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Text Box: Jim Coney was our Mentor, Pastor, Spiritual Father and Friend.  He was used by God greatly when Sheila and I received the call to be Missionaries.    Jim was translated into the presence of God 2001.  Jim wrote "Moved By The Hand of God" in the months just proceeding his death.  As you read this you will feel God's heart for us as the Body of Christ.   Jim, we miss you and we will see you soon.                                                                                                      Tom & Sheila Shidler

 

 

 

 

        

Text Box: Moved By The Hand of God Text Box: WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE FIRST CENTURY CHURCH WAS GONE? Chapter Three   During the first hundred years or so after the death of the apostles the very thing that Paul had warned against in his letter to the Colossians began to happen. Colossians 2:8 says, "Beware lest any man deceive you through philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men and after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ." It was during this period of time that we see divisions creeping into the church. People began to follow men and not Christ. Fractions were formed in the body of Christ when people began to align themselves with first this one and then that one. These divisions were in direct contradction to Jesus’ last prayer found in the Gospel of John 17:11 "... Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are."   In fact this disunity began to emerge back when Paul was writing his first letter to the Corinthians. They were already having problems with the philosophy of man that caused people to follow them and not Christ as we read in Chapter 1:10- 13, "Now I beseech you, brethern, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye b perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethern, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?"   In John 17:11 we saw where Jesus prayed for His church to be one with Him as He and the Father were one. But, here we see where problems were arising as to who was following who. Some say I am of "Paul", I am of "Appollos" and I am of "Cephas", and I of "Christ". Then Paul puts it all into perspective when he asks "Is Christ divided?" He then goes on to admonish them to have no divisions among them and that they should remember who it is that they are to serve.   Well let’s take a look and see how these Scriptures on divisions applies to the church today. Does John 17:11 still apply? Just how many brides is Christ coming for anyway. We hear people say all the time things like, "Well, I belong to this church or denomination" and some one else will say "Well, I am with this other church or denomination" and still others will say "I am not of any denomination at all, I’m an independent". If that isn’t bad enough we have others who state it this way "I’m from Pastor so and so’s church" you know, like the pastor was the owner of the church. It appears kind of like we might be facing the same problems today as Paul had when he addressed that letter to the Corinthians. Not only does it appear that we have been headed the same direction as then, but it seems to be worsening. There seems to have been an increase in the number of denominations that have surfaced in the last several hundred years or so. This "power" that the Lord promised the church when she unified with Him has plunged in direct proportion, I believe, to the degree that man has followed after man. Think about it now, have we seen an increase or a decrease in signs and wonders in His church? It’s a decrease, of course. There are some believes who have truely experienced signs and wonders but that’s because there has always been a remnant who have truely sought after Him. But as I have previously stated the majority if us in the body of Christ haven’t wittnessed His power because we have been caught up in the following of man.   Jesus said in Matthew 13: 35 "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." Well it’s a little hard for me to believe that we have demonstrating this love when we have walls of division erected all around us. Oh, we say we love our brother, but at the same time we keep them at arms length. This word that we have for "love" in the English language seems to have lost some of it’s meaning over the years. Think about how we use the word "love" today. We say things like; "Oh! I just love your new car" or "I love your new suit", "I love ice cream",and even "I love Jesus". What is the difference? The real meaning of words that in the original Greek and Hebrew languages had real depth of meaning. For example let’s look how the word Love is used in John 21:15-17, Jesus asked Peter two times if he loved (agape, a sacrificial love) Him. Peter answered Him both times, yes, Lord you know that I phileo you (I love you affectionately as a friend). Well the third time Jesus asked him he had to come down to Peter’s level of understanding. Peter once again answered "Lord you know that I phileo you (like a friend). That’s when Jesus said to him "Feed my sheep". I believe that loving Jesus must be an intimate, passionate love. A love like was expressed in the Song of Solomon (Chapter 2) where the Shulamite woman ran through town seeking her beloved.   Another example of the depth of God’s love to us is grace. Grace has been used by the Body of Christ to cover a multitude of sins for which it was never intended. Romans 5-20-21 explains that grace comes as the divine involvement in the heart of man that enables him to be justified and that allows the righteousness of Christ to be imputed to him. Grace does not cover a multitude of sins. If we know it is sin that we are comitting and we don’t have any remorse about it then Grace doesn’t cover it.. Many times we hear people quote from II Corinthians 12:9 where the Lord says to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee..." Paul was not talking about sin in his life here in this part of his letter to the Corinthians, he was being afflicted by a thorn in his flesh. Not a litterally a thorn but some kind of affliction that the Lord was allowing him to suffer that kept Paul humble. If Paul was talking about an affliction in his life in this verse, then how can we apply this verse to sin in ours?   Many people will say that they "believe" in God, but when you look for the fruit of Christ in lives it can’t be found. We’re not to judge another person, but just as fruit is visible in trees shouldn’t we be able to see some kind of fruit developing in those who profess to be Christians. In the Greek language the word "Believe" means to trust in, rely on or adhere to. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch, Acts 11:;26. They were not just church members, they were Christ-like.   The Lord did not plan for the body of Christ to be just a place for the people to come together and go through a bunch of religious activities, event though some of them might be good. A very interesting thing happened about a week ago, during the early morning while I was asleep. God caught me up in the Spirit and told me that the people in most cases read the Word, but they don’t take it very serious. At least, not enough to allow it to be worked in their lives and change them.   In many ways the church today is like most organizations, to a large degree. Except in organizations they work together to accomplish their purpose. However, it is very seldom that we see churches working together. Many times not even within the same church. Paul says "Is Christ divided?"   Today’s churches are concerned with getting more members, instead of reflecting the very presence of Christ in the lives. We see people who have observed the church in the powerless religious activities and have turned elsewhere for something to satisfy the desire in their lives. Many have turned to drugs and alcohol. Some went into satanic worship, etc. They found some power and excitement in that kind of thing. It is a sad thing when our Father make available to us to perform all kinds of miracles. Instead of following the instructions Jesus gave in John 14:12 where He said that the things that He has done and greater than these shall you do, because I go to the Father. The church did exactly what David did when he went to bring the Ark of the Covenant (The Presence of God) to Mt. Zion in II Samuel 6. He didn’t follow the instructions of God on how the ark was to be carried. When Uzzah was killed he decided that his new ox cart program wasn’t the way to carry the ark of His Covenant. He sought God’s plan and in I Chronicles 15:12 he found that the priests were to sanctify themselves and they were to bear the ark on their shoulders to the place where David had prepare for the Ark f the Lord’s presence to be in a tent where people could come and praise and worship the Lord.   The church today with their religious "ox carts" are seeing lives being lost to the enemy because they are not following God’s plan. In fact, Paul warned in Colosssians 2:8 "Beware of the philosophies of men, the traditions of men and the rudiments of the world." I wonder how long before the churches are going to see their error and turn back and follow God’s plan.   The men in ministry, most of them, have been trained in seminaries and Bible schools where they receive a lot of training. That is no more than the philosophies of men and the traditions of men and the government of the churches is from world teachings. Even the choosing of a pastor is on popular vote of the majority. Most of the time there have been no serious prayers for God to send the one He would have t be their Pastor. Pastors coming from these schools with their degrees are governed by the salary offered. Then when looking for deacons the church looks, many times, for a successful business man. Men who have a position in the community. Then when they are installed they become watchmen over the pastor to make sure everything goes the way they think it should go. If it doesn’t, they will get the church to vote him out. I believe that an education is good, but a God centered education is the answer to the church. The problem in churches, for the most part, besides men’s doctrine, pastors preach messages that won’t upset the people. It is a religious setting much the same as Jesus and His apostles were in. None of them would win any popularity contest today. It is passed time for the church to get back to the whole truth of the Word and being led by the Holy Spirit regardless of what men may say.   There are two words for righteousness in the Greek in Romans 8:18 is imputed righteousness that Jesus brought into our lives, then in Romans 14:17 righteousness means out worked, shown forth in our lives. In Peter 1:16 it says "Be ye Holy for I am Holy". The Holiness that is imputed when Christ comes into our lives must show forth in our lives. Holiness has been misconstrued to some, to mean long dresses, no makeup and a special hairdo. These may not be wrong, but they don’t make one Holy. Only the presence of the Holy Spirit in the real sense, worked out in our lives makes one Holy. Many have made fun of others because of the application of their belief in the Holy Spirit. They have been called Holy-rollers, Holy-Joe, etc. many things demeaning their belief. Everything that God puts in us He expects to see reflected in our lives. However; the enemy has invaded the churches with a self-centered and selfish attitude, to where the things God intended were of less importance than the thigs men wanted to do. So, the laws of men, set up religion and standards to run the churches the way they wanted to In reality the power of the Holy Spirit was almost completely cut off. The Word of God is great, but it needs the application by the Holy Spirit to bring life. So the church community, for the most part, are going through meaningless activities that men designed, much like the Jews with their laws and regulations. The Word and the Old Testament laws have one common weakness, it is dependent upon the flesh to carry it out, but the flesh is weak, so the Holy Spirit must have freedom to move as the Father directs.   I wonder how many churches today would continue as usual if the Holy Spirit completely withdrew. This is what happened in Moses tabernacle after Saul lost the ark of the covenant (where God’s presence came down) to the Philistines. They had the same ritual every time it was a time for any service, except the High Priest didn’t have to go into the Holy of Holies, because he knew that God’s presence was not going to be there. Something to think about.   Click on the link below to move either to Chapter One, Two or Four