| E-MAIL SERVICE | Sign me up to receive the daily Word of Righteousness free via my E-mail address! ( ONLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ) | |
| ARCHIVES | I want to check out the daily Words of Righteousness for any of the last fourteen days or from previous weeks. ( ENGLISH ONLY ) | |
| FEEDBACK | I have a question or comment about today's Word of Righteousness. ( ENGLISH AND SPANISH ONLY ) | |
| BOOK LIST | I would like to see the complete book list of the Words of Righteousness author Robert B. Thompson. (SOME SPANISH TITLES AVAILABLE ) |
The Daily Word of Righteousness
The Church, #7
Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. (John 17:25,26—NIV)
The world does not know the Father. The true saints realize within their personalities that Christ has come from God. Christ has proclaimed the true God to us. Christ is introducing us to the Father and is revealing the Father to us.
Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32)
All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. (Matthew 11:27)
God has ordained from the creation of the world that the love with which He loves His Son will dwell eternally in each member of the Body of Christ. Christ abides in Divine love in each member of the Body of Christ with the end in view that he or she may be filled with "all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3:19).
Such, then, is the "wall" between the Church of Christ and the world. It is the highest, thickest, sturdiest wall in the creation of God. It separates the Church from the world with terrible authority, power, and holiness to God.
Paradoxically, the higher and sturdier the wall becomes, the more use the Church becomes to the world. As long as the Church is mixed together with the world the Church is powerless. It possesses no iron. Without the iron of the Spirit the Church cannot possibly bring the righteousness of God into the affairs of the nations of the earth. But the cross thrown into the mixture will make the "iron swim" (II Kings 6:6).
It appears that in America today we have lost the concept of holiness, that God has called the Church to belong to Himself in a special way. As is true so often with Jewish people, we are uncomfortable with the thought that God would call out from mankind a group of people for His own purposes.
We feel this is not fair, not democratic. There is much emphasis in our day on "going forth and healing a lost and dying world." While such an attitude appears to be godly and scriptural it actually is humanistic and often self-serving. The only way in which a lost and dying world can be healed is through a Church that lives in the Presence of God rather than in the presence of the world.
The Lord Jesus lived a life separated to God. He was not just one of the people of Judea. Yet more good has come to human society through His life that has been true of any other person. The Lord expects the same separation and the same fruitfulness of His Church.
A Church that is part of the world is of no use whatever to the world and of no use whatever to Christ. It is fit only for the garbage.
Let us, as did Nehemiah and his relatives, rebuild the wall of separation. Let us come out from the world and touch not the unclean thing. Then the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ will shine with the fullness of the Glory of God, and all the ends of the earth will be blessed with God's Presence. (from The Church) (A Study Guide for the Book of Ephesians)