LOVING THE CHURCH: THE SAINTS AND THE ‘AINTS
Dear Friends,
The following article is one I have posted before.
I am repeating it here because the Holy Spirit spoke to me during a recent
conference of Christian leaders. Looking over the gathering I saw men and women
who have sought to please the Lord and to do His will. They have their gifts
and strengths, but also their weaknesses and struggles. I asked the Lord to
help me truly appreciate the saints, and not despise or have a cold heart
toward the people of the Lord. Help me to love them as You do, to be patient
with them as You are, and to walk humbly before them, knowing there are
treasures among them, people who are better than I am. We need revelation to
see the true people of God and to see the beauty of the Lord upon them and the blessings
we receive from them.
The Psalmist said we should “mark or take note
of the blameless man.” It seems we tend to give most of our attention to the
one who stumbles or fails. We also tend to approach people suspiciously. I’ve
always said that two pastors meeting for the first time act like two dogs
meeting for the first time. They have to “sniff each other out” before “wagging
their tails.” None of us is perfect, but
most of us are doing our best to please the Lord as we sincerely try to walk
with Him while dealing with those trials that are common to man. We must
remember there is a “great cloud of witnesses” biblically, historically, and
contemporary. We should love the body of Christ, the true Christians who follow
Jesus. We should honor and respect those who are “blameless,” and we should
show mercy and grace to those who stumble and struggle, even as we receive
mercy and forgiveness from the Lord Himself.
Also, we must not become disillusioned when we
are disappointed by fellow believers. According to God’s word, “He will
sanctify and cleanse her, and present her to Himself a glorious church, not
having spot or wrinkle, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” You
may ask, “How can this be?” The answer is the same as that which the angel Gabriel
told Mary. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest
will overshadow you…For with God nothing will be impossible.” And the one who
seems to stumble, “indeed he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him
stand.”
May the Glory and power of God fall upon the
church, and may she “come to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the
Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ” in both the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
----Billy Long
If I made a list of the miracles I have witnessed and the ones I have been a
part of, you would be pressed to believe in God and His desire to work
intimately in the lives of people. But then if I were to make a list of my
failures and struggles, you might say, “Where is your God?” I could write a
book listing miraculous provision and answers to prayer in which the reality of
the Lord’s presence was palpable. But then I could write another book telling
of the times I was in “the deep” about to be swallowed up and close to losing
everything. I could tell you of friends being healed through prayer and also of
others dying in spite of it. I have friends who have experienced miraculous
healings and friends who have been raised from the dead. Some have received an
immediate response to prayer, and others have suffered what seems an
interminable wait as they call on the Lord daily for healing, help, or an “open
door.”
I have experienced the people of God, their love for one another, and the
presence of God in them in a way that was like being in heaven itself. Then on
the other hand, I have seen church people bite and devour one another and leave
people bleeding in their wake. We see people of God who truly represent
godliness and right living, but we also know of those who have stumbled through
sin and hypocrisy. A dear friend once said, “Some are saints and some are
aints.”
Christians gasp in shock at these anomalies, and the world uses this
inconsistency as an excuse to deny God and to mock the church. Why are we
surprised? The New Testament writers address these very issues. None of this
was foreign to the early Christians. They knew both the reality of a Sovereign
God and the reality of human weakness. The high priest in Zechariah 3 stood
before the Lord clothed in filthy garments (representing the sin and failure of
God’s people whom he represented). The enemy was there to accuse them. But God
shut the mouth of the accuser by saying, “I have chosen them, and that settles
it” (my paraphrase).
God is Sovereign and He has chosen us. This should give each of us hope, not
only for ourselves but for the entire body of Christ. Remember the words of the
old hymn: “I hear my Savior say, ‘Thy strength indeed is small. Child of
weakness watch and pray. Find in me thine all in all.”
In my morning intercessions each day, I have
included the following prayers:
“Lord, my hope is in the Sovereign, Almighty
God.”
“My hope is in Your mercy.”
“My hope is in the Lamb who is worthy to loose
the seals and open the scroll” (Rev.5).
The purpose of God will be accomplished not
because we are worthy, but because HE is worthy and because He is GOD.
Instead of falling back because of our failures, we should rejoice that
Almighty God will complete His plan for His people and will bring forth His
kingdom on earth. Not one word shall fail of what He has said regarding the
church. If Jesus, while hanging on the cross and facing the agony of death
could in that hour say, “It is finished.” (i.e. all things are accomplished and
the scripture is fulfilled here today. John 19:25-30), how much more, in the
face of our weaknesses and failures, but from His position at the right hand of
the Father in heaven will He not be able to accomplish His plan and purpose.
The eternal purpose of God was accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. Its
outworking and realization will be fulfilled because He is God (Ephesians 3:
11). As my friend said, "Some are saints and some are aints." But we
will succeed because God IS. He is the great "I AM."
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