LIKE A TAPESTRY

Some 2,000 years ago, in a city called Caesarea Philippi some 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus stood with His disciples and taught them. Simon had just acknowledged Christ’s divinity and Jesus told him that he was blessed to have been given this understanding. He then declared, “And I say unto you, that you are Peter, and upon this Rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18

And His church has done that, in spite of efforts throughout the centuries to discredit or harm it, His church still stands and flowers regardless of its many pitfalls and woundings. Far from perfect, He knew that men and women, clay footed and fallible would befall it and some would lay harm to it. Nevertheless, He chose to build His church through the hands of those who would learn to see past themselves and who caught His vision.

Sadly, the greater western church in this day has lost its way. Swathes of it given to attempting cultural relevancy at the expense of truth, or willingly going blind to the kingdom of Constantine and selling its spiritual birthright for fleeting earthly pottage or painfully forgetting the truth of the call of the gospel, men have built their own fiefdoms and feasted off it for their own gain.

Yet, it would be untrue to say this is all the church, because there are always remnants who hold to His vision, who listen to and obey the gospels and the call to love the other. Who at their own personal cost of comfort and ridicule hold the banner high and work within the rough places and among those who hurt. Sometimes in the physical but always in the spiritual.

Man is a flawed and complex being. Capable of great things, full of hearts of tenderness and yet also capable of unimaginable pain and cruelty. But even so His church blooms evergreen and sings strongly to a world broken and fearful.

I believe that the remnant of those that listen can and will continue to make a difference in this world. Our collective nature is to focus on the ills of society where we fret over all that is wrong and call out the sin in other’s hearts but such thinking is the way of the blind. There is always good. Despite what we may believe there are those who hear, who do great things without desire for personal gain or glory. There is always a remnant and there always will be. The prophet Isaiah called to this when he wrote,

When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. - Isaiah 59:19 The enemy is lust and greed, broken faith and insularity. It is pride swollen to its core. It is all that born from the pit of hell.

Why then would He full well knowing how deceptive a human heart can be, did He not do the work Himself and not through such a fickle and bent thing as man? At the root it comes down to His love. Through His good hand, He seeks to redeem and work through even the most imperfect people, changing hearts from stone to hearts of flesh.

If there is one thing I have learned throughout my years is that He is no respecter of persons. He weaves and works through us like a tapestry. One He chooses for exhortation and joy, another He uses to reflect a different part of His nature in a call to attention and repentance of heart. Though varied, the ones who claim faith work together towards the same goal of His bright kingdom.

And like the rough and brash Simon, He taught him a better way and changed him. He became Peter, the rock Christ built His church upon. And our history has driven on because of this.

So, let us be the ones who hear. Let us be the ones who lay aside our agendas for the greater good of the gospel. Let us be that remnant who “sees” and turns from the things that ruin and assault, let us put down our egos and let us be true salt and light.

Reflections of His good heart that eschewed religiosity and became about the heart of the wounded, the poor and the lacking. My friend, you and I have been called to greater things and I believe in the Christ within your heart. I believe in you. Things will grow darker but your light can calm others. Now go out into the world and be the healing balm someone so desperately needs today.