The Necessity for Christians to Know the Biblical Definition and Purpose of the Church!

02 Jun 2026 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Scrip-Bit   2 June 2026   Ephesians 6:18.

Ephesians 6:18.        ‘Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.’

Oh boy, it’s Tuesday, sunshiny and warm! And since we’ve rumpled Monday’s feathers, it ought to be a breeze from here on in! I wouldn’t be so sure of that nuh, for Tuesday might just rumple our feathers. For any day is capable of rumpling our feathers, presenting challenges that we cannot handle and thus causing us grief. So let’s take one day at a time, don’t belittle any of them, but deal with each one seriously, as though it was our last one. And who knows, it just might be, since we’re not guaranteed to see tomorrow.

And as the prophet Jeremiah so rightly declares in his Lamentations: ‘It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.’ (Lam. 3:22-23) Yes friends, let’s remember that it’s only because of God’s goodness and mercy that we are granted life to see a new day, and therefore live the way we ought to, in  righteousness and thanksgiving.

Now, today, we’re going to look at one of the Prayer Cards issued by the In Touch Organization a few years ago. This one deals with the church. So please pray with me. ‘Lord Jesus, thank You for the church. Please protect and encourage Your people. Comfort those who suffer, and provide for those in need. Strengthen us against temptation. Help us grow in LOVE, discernment, and good works. May your church be a haven of peace and truth, welcoming to all and vigilant against deception. Let Your Holy Spirit be fully present wherever You are lifted up. Make Your church ready for your return, Lord Jesus, and keep us safe as we hope in You. Amen.’

Yes my fellow believers, that’s a wonderful description of all the things Christ’s church ought to be and do! But is it doing them? Definitely not to the standard it ought to. But before we get down to the nitty gritty, let’s see what the church really is. Many people understand it as the building where believers gather to worship, however in the real sense the church is not so much the building, but biblically it refers to the worldwide body of Christian believers with Jesus as it’s legal head.

It’s as Bruh Paul describes the church in 1 Corinthians. ‘For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we bond (slaves) or free; and have been all made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.’ (1 Cor. 12:12-14) Bruh Paul uses the analogy of the human body to explain the church. Just as a body has many parts (hands, feet, eyes, and ears), the church has many members, but they form a single, unified body, under Christ, unified by the Holy Spirit.  

And later on in that same passage, Bruh Paul further states that although the church is composed of many individual members with diverse gifts and functions, every part is essential to the whole. This means all members are interconnected, equally valued, and called to care for one another. And further still, he emphasizes that no one part can say it does not need the others, and when one part suffers or is honored, the whole body experiences it together. (1 Cor. 12:15-27) Yes mih bredrin, Christ’s church is  just like the human body, with Christ at the head and the many other parts making it up into one whole, all unified by the Holy Spirit.

So let’s see now, how it’s living up to its purpose. Per the Prayer Card, the church should be a place where people are encouraged, comforted and provided for when in need; a haven of peace and truth, welcoming to all and vigilant against deception.’ How much of that is the church really doing eh? Not enough. And it cannot when it’s so badly broken up and disunified, when there are so many different denominations, cliques and different entities all claiming to be a part of Christ’s body and preaching different doctrines, as well as doing many things differently.

Therefore, it’s totally contrary to Bruh Paul’s words; ‘That there should be no schism (division) in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.’ (1 Cor. 12:25) And is the church really a haven of peace and truth? No way! For today’s church is strife-filled and what truth that’s being preached is usually skewered to the preacher or the people’s liking.

To a great extent it’s like Bruh Paul warned Timothy: ‘Preach the word; be instant (ready) in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.’ (2 Tim. 4:2-4)

And are we ever seeing that in these last days, where preachers are telling people what they want to hear, rather than what they need to hear. But regardless of how bad things might seem, we still cannot afford to give up. No way! For giving up does not exist in Christ’s vocabulary! And we desperately need to keep on praying for the church, for the body of Christ that’s supposed to bring light and LOVE to mankind on Christ’s behalf, for if we don’t, it will only continue to fall into bad habits and eventually crumble. And that we definitely don’t want to happen.

So, let’s do as the Prayer Card strongly suggests by using as it’s Bible verse: ‘Be alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.’ Now that’s a new-fangled version of Bruh Paul’s declaration after admonishing us to put on the spiritual armour of God in Ephesians. But here’s the real McCoy. (smile) ‘Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.’ (Eph. 6:18)

Yes my people, prayer is of the utmost importance in the Christian life. For even the spiritual armour of God is inadequate without it. And we are to pray not only for ourselves, but for all of God’s saints, because, as the scholars tell us; ‘spiritual combat is both an individual and corporate matter.’

And now, with all that information re the church and its purpose refreshed and renewed in our minds, let’s go home declaring our Tuesday Mantra, letting all and sundry know to whom we belong, lock, stock and barrel. As one strong and sincere voice: ‘In God’s eyes, I’m not what I do. I’m not what I have. I’m not what people say about me. I am the beloved of God, that’s who I am. No one can take that from me. I don’t have to worry. I don’t have to hurry. I can trust my friend Jesus and share His LOVE with my immediate neighbours, as well as with the whole wide world! Glory be!’ 

That now makes us duty bound to go out and share the amazing LOVE and friendship of Christ with others, so that they too can come to know and LOVE Him like we do! Much LOVE!

And as per the Prayer Card …Give thanks for Jesus’ commitment to His church…He will not let her fall…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

The Overwhelming Importance of UNITY in Christ’s Church to Successfully Fight against Satan! Part 2!

23 Aug 2025 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1 Corinthians 12:25.        That there should be no schism (division) in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.

So, it’s our lazy-day Saturday, somewhat cloudy and humid but sunshiny enough to be very thankful for it. It’s such a rare chance to lie in bed without an alarm suddenly blaring at some ridiculous early hour in the morning exhorting us to get up and make ready for another tough and ofttimes frustrating work day. 

But thankfully, today, there’s none of that sudden, instant clamour for movement, and many of us can afford to just laze around and do little or nothing without feeling guilty. (smile) Anyway, to help lessen any guilt we might have, let’s offer up the perfect antidote for those wrong feelings. That’s our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer,  which take us before our heavenly Father seeking intimacy and LOVE. 

As one sincere and heartfelt voice: ‘Lord, I want to be with You now. Please slow my thoughts and quiet my soul. Let my muscles relax, my breath deepen. You are here with me – Your peace and LOVE are present. I marvel to think You can’t be contained, that Your LOVE both surrounds and fills me. Thank You for this tenderness, Lord. I praise You for Your unceasing nearness. Increase my awareness of You today, that I may know You all the more. Amen!’ 

And as I remind us every week, intimacy and LOVE are two things our heavenly Father cannot and will NEVER refuse, if we come seeking them with sincere hearts, minds, bodies and souls. And why is that? Because He made us exactly for those things, so that we could have close and constant communion together. So He cannot then turn around and refuse just what He created us for. No way! 

That means if our prayer was sincere, our hearts ought to be receiving His awesome calming and peaceful presence right now. And it’s the ideal time to keep our promise of yesterday. That’s to continue talking about the utmost importance of unity and togetherness in Christ’s church, if the Lord spared our lives today.  Now, yesterday we saw where Jesus prayed for the disciples and those who followed, after hearing the Word, to be as one, even as He and the Father were one. (John 17:20-23) 

That’s undoubtedly stressing unity amongst believers, something that’s very absent from the church today. There’s more infighting, squabbling and bickering amongst Christians than a sense of togetherness. Even within the various denominations we find too much unnecessary dissension and thus the falling apart of the Christian fabric. And in way too many cases the differences are fairly petty and not important enough to cause serious fall out. But that’s how it’s going. Somebody or bodies are not satisfied with some minor thing in one church, so they break away and form another church, thereby devaluing the strength and oneness of the church even further. 

And it’s very interesting to hear what Bruh Paul had to say about church unity. He wrote thus to the church at Corinth. ‘For as the (human) body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: So also is Christ. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond (slave) or free; and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.’ (1 Cor. 12:12-14) Yes friends, whether we be Jews, Gentiles, slaves or free men, we are all part of one body of Christ called His Church! 

And Bruh Paul goes on using the human body as an analogy for the church by philosophizing about the rebelling of different parts of the body and how it would affect the whole. ‘If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now there are many members, yet one body.’ (1 Cor. 12:15-20) 

Oh my fellow believers, regardless of where we come from, or what we look like, once we believe in Christ Jesus, then we’re all a part of the ONE body of His church, with separate duties and strengths, but ONE TOTAL PURPOSE; that is to live for Jesus and spread the good news of His gospel, despite our differences.  

As Bruh Paul continues to show the importance of church unity, when he writes: ‘And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble (weak), are necessary: And those members of the body which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely (unpresentable) parts have more abundant comeliness (modesty). 

For our comely (presentable) parts have no need: but God hath tempered (composed) the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism (division) in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether (if) one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.’ (1 Cor. 12:21-27) 

Yes my brethren, whoever we are, or whatever positions we hold, we are very necessary to the working of the body of Christ. When any part of our human body is sick, it affects all the others. And when it gets better, all the other parts are happy. That’s how it ought to be with body of Christ’s church. Please note that it’s also the one and the same Holy Spirit that brought us all together as one. 

And as the scholars explain re vs. 27: ‘In one succinct statement, the apostle expresses both the unity and the diversity of the body of Christ. The absence of the definite article in Greek (ho, “the”) before the expression body of Christ emphasizes character: since they are Christ’s body, their actions and attitudes toward one another should reflect His character.’ 

And there’s no way we can ever say that in these desperate and ungodly times we are treating each other with the character of Christ! However, unless and until, we begin doing so, the devil will keep on laughing at us as he goes his merry way rejoicing in the evil that he’s perpetrating with our help; through our inaction and Christ-like attitude towards each other! Much LOVE!

…if you don’t take action against wrongdoing…then by your inaction…you are encouraging and helping it…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien