We each can come to Jesus Christ for many reasons. But, we’re called by Jesus for only one reason.
“For He had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch Him.” (Mark 3:10)
“Jesus called to Himself those He wanted, and they came to Him, to be with Him, that He might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” Mark 3:13-14
Our sins are forgiven, and He will heal us when ‘by faith’ we ask Him to, but to join Him in HIS work and under HIS yoke, is a commitment we make that will require sacrifice after sacrifice to remain with Him to the end of this life. God calls our commitment and sacrifices, going “from glory to glory.” For Jesus has told us what it will require things of us to faithfully walk with Him to the end; that if we love family or friends more than we love Him – we cannot be His disciple; that if we love the world more than His Kingdom – we cannot be His disciple; that if we love even our own self more than we love Him – we cannot be His disciple. And I will add one more: If we love the church more than we love Him – we cannot be His disciple.
You might say that to love the church is to love Him, and this is true, or to love Him is to love His church, which is also true. But I have found, not only in my own early years of Christianity as well as with most church-goers that the ‘organized church’ with its denominational traditions, social programs and various requirements for belonging – can actually take the place of Jesus in our life; so that we ‘walk with the church’ instead of ‘walking with Jesus.’
We can be more eager to regularly meet with and willing to serve ‘church leaders’ instead of meeting each morning with the Lord our God (in His Word and in prayer) to know Him better, and how HE wants us to serve Him each day. Jesus Christ is the HEAD of His Body, of which we each are a part of. No ‘part’ of His Body is who or what we worship and serve. Yes, we are told by the Lord to serve one another in love; to serve our family at home, our neighbors, our fellow believers, but in the way the LORD has told us to in His Word.
The “organized church” is the result of each of His disciples meeting with Him alone each morning to fellowship with Him, before we do anything else that day, and then coming together praise Him in testimonies and song, and to pray together, as we serve Him as “His body.”
If the leaders of a church are not teaching the congregation the true foundation of Christianity, holding them accountable first and foremost to a personal intimate day after day relationship with our Lord Jesus (in His Word and humble prayer) – then those leaders are building their own kingdoms, not Christ’s. Beware! If the leaders ‘themselves’ are not in fellowship with the Lord, then how or why would they teach or hold anyone accountable for what they neglect themselves? This is what made Jesus Christ so angry about the religious leaders of His day, calling them wolves, hypocrites and white-washed walls who were keeping the people from entering God’s Kingdom.
The apostle Paul speaks so perfectly about the fellowship of Christ’s Body: “I pray that out of Christ’s glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to HIM be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever!” Ephesians 3:15-21