This is the second excerpt from Bob Emery’s encouraging book Called to Rebuild. You can read a description and check out the first excerpt here. Want more information about Bob, click here. The excerpt below has been edited.
The question that many people wrestle with is, if it’s God’s eternal purpose and his intense desire to see the church shining like a bright lampstand, lifting up Jesus for the world to see, then why can it be such an arduous, grueling challenge to find and be a part of such a church? After all, if we’re clear on what God is after, and if we’ve committed our hearts to him, then getting there from where we are, with his help, should be a simple, straight shot, right? Maybe a few bends and turns in the road, but since we have the roadmap, possibly in a few weeks, or months, or even a year, we should be having the kind of church experience that God has always wanted for us to have, right?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way.
Praise God, however, for the current move of his Spirit we are beginning to see in this country. Praise God that he continues to touch people’s lives. Praise God for the revolutionaries Barna has identified who are not satisfied with the status quo and are doing something about it. Praise God for those who are seeking, questioning, and leaving the captivity of dead institutions in search of something more.
But the question needs to be raised: where is this search for something more leading people? As I pointed out at the beginning of this book, Barna’s findings indicate that if you love the Lord and are searching for something more, and you do take that step to leave the institutional church, you’ll probably find yourself in one of several situations. If you are fortunate, you’ll find some other like-minded souls who are also interested in trying to figure out what this thing called “church” is really supposed to be that you can fellowship with. Maybe you’ll find a house church or home group fellowship. Or, maybe you’ll get involved, as many do, in some virtual, online church, or a family unit fellowship in order to find more fulfillment in the Christian experience.
All of these things can play a part in the recovery of what God wants to bring about among his people, but do any of them, by themselves, fully restore the church to its original intention? We’ve looked at what God wanted to do in restoring his people from their captivity in the Old Testament. All of this was a picture for us, a roadmap as it were, for how we might look to the Lord and the Scriptures for guidance out of the current fallen situation of Christianity today and reunite with the heart and eternal of God to restore the church to what he has always intended for purpose it to be.
Though there is the aspect of the church that is universal-comprising all the members of the body of Christ-we see clearly throughout the New Testament writings, and especially from the first chapter of Revelation, that the church is also local. God saw a lampstand in each of the seven cities of Asia to whom this letter containing the Revelation was sent. He saw a lampstand in Ephesus, in Smyrna, in Pergamum, in Thyatira, in Sardis, in Philadelphia, and in Laodicea.
So, the restoration of the church has a very practical and local application. God wants to have a bright, shining lampstand where Christ is exalted in every place. In order to have that, we need to seek God and make ourselves available to him to use us to help restore local expressions of the church.
It’s seeing God restore the church to what it ought to be, in your location; in the place in which you live! This is a challenge! This is a high calling. It may even seem like an impossible calling, but should that be surprising? If you’ll remember, that’s the same way the remnant felt when they were faced with rebuilding the temple in their day. To go this route, it will take a commitment by a group of people to Christ and to others with a common vision. And it will take time. But who ever said it was going to be easy?
There are no pat and easy answers for those desiring to see and be a part of the restoration of God’s house and want to know: How do we start? Where do we go? What do we do? Who can help us? How can we find others in our location with the same heart?
The most solid recommendation I can give you would be that if anything in this book has touched or challenged you, begin by bringing those things to the Lord yourself and asking him to make them real in your life. Then seek out others to fellowship with, with whom you can share and discuss what God is showing you. Ask him to lead you to others with whom you can pray and seek the Lord together about these things.
Beyond that, be assured that there are many others out there who are asking the same questions. There are even websites out there dedicated to networking and linking like-minded Christians together who have a heart for the house of God and the things discussed in this book. Some even have directories where you can find other believers with similar interests in your area.
God is sovereign. He has always been the initiator. He is the one who will prepare and raise up the Zerubbabels of today who he will use to guide and lead others in the way of restoration. He is also the one who will gather the people and form the new wineskins that will contain the new wine he wants to pour out when old structures become too rigid and hardened (Mark 2: 21,22).
From beginning to end, the work of restoration is God’s work. But as we have seen, it is also a work that not all of God’s people will choose to be part of. Throughout the generations, he has had his remnant. In the end. he will get all the glory. God’s work begins, continues, and will find its completion as Jesus is exalted, revealed, and made manifest. He is the head of his church, which is his body.
The challenge, therefore, remains for the remnant of this generation. Are you one of those who see the condition of the church today in much the same way as the people of God in the Babylonian captivity saw the house of God in Jerusalem lying in waste more than 2,500 years ago? Are you one of those willing to do something about it?
God has given us the story of Ezra and the other books of the Bible concerning the returning remnant to encourage us and to show us the way back. May those of you who have read this book not only hear the call to rebuild as loudly and as clearly as they did in the days when Cyrus issued his proclamation and invitation, but may you be like those whose spirits were stirred up and join with others to act in response to that call.
“Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel.”
EZRA 1:3
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