Removing Labels

REMOVING LABELS, LOOKING PAST DENOMINATIONS
　18 And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, "Who do the crowds say that I am?"
19 So they answered and said, "John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again."
20 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Peter answered and said, "The Christ of God."
When Jesus asked this, the revelation that Peter had was very profound, it is a revelation that the church needs today. The answer was not "People say that you are a baptist preacher or that you are this denomination or that denomination", denomination did not exist. This conversation between Jesus and His disciples happened right after the miracle with the loaves and fishes, when Jesus said to His disciples "YOU give them something to eat", Jesus also said "I am the bread of life" and at the end of Matthew He told Peter "Feed my sheep".
For far too long people have only been concerned with denominations and doctrine and who has the right theology, thinking that if I am a good enough this or if I am a good enough that, if my doctrine is sound enough, if I know more than this person or that person. We have fed people the food of doctrine and denomiation for too long now, no wander they are starving! I hear people debating over which denomiation is better, or who has all the answers or who is really saved or who is really practicing the faith truthfully, we talk a lot about churches that have fallen under the lies of false doctrine, when really the only true doctrine is Jesus Christ.
I like what Paul said to Timothy in
"Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge,"1 Corinthians 10:12Paul also said this to Titus:
"but shun foolish questionings, and genealogies, and strifes, and fightings about law; for they are unprofitable and vain."I hear brothers and sister arguing about denomination, and arguing over theology and beliefs that they have. No wander so many of us live in such fear for our salvation, we have been fed the grand lie, "that denomiation saves you" or " theology saves you". What have we had entrusted to our care? Was it this teaching by man? Or is it the authority under heaven and earth that Christ Jesus had? I say the only way to truly see God for Who He is is to get rid of reliance on fleshly beliefs and to remove the labels that we have placed on ourselves. Jesus did not come claiming to be this or that, He never even said "I am a great Jew, now follow me!" He said " I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE", what do we have of our own? What kind of personal realationship is it when we are fighting over our denominations and arguing over who is right and who is wrong? Who is a heretic and who isn"t? Jesus said "I have come that they may have life abundently", where is the abundance in denomination? Where is the abundance is certain theology or doctrine? If there was ever anything we needed anymore than Jesus, some seem to believe that it is found in this "vain controversy". We are still mimicking our old selves, we have taken what we have seen in the medis, and what we have heard all over the world, and placed it into the Church, into the Body of Christ! That is the grand "heresy", that is the greatest lie. The word says "If any man be in Christ Jesus, behold there is a new creation", this new creation is something that has never existed before, it is an entirely different being altogether. But we still hold onto divisions, and striving over our new "laws", well you might say "Brother, these men were arguing over Judaism, not Christianity" like arguing over one is better than the other. It is worse to argue over the Body of Christ, how is it better to argue over our faith?
We all want to draw nearer, and we are wandering why we can't seem to fully grasp the truth, or maybe there are many of us who think that because we are of a certain denomination that we don't have to worry about ourselves and always look at that other denomination that we see as being full of lies and going against the truth of the word of God. Who made us the judge? We have strayed so far away from the personal relationship, we are still fighting for position and still fighting for recognition and still eating each other up, we are stumbling.
Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
While our eyes are fixed on Jesus we will we will not stumble:
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you[a] from stumbling,b] 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! Galatians 5:11-15
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, But when we are looking elsewhere, we are looking to ourselves for guidance and looking to each other for comfort:
11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. 12 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!
We are still looking to the circumcision in the flesh, not of the heart. If we see our denominations as being the best, or the right, are the most true to the word of God or this or that, we are consuming each other. My prayer, is that we would destroy all of the labels that keep us from Jesus, that we would utterly cut off from ourselves the old man, let the circumcision be of the heart, and not look to our outward selves and what we believe in our joint doctrine as being better than this one or that.
It is the need of every man to have a personal relationship with Christ, it is the need of every Christian to have fellowship with Him, to have communion with Him. But we for so long have mistaken that as some sort of set of rules and regulations and proper procedure, we tried to make the freedom and liberty of Jesus into a military operation and we tried to turn it into a fast food like chain of denominaiton and doctrine.
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your[
And who was at the beggining? In the beggining the word was woth God, the word was God, the Word made flesh. Dwell on that for a while, as you consider what there might be in your life that you might need to get rid of while you come to Him. Unless you are happy to live the facade, then I pray for you. I was once myself happy to live in that same lie, I felt a comfort there, but it was only a lie, because what would seem to be a comfort to me was eating me alive and I was blindly following the blind. There was not a single ray of light or hope there, it was only darkness and misery followed by more pain and addiction and more misery. I saw that what I thought to be some sort of truth was really the farthest from it and there seemed to be no way back. That is until I saw that I really needed to repeant from believing so many of the false things that I was trained to believe.
So many people have gone throught a "boot camp" like process of the baby walk of Christianity, and they will forever equate all of the things that they learned then with solid truth. It is a shame. I encourage all of those who wish to see past the label, who wish to see into the eternal, to look up a writing by T. Austin Sparks called "Spiritual Sight", until then, God bless!
Jesus Reignsa] joy may be full. 1 John 1:1-4
13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."[1 Timothy 6:20Luke 9:18-20