Church Do Not Allow Yourself to Become Bound by Acts of Humans

Church Do Not Allow Yourself to Become Bound by Acts of Humans

The church is a body that needs to be free to operate in all manners of its existence without being bound in relations with humans.  The church should have no part in manners in which speak of people demanding things be done their way or being placed into a circumstance where some material article can be held over its head.  The church faces many spiritual obstacles on a daily basis it does not need to be subdued in human matters where its growth can be inhibited.  It is known that humans make up the church and they are vital to the establishment, building, growth and mission of the church but they should not have a personal capacity to dictate how the church completes this commandment to preach to the world the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Contributing humans always have a great ambition to do what is right or to perceive that they are doing right.  This quality of humans is a noble one in that it can allow for great progress for the advancement of the specific idea that is to be undertaken.  The thought of being able to be involved in the actual planning, funding, building and dedicating the finished idea allows the person to believe that the project was theirs.  Is this a bad situation that has been allowed to happen?  I believe not as long as the people involved in these areas realize and understand that the final decisions must be made by the church leaders and the professional workers and not the individuals of the church.

When you have people who wish to project themselves as a leader of a church project, no matter what the project might be, needs to be made aware at the beginning of the process that all major decisions that need to be made will be conducted at the appropriate church level and no other options will be considered.  This stance may cause some twinges in the beginning but I can guarantee these twinges would become major quakes if allowed to participate any further.  It is true that the church depends on human activity for its financial stability and it is also true that the church needs humans to fill its congregational status.  But when the church itself allows humans to produce the works that God commanded us to do, then the church becomes limited in its spiritual authority to advance the Kingdom of God.  Humans should give to the church willingly and then step back and let the church complete the mission that it was destined for.

I am going to give you a few examples of the church being handcuffed as it were in similar situations involving humans.  Upon the death of Callistus II on 13 December 1124, the majority of the college of Cardinals reached agreement on the election of Cardinal Sasso of Saint Stephen’s Church in Rome, but the powerful Pierleone family opposed him, and just three days later, they were able to force the election of Cardinal Theobald of Saint Anastasia who took the name of Celestine II.  But the new pope barely had time to don the red cloak and intone the Te Deum, a hymn of praise, before the Frangipanis burst into the papal apartments with swords drawn, wounding him and forcing him to abdicate.

Subsequently, by agreement with Aymeric of Burgundy, Cardinal Lambert Scannabecchi of Ostia was elected as Pope Honorius II.  The Pierleone family decided to accept this election in exchange for large sums of money and promises of favors.  In short the papal vote was bought by a certain family within the local community and the family’s control of papal decisions was biased for many years to come.  The effects on this act eventually affected the entire Catholic Church.

The second example is not going to make any great news around the world but it is an example that involved myself and was actually not resolved until about fifteen years ago; given that this incident occurred back in the early 1980s.  This incident had to do with a building project that the church had been planning for quite some time.  The financial means for the project could have been met a bit further down the road and the clergy and church members were all in agreement that this should be the case. 

However, one of the church members approached the pastor and spoke with him and the board about financing the project so that the completion could be sooner rather than later.  This man had prestige within the community and could get things done at a faster pace than would the average business man.  Everyone in the authoritative positions met and agreed that this would be a good idea.  As time progressed the plans for the project became clearer and things were travelling at the appropriate speed.  A detail came into light that needed to be fixed and this detail, what seemed to be a minor issue, actually became the cornerstone for a gigantic collapse.  The person who was financing the project did not agree with the decision about the fixed issue and threatened to pull out of the project.  The end result was that the church was hindered in a project that was supposed to be used for God’s Kingdom and to be a testament to the same Kingdom.

I cannot speak for the medieval participants in the first example about their intentions, but I believe that their actions speak volumes to us in ways that we need to take heed in the elections of current people in authority.  I honestly believe that the individuals involved in the second example probably did not begin their quest as haughty figures that would produce actions that would eventually lead to the fall of the project and to some extent their personal relationship with God.  However in both examples given, people were hurt and upset with the decisions that were made, and from reading the historical passages and personally reflecting upon the events I can only gather to conclude that Kingdom of God was hindered by individuals that took more pride in their personal feelings than knowing what was best for the Kingdom.

This list of incidents within church communities is endless and can have many volumes attributed to this subject.  The amount of examples in this message is not important but the content of these examples is extremely important for us to realize and to grasp.  I believe that these acts hinder the church in an unspeakable manner even to the point of the church becoming gilded and prostituted.  I have no doubt that the intentions of these people were honest in nature and that they may have truly set out to advance God’s Kingdom.  But what changes occur in our hearts that we begin to believe that we are the center of the church or its development within the community?

Do not get me wrong donating time, money and dedication to the church and its advancement is a wonderful idea and there are many examples of these acts in the Bible, but we must remain faithful to the cause of Jesus when we are performing these acts of gratitude.  Not only are these types of acts examples but other smaller and more defined acts are included in this order.  Worship leaders, lay ministers, deacons, ushers, security personnel, and any other role a person has within a church needs to be completed with nothing but love for the church and not for personal gain.

Now let me turn to the personal side of these issues.  Some of the people that are associated with the church actually recognize these situations and become despondent with the situation.  Some address it but others tend to ignore the conditions and become unhappy and eventually leave.  Restoration is the only way for these people who have witnessed these types of acts or have been directly involved in the actions somehow to be healed and to recover fully in the body of Christ.

The second example occurred while I was a teenager and being in my teenage years, and being a typical boy, I really did not pay too much attention to what was going on around me, with the exception of girls J  Most of the time things were comfortable at my place of residence but when things were tense I could tell.  With hours of eavesdropping, asking questions and putting things together in my head I came to the conclusion that something was not well with the church building project.  Continued eavesdropping episodes proved that I was correct and I found out enough details to also figure out the source of the tension.  Now my brain was trying to figure things out and answer the question of why someone would do this. 

Since my parents would not discuss church business with me, which was the correct thing to do, I had to continue perfecting my eavesdropping abilities to satisfy my curiosity and finally it paid off and I knew who the individual was.  I also became a tad miffed that the individual involved was upsetting not only my father but some other people in the church.  But even with me being kept out of the loop I could not help but notice that the issue at hand was beginning to have an effect on more and more people and that the situation became prominent even in the youth of the church.  Some of these people slowly began to leave the church and the direction of the church had now been altered. 

Eventually the situation calmed down and the dust settled as they say.  It was clear that the church was intact and was still headed in the right direction.  But the church was minus people that should have been involved in its mission; for it was these people who left, it was their desire to win people to the Kingdom and to see the Kingdom of God moved forward.  What a cost it was for the church to recover after a simple matter became out of control.

After moving to Delta and approximately two decades down the road an event occurred that opened my eyes to a root.  There had been some services that dealt with some of the spiritual aspects of life and how they impact our lives without us even knowing they existed.  For some reason God placed it on my heart to review the events that occurred in a small community a long time ago.  As I began to think about things, specific memories came to the forefront of my thoughts and it all had to deal with the building project so many years ago.  I did not understand how this could have been an issue now and even more bizarre was how it was affecting me at that time.  The more and more I thought about the situation I began to realize that some of my behavior patterns and belief patterns about relationships could be traced back to that event so many years ago.  It was confusing at first because I was not even directly involved with the church decisions at the time and it really did not have any bearing on my life, so I thought.

As I was talking with mom and dad about this it became clear to me that this event had become a root in my life and that I needed to do something about the root and soon!  After I had identified the root and as I traced some of my present actions of mine backwards, it dawned on me how an incident that had nothing to do with me, that I overheard and then saw occurring, could have an effect on my decision making years down the road.  That was when I knew I had to get rid of this root before it did any more damage to my inner self and to my present and future relationships with others.  Yes relationships with other people can be determined by past actions of individuals that are close to you or your family’ community.

Once I found out this root and I had up-rooted it from my life I had to burn that root so that it would not return in any form again.  The only way I found that I could do this was to restore this individual to his former position in my life.  See this person was very close to our family and was my brother’s best man in his wedding, we had family dinners together on many occasions, went to ballgames and countless church functions together.  His restoration was the only way that I could be released from this stranglehold on my life, a stranglehold that I did not even know existed until the spoken word of God revealed this condition.  I guess you could say that this event was the beginning of my quest for people to be restored back to God.

This man died some years ago but those roots are still there in many people’s lives.  Even though I did not get to personally tell him of what occurred in my life I know that through God the restoration process was completed before he left this earth.  I have no doubt that this man was a Christian and that his boys know God in the fullest of ways, but I also know that this man’s family is back on level terms with my family.  Always remember that one person or group of people may begin a process, but it must be known that other parties involved, directly or indirectly, in that process are all subject to the restoration process.  Restoration occurs on both sides of the aisle at the same time, in other words, if one side is not restored then the other side is not restored either.

This next part is a little bit off the subject but it does have direct relations to the issue stated above concerning the building of the new church building.  I spoke to the church in Delta about this situation a long time ago.  Even though it had nothing to do with the people in Delta, it had everything to do with them about the roots that can influence their decisions.  Even though I was not in direct contact with any of the process that had occurred, the spirit that had been around me did have an influence on me. 

Please do not mistake my words as being against individuals in the church helping out to finish a project.  It is an awesome thing to help construct a church or to take part in some church project but that is all it should be, taking part to further the church and its mission and for the participation not to be for one’s own gain.  But it is of the utmost importance that the church realizes that it must NOT place itself into any position where we must answer to man first.  The church cannot be held hostage by others who believe their agenda is greater than the God’s.

Restoration…no matter what your situation with the church might have been the restoration process is a necessity in your life and a process that must be completed so that God’s Kingdom can once again move forward in the manner that it was created.  The Kingdom can only be moved forward when the church, that is us, are in unity for a common goal.  That means all major differences that involve the church are non-existent and every thought of the church dwells on the advancement of God’s kingdom.  When this is happening, all personal sightings are not on the table and all acts of the flesh are prohibited by the spirit, which moves the church down the spiritual road of completion.  This is an example of a church that is one agreement.

Quick publishing note here; the example of Pope Honorius II comes from the book The Templars by Barbara Frale and the second example came from my past J