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    Broken: Whatever Happened to the Church That Jesus Came to Build
    Broken: Whatever Happened to the Church That Jesus Came to Build
    Broken: Whatever Happened to the Church That Jesus Came to Build
    Ebook114 pages1 hour

    Broken: Whatever Happened to the Church That Jesus Came to Build

    By Brother Gene

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    About this ebook

    So, whatever happened to the Church that Jesus came to build? "And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Mt. 16:18, KJV). So much of that which is called the church in our time and in America has little resemblance to the Church that we see in the New Testament. Written by one who has served in the Church for over fifty-five years, it deals with only a few of the departures from the Master's design… very significant departures!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPage Publishing, Inc.
    Release dateJan 6, 2017
    ISBN9781684096541
    Broken: Whatever Happened to the Church That Jesus Came to Build

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      Book preview

      Broken - Brother Gene

      cover.jpg

      Broken

      Whatever Happened to the Church That Jesus Came to Build

      Brother Gene

      Copyright © 2016 Brother Gene

      All rights reserved

      First Edition

      PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

      New York, NY

      First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2016

      ISBN 978-1-68409-653-4 (Paperback)

      ISBN 978-1-68409-654-1 (Digital)

      Printed in the United States of America

      Table of Contents

      Chapter I

      CHAPTER II

      CHAPTER III

      CHAPTER IV

      CHAPTER V

      CHAPTER VI

      CHAPTER VII

      CHAPTER VIII

      CHAPTER IX

      CHAPTER X

      CHAPTER XI

      CHAPTER XII

      CHAPTER XIII

      There is no doubt: the Church has done and is doing many good things in the world today. And if we measure it by itself and its accomplishments, we will get a very wrong picture. How? Because the Church of Jesus Christ must be measured, not by itself, not by its accomplishments, but by its design. Success and failure at every level of life must be measured by the plan of God and by nothing else. The plan? The Bible. The written Word.

      Introduction

      Up front: I am not a writer, but by the grace of God, sometimes I am able to put a few words together in a manner that make sense. What I am is a man whom God called many years ago to work in His Church. I have done that, and as of this moment, it has been well over fifty-five years. I was educated in a very conservative Christian college where I received a fellowship and taught for one year. I then attended and graduated from a seminary of the same denomination. My experiences plus my formal education have equipped me to write this book. (Note: conservative is a relative term, and some of what I saw as very conservative years ago I now see as quite liberal.)

      I have studied the Bible carefully now for many years, especially in the matter of the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. After all of these years, I have concluded that in many ways, the Church is a broken thing. I have made this writing a matter of serious prayer and trust that all who read these words will do so in that same spirit.

      My heart is not to criticize but to point out things that simply are not according to His design. Jesus Christ is calling His Church today to do it My way. And there are many traditions and practices that will not fit that order. I have said to the part of the Church of which I am the senior elder that "you cannot get to NY unless you are first willing to leave SF (you fill in the blanks).

      I have not written this book from any particular denominational viewpoint. I have written what He has said about any particular matter. Sometimes, that has not been completely comfortable for me because my own faith and practice for years included things which have no real basis in Scripture. I challenge my brothers in the Church to do the same thing. Question every practice, question every teaching, and unless it is anchored clearly in the Word of God, get rid of it. Yes, there may well be a cost, and the cost may be high, but do it! Do it God’s way.

      One more thing: I love the Church of Jesus Christ with all of my being. I have spent over fifty-five years serving the Church. There have been good times, and there have been bad times. I have no personal agenda in this writing. As of this writing, I have passed my eighty-second birthday and will continue to do as He has called me to do until He calls me home. This book is about what this elder in the Church of Jesus Christ has seen and experienced, compared with the Church that Jesus came to build, as it is shown to us in the New Testament.

      One other thing: no one wants to hear the doctor say you have a cancer, and unless we do something about it, you will die. But there is something! We must first recognize where we are, and then we must do whatever the doctor requires of us. His name is Jesus. The prescription is the Holy Bible. The time is now.

      God bless you as you read.

      Brother Gene

      That They May Be One

      They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth. As you have sent Me into the world I also have sent them into the world… I do not ask concerning these only, but concerning those who believe into Me through their word, that they all may be one; even as you father, are in Me and I in you, that they also may be in us; that the world may believe that you have sent me (John 17:16–21).

      A Personal Word from the Author

      Acouple of years back, upon reading a copy of my book To Be Like Jesus , a very old friend of mine (in terms of time and years) looked at me and said, You are a perfectionist in a very imperfect world. Of course he was wrong. A perfectionist is someone who expects that everything he thinks or does must be done in a perfect manner, achieving perfect results, not part of the time, but every time. He expects that of others too. I am not a perfectionist. However, I am an idealist. There is a real and significant difference. An idealist is someone who knows that things can be better and who sets goals based upon personal values. That can be good or bad based on the source of those personal values.

      An idealist, like the perfectionist, has very high standards and expectations of himself and also of others, the difference being that the perfectionist does not allow for human weakness. I am an idealist; I have never achieved in the Christian life what I believe the ideal Christian life should look like. I am an idealist. I have never seen nor have I been a part of a Church that reached the biblical ideal for what a Church ought to be. But I am not a fatalist. I will keep looking for, and I will keep believing that I, and we, in Christ, can be all that He wants us to be. I have prayed for years that God would let me be a part of a church that has become the Church! And that He would grant that for me before I go to be with Him, I WILL, BY GOD’S GRACE, NEVER GIVE UP.

      I know that in the Church, everything starts with those whom God has called and set apart to lead His Church. It is a responsibility that far exceeds anything else that I have experienced. I am always aware of that responsibility. Every time I see something that is less than it ought to be, my first question is where did I miss it? My second question is where did WE miss it? The answer is always painfully the same: at some point, the leading of the Spirit of God was disregarded, and the result of that will also always be the same.

      Everything in this book reflects my own personal idealism. I have studied the Bible for many years in relationship to the Christian life individually and corporately. My desire is the same as it has always been: a Church in the image of the Savior! A Church in conformity with the standards and pattern set forth in the New Testament. Nothing else. Can it be? Yes, it CAN be, COULD be. Will it be? Only God knows. But those of us who truly love Him will never, never give up.

      Foreword

      "For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body whether Jews of Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink of one Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:12–13).

      The Bible bears witness that the Body of Christ is one. If that is so, and it surely is, how can it be that the body is broken? In the passage just quoted the Body of Christ is one, but it is likened to the human body with good reason. We humans fall, and we break an arm; we fall, and we break a leg, or we fall, and we break a hip. But in spite of the fact that we have broken something, the body is still one...it is still one body. So it is with the Church of Jesus Christ. It is one, but it is also broken.

      And in the same way that a broken human body needs to be healed, so it is with the Church today. Healing means nothing other than getting back to doing things His way. God created man and designed a life

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