Home > Work > ONE: Unfolding God's Eternal Purpose from House to House
1 " Though the Reformation originated with the Lord's fresh move through various reformers, in a rather short time the resulting churches became institutionalized with a mixture of politics, human organization, and hierarchy. "
― Henry Hon, , ONE: Unfolding God's Eternal Purpose from House to House
2 " Believers should be open to and encourage the Spirit's moving within each one, including the spontaneity from individual initiatives when gathered together. Believers need to be vigilant to prevent formality of liturgy where the Spirit is stifled, and individual initiatives are not allowed. "
3 " Believers can search the Scriptures on their own, and allow the Word of God, coinciding with the Holy Spirit, to enlighten their understanding, and open their spiritual eyes. "
― , ONE: Unfolding God's Eternal Purpose from House to House
4 " All believers need to become teachers, shepherds, ministers, and good-news-bearers. "
5 " In Acts, every believer was living in a direct relationship with Him (Christ) and each one functioned normally as a member of His body in oneness with all believers. "
6 " Try going out of your comfort zone and doing something for someone else. "
7 " Every believer is called to teach and each needs to exercise toward this function. Otherwise, they will remain a babe and never mature. Sharing what the believer has learned should begin as soon as a person comes to know the Lord. "
8 " When a person denies his conscience for too long, it can become seared. That person becomes susceptible to receiving and accepting all sorts of harmful and evil things. This is true for both believers and unbelievers. A seared conscience will open a person up to demonic spirits and activities. "
9 " Where everyone is accepted equally as a brother or sister in Christ, and where there is an open forum without a set program and format, believers will be in an environment where their gifts will develop and manifest naturally. "
10 " Believers who come to know the Scripture in a living way, in both knowledge and Spirit, can in turn, use this Word to minister to people around them. "
11 " There are about 56 incidences of the phrase 'one another' in the New Testament in relation to the members being in the body...This is the mutual giving and receiving in the body...Without every member of the body functioning, the body will be crippled or handicapped. "
12 " If your conscience objects, surely God also objects since He is even greater. "
13 " Jesus Christ could die instead of man because He was sinless. As a man without sin, He was not under the judgment and condemnation of God. If Jesus had also committed sin and broken God's law, then He Himself would have needed to die according to God's righteousness judgment. He would not have been able to die for man's sin. But because He was without sin, He could die on behalf of sinful man. This is called 'vicarious death' for man. "
14 " The typical clergy/laity system practiced among most churches is detrimental to believers. In this system only a professional class of people teaches and preaches, while the majority of the believers listen. "
15 " Most believers learn passively from clergy. However, no matter how good and uplifting this person's teaching, as long as the members are not actively ministering and speaking Christ themselves, growth lacks. "
16 " Those members who are more gifted have a job: to equip and encourage the less gifted believers to do the work of building up. Today's system of clergy and laity, where a few believers do all the teaching and preaching but the majority stay passive year after years has not (and does not) equip believers to do what the clergies are doing; therefore they cannot build up the body of Christ. What should happen is that after receiving the equipping from the more gifted ministers, all of those saints would go and preach the gospel, teach the truth, and meet in fellowship with all other believers themselves. This would directly build up the body of Christ. "
17 " Paul charged the believers in Rome to go and greet other believers. Greeting in this sense is proactive. Paul commanded the believers to go and greet the people he listed. The word 'greet' is not just saying 'hi' when walking past someone. The word for 'greet' in the Greek means: to embrace, to be joined, a union, to visit or joyfully welcome a person . . . Greetings include intimate dialogues with another person . . . Paul was commanding whoever received his letter to take continual action to go and greet those he listed. Because believers today are to obey the Scriptures just as the first century, they should take similar action and go and greet brothers and sisters in other groups. "
18 " The Spirit in the believer's spirit penetrates and spreads throughout their whole inner being. "
19 " The believer's job is to shine out Christ in their living and in their speaking. "
20 " Paul's aspiration was to know Jesus Christ in a way that was experiential. "
