SOME THOUGHTS on Extending Grace to Each Other As We Journey Together in this 'New Season'
- by Grace Wiebe, June 2007
(All Scriptures from NIV unless otherwise stated)
Moving into the new season - Where are we headed?
Eph 4:12 "...to prepare God's people for works of
service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until
we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son
of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of
the fullness of Christ. 14Then
we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown
here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness
of men in their deceitful scheming."
Over the past years as I've been networking and communicating with folks from around the globe about house / simple churches, etc. (for lack of a better term at this point), and as I've been checking out related web sites and house church forums, something which I have heard / observed many times is various levels of frustration with / or criticism towards others involved in house churches. This could be either because some are not moving forward with house churches in the same way some feel it should be done, or because some are 'too religious' or 'too free', etc.
There may be other reasons as well, but these are the ones that come to my attention most often.
Here are a couple possible examples:
Perhaps someone that has been involved in house churches for some time and has come to a biblical understanding of giving, participates in another house church than they're used to. In this group, perhaps the group has not yet discovered the difference between the traditional perspective on tithing and the biblical perspective on giving. How will the visitor respond? Will they be offended and criticize the group for this, or extend grace to the other group, recognizing that they're just at different places in the journey? Will they help to encourage them re a biblical perspective IF the Holy Spirit leads them to do so at some point? or will they go away and gossip to others about how religious this group is?
Or perhaps someone that has been involved in house / simple churches for a time and visits another fellowship, finds out that the group begins their time together with prayer. Will they be offended because it is perhaps perceived as religious? or will they extend grace and trust the Holy Spirit to lead this fellowship, too, into all truth as they continue to seek Him? After all, who is to say that this was a 'religious' act, or whether it was something that they felt the Holy Spirit leading them to do at that time - even if it looked 'religious'?
In our desire to follow wholeheartedly after Jesus Christ and to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, are we willing to trust HIM to lead His children as they are looking to Him, as He has been leading us as we have been looking to Him? or are we continuing to carry with us the religious spirit we have been seeking to leave behind, and again projecting it on others in the Body of Christ as He is wooing us forward?
I have long thought about addressing this issue as I believe it is an important one, and that it is an issue which will grow in the future as the Holy Spirit draws many more into the directions He is leading His Church into in this new season He's bringing us into. However, I hesitate to write about this as I am also in process and have so much to learn about God's grace, love, unity in the Spirit, and I realize that although God has been uprooting religion from my life for years, already, there is still more that He still needs to root out of my life!
For quite a number of years, now, it has seemed to be a
time of transition for the Church - a transition into a new season. During
these years, I have often been reminded of the transition in the passage in
Joshua 1 where it says: "… 10 So Joshua ordered the officers of
the people: 11 "Go through the camp and tell the
people, 'Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan
here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving
you for your own.' "
12 But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua
said, 13 "Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave
you: 'The LORD your God is giving you rest and has granted
you this land.' 14 Your wives, your children and your livestock may
stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but
all your fighting men, fully armed, must cross over ahead of your brothers.
You are to help your brothers 15 until the LORD gives them rest, as he has
done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land that the
LORD your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy
your own land, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the
Jordan toward the sunrise."
It seems that a natural part of the process of transitioning out of the traditions of man, out of the traditional church systems and into these new directions, includes going through these processes of being led by the Holy Spirit to seemingly re-evaluate everything through new lenses as God's people are increasingly becoming like the Bereans and finding out for themselves what the Bible says about Truth vs. the traditions of man, etc. (Acts 17:11 "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.")
As a part of that process, it seems we all go through fear of moving into the unknown in order to enter into the Promised Land, and we begin to realize, increasingly, just how deeply we have been rooted in religion and religious systems! We go through insecurities, confusion, disillusionment, anger, resentment, hurt, grief and all kinds of things as we look at what we are coming out of and as we look to THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE to lead us into all truth and into the freedom / inheritance that Jesus paid dearly for for us!
John 16:13 - But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.
Galatians 5:1- It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
It is indeed a new road that we have not travelled before, and so we are hoping for grace, mercy, understanding and love from others as we look to THE WAY to lead us step by step.
The others that are also travelling along this path have also not been this way before, and so are also wanting us to extend grace, mercy, understanding and love to them as we journey together.
ALL of us will make, or have made and will continue to make mistakes along the way. We are ALL learning....and hopefully in our own insecurities we will not be becoming religious or judgmental in our desire to NOT be religious :).
ALL of us are from different backgrounds and are at various stages of this journey. Some are just finding out about it...some have been moving in these directions for a decade or more. Some are in between there somewhere.
If it was as hard as it was to try to be unified in traditional churches where most people's voices were stifled (by the system) for the most part, and where many backgrounds were quite similar, and where relationships tended to be fairly superficial due to the structure, how much more do we need God's grace to maintain the unity of the Spirit when we have folks from every walk of life and every stage of growth seeking to follow this new Way we've not gone before, and seeking to let down their masks/walls and become authentic....that will indeed take a miracle and much fruit of the Spirit. It seems the cure is abiding in the Vine, increasingly experiencing His love and loving others - as it says in one place in the NT, the 'only thing that counts is FAITH EXPRESSING ITSELF IN LOVE...' I think we're in the process of having to learn a whole lot more about what that really means from Jesus's perspective....having deeper relationships will require/does require more love than the level of relationships we were used to...
If we had trouble with unity in our traditional churches, how much more likely is it for us to see things differently from each other on some of the 'non-essentials' as we are all travelling in these new ways together?
If we EVER needed God's LOVE and GRACE towards each other, it is in this transition! Transitions are chaotic at the best of times...how much more so in such a massive transition in what God is doing around the globe during a time when the spiritual temperature is quickly heating up during these increasing 'birthpangs', not to mention all the transitions going on in our own personal lives at the same time as He keeps shaking us up in these days?
Notice again the passage in Joshua 1 above....and how those that were going ahead of the others were needing to encourage and come alongside those that hadn't gone as far as they had, yet, in order to help them successfully enter into the Promised Land as well. They needed patience, love, grace, mercy, understanding and all of the fruit of the Spirit, I'm sure! Their focus was on encouraging the others to be successful in entering the land, and not on their own level of comfort in the process / journey.
I would venture to say that this also speaks to the current transition the Church is in, and that it encourages / exhorts us to also have this attitude of humility, love and servanthood towards our brothers and sisters that may be at different places along the journey than we are.
Some other Scriptures that come to mind about this, as well, are:
2 Corinthians 10:8 - For even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than pulling you down, I will not be ashamed of it.
Galatians 5:6 - For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing
that counts is faith expressing itself through
love.
James 2:13 - because judgment without mercy will be shown
to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs
over judgment!
John 15 - 12 - My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Psalm 133:1- How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!
Romans 15:5 - May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus..."
Ephesians 4:3 - Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Col 3:13 - Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
John 17 - Jesus' prayer for unity - John 17:23 - "I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity (my note: it is a process. And WHY are we to be brought to COMPLETE UNITY?) to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
How will we be able to love them like this if we struggle with extending grace to each other? A major part of it is learning to receive God's grace for US, so that we may extend His grace to others...I find it so healing in that way, to come to God's THRONE OF GRACE and to hang out there!
Hebrews 4:16 - Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
We are also exhorted to 'grow in the GRACE and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ..."
The more we behold His grace, the more it will be reflected through us, since we become what we behold / fix our eyes upon. 2 Cor. 3:16 "But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
We need each other! We cannot succeed in this journey alone! Therefore we need to encourage each other!
1 Thessalonians 5:14 - And we urge you, brothers...encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
It IS a very difficult transition and everyone wants to 'do it right'.
I think that in order for us to be able to move forward with the things God is leading us into as the Church, we will need to learn to extend far more grace and love to others and help preserve His Spirit of unity than in the past, and one way that I think we will need to do that a lot is to give grace to people that are at different places in the journey than we are in - both in their spiritual journey - but also in their journey re moving to freedom out of the religious systems that are so deeply rooted...otherwise how much different will we be than what we were before? and how effective will we be in being salt and light all around us?
So may you increasingly experience the long, high, deep and wide love of Jesus for you (Eph 3), and His GRACE towards YOU, so that you may indeed find yourself extending more grace to those around you and use your authority to build up the Body of Christ so that we all reach unity in the faith and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ!
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