"A Long Walk Home" #5

Let us consider that any attempt at duplicating the New Testament church today would simply be restoring a poor imitation of the original, unless one restores the spirit of thing. The restoration of any specific church spoken of in the New Testament would be to restore a pale imitation of the ideal. The ideal church is one which Jesus desires his followers to seek. The ideal is a journey and not a destination.

There were no perfect churches during the First Century nor have there been any throughout the centuries, up to and including the current one. There is an ideal that no church in history has attained or achieved. Every church is comprised of imperfect individuals redeemed by the sacrifice of the "one and only son of God." This redeemed community should be a redemptive community.

It is this essence of the original, which gives it its substance and prevents it from being an ethereal apparition devoid of any real heart and soul. Nevertheless, the Spirit of Christ living in the individual members of the body of Christ will create a living; functioning, vibrant, giving, caring and sharing body like the one called for by the New Testament. While it will not be a perfect replica of the ideal in worship or service it, will bear its essence, nature and character because it is filled with its spirit and that Spirit is the Spirit of Christ.

Will this path leads home? Finding this elusive course is difficult. It is, nevertheless, this path that each of us should desire, that is to say, all those who wants to be a Christian like the ones who walked with Jesus. It is this simple, earnest faith that calls out to the soul set free by the blood of Jesus. Everyone who seeks to be shaped by the amazing, unfathomable grace of God will be moving in the direction of the Spirit of God.

Isaiah speaks of the joy of the redeemed and streams in the desert in chapter 35. He continues to tell of a highway that will be called the "Way of Holiness," and only the "redeemed will walk there." It is along this path that we hear the lonesome cry of a lost soul wandering across the desert of despair, seeking the golden city, the Zion of God. It is on this highway that we hear the echoes of the mournful sound from quivering lips, a woeful lament with tears stained cheeks and blood red eyes, whispering “Jerusalem, Oh! New Jerusalem,” holy city of God.

It is the challenge that faces this deeply flawed follower of Jesus. This is the yearning of the heart set free. It is a longing for a simple New Testament fellowship whose worship and service flows from a personal spiritual relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Would not the realization of a fellowship like this in our time, be at least in some measure, the restoration of New Testament Christianity?

Where, oh where can a redemptive community like this be found? The search and the journey continues for this one lonely and deeply flawed traveler. Which direction do I go or path shall I follow?

Bob