body of Christ. We are told about it in the scriptures...the Book of Life wherein the names of the saints are written. A common blessing in Judaism is "May your name be found in the Book of Life." If you're obedient to God...it is.
Every believer who endures to the end will become a part of the story. Every believers life will be preserved for eternity written in the pages of the book of life. That is a part of what it means to be 'In the body of Christ'.
God uses us to spread the Gospel, the good news, in different ways. Some are called to be minsters, some to make our computers work better, some are on the airwaves and some to sweep the floors of His churches. All who serve God from the greatest to the least are a part of spreading His gospel to mankind. There are people who put bumper stickers on the backs of their cars and there are people who become conduits of Gods light and His love through their lives.
I am reminded here of two stories from the Book of Martyrs that took place when the church was new. The Roman empire saw this new religion of the Jews as a threat to their power so one emperor decreed that all Christians should be put to death if they would not renounce this new faith. Christians were murdered across the empire, some in horrific ways. One of these early believers was a young girl of only 19. She was arrested and threatened but she refused to renounce her savior. For her crime against the empire she was sentenced to die in the coliseum. On the day of her punishment she was led out into the middle of the arena where gladiators fought for the entertainment of the Roman masses. The crowd laughed and jeered as lions were released into the arena. They expected to see this young child of God run and scream in horror. What they saw instead was her remain calm and begin to sing a hymn to her God. While the lions tore her body apart the crowd fell silent. When they saw that this young girl had found a steadfast faith that gave her such inner peace many of them yearned for the same. Among them three thousand souls came to Christ that day. I have no doubt that day God found a new jewel for His crown. What a Roman emperor tried eradicate that day grew beyond all expectation into something that would transform history.
When the emperors decree went out to the legions in the North and one commander got the decree he ordered any members of the army that embraced this new faith to denounce it or remove their armor and clothing and march out over a frozen lake that was nearby. Several men stripped down out of their armor and clothing and assembled into a unit. They marched out over the ice also singing a hymn. Their commander watched as each fell freezing to death. He was so moved that he removed his own armor and clothing and marched out to join them. He told his other men who watched him in disbelief that these were his best men and they deserved to die with their commander.
These believers became part of the Body of Christ. While their stories are a mere footnote in history and their names all but forgotten, their names will be found in the Book of Life. Their stories will be written in the pages of Gods Word for eternity. They lived and died in Christ.
Most of us will never face such martyrdom. We all have our own battles to fight. By God's grace through Christ we can call on Him directly to strengthen us for the trials we must endure. He will never leave us or forsake us...that's a promise we can count on.
His message to each of us...Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. It is our destiny to walk the same path as those early believers. We are called to follow Christ as His prophets and apostles before us did and to become part of the Written Word of God.
Hebrews chapter 11, what some call the 'faith chapter' recounts the lives of many believers who have gone before us. Its says of them the world was not worthy. They knew their home was not among the kingdoms of men. Their home was the Kingdom of God. Their lives are recorded for us as examples to us. They never took their eyes off the Kingdom of the Heavens as their goal.
To live a Christian life is to be in the Body of Christ. It's the most difficult way of life because it makes us examine every aspect of our lives as we hold up the Word of God like a mirror. It's the most difficult and it's only kind of life worth living. Let us never take our eyes off the goal of eternal life in Gods Kingdom. If we remain steadfast, one day, we too will become a part of the Living Word of God...a part of Christ.
That is the Gospel.
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*"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Tim.2:15 KJV
