Priority to form a loving brotherhood

There might be people who do not like that others share the love of Christ with each other and do not mind being under Christ instead of being under one or the other organisation.

"Jesus Christ" - NARA - 559041 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In Belgium we might have been under attack and have been surrounded by such a great cloud of unbelievers, having only a small amount of baptised brethren and several whom are baptised under Carelinks who do not get to know us, because their organisation does not bring us to their attention. You might think they could also look for other Christadelphians on the net and come to find us. But that does not seem to happen.

Having in between the battle of two organisations, CBM from the UK and Duncan Heaster with Carelinks on the other site, we got ourselves in trouble and annoied by two groups. Though we totally could understand the reason why CBM is so reluctant to accept Duncan Heaster in their community again.

He also accuses me now of slander because of my postings: Duncan Heaster en Carelinks onverbiddelijke verhinderaars + No reconciliation possible between CBM and Duncan Heaster from Carelinks.
A reply and justification by me shall be placed by those articles and shall needed to be added by the underneath words.

We in Belgium do not like the war going on between CBM and Carelinks, nor the war Duncan Heaster wants to keep going between me, Marcus Ampe.

Our priority is by bringing the Good News of the Gospel of the Kingdom and to form a loving brotherhood. For that reason we want to throw off everything that hinders and could get us into the sin that so easily entangles. Though we might not with many, we do prefer to be with a few who are willing to aim for the same goal. We want to reach people who are willing to believe in what the Bible tells us and who wants to take Christ Jesus as their cornerstone and not any human organisation.

To be able to follow the right path, we wish to find sincere people who are willing to share the Word of God with us. With all those who are prepared to put their own personal selfish "I" away and who want to become like one great family under Christ, we want to give out our hand.

We do want to run with perseverance the race marked out for us and therefore we do want to get rid off all obstacles this world wants to put in front of us.

The few members we do have in our ecclesia all do agree to fix their eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. In him we do trust and want to find the cornerstone of that what has to be build in Belgium.

In case we do have to bear many crosses, we shall not mind to take up our cross in remembrance of the wooden stake Jesus died at. Keeping our eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in, we want to study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed — that exhilarating finish in and with God — he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honour, right alongside God.

Facing the troubles in Belgium and seeing how certain persons try to get division in the community we might find ourselves flagging in our faith, but than we do know we should go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he ploughed through. What a pleasure we may find in the glorious task Jesus has done and has given his followers. That will shoot adrenaline into our souls!” Therefore we invite anybody who is willing to follow Jesus to join us and to look at him who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. May we ask all those who are not sure to consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that they, you nor we, will not grow weary and lose heart.

We do know we do have to endure hardship as discipline and are pleased we may offer ourselves as brothers of Christ or as sisters of Christ, being children of God. Yes because of Jesus his actions the relationship between God and man is restored and Jesus his Father accepted Jesus peace offer and is treating us now as His sons and daughters.

We have all had human fathers, to whom we had to be submitted and who disciplined us and we respected them for it. Christ Jesus broke the chains of the world and the chain of death, becoming a high priest for God and our mediator by God. It is not the human organisation of a company, church firm or denomination that shall give us the key to enter the Kingdom of God. No it is how we personally want to make a good relationship with the people around us, with Christ and with God. The Elohim does not ask you to submit to any worldly organisation, but asks you to submit to His Will and His commandments. It is by submitting to the Father of our spirits that we shall be able to live!

We should come together as brothers and sisters and feel united under Christ!

Therefore we do want to strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees and continue to go forwards, even when we just be on our own (knowing that Jesus would walk with us), with two, three, or a few more. It is not the quantity that counts for God but the quality.

In case we are not with many or in case more want to join us, we want to go together and feel that we are like mountain climbers, able to count onto each other! All ready to make level paths for our own but also for the other feet," {Proverbs 4:26} so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

We decided to make every effort to live in peace with all men around us and to be willing to set-apart those who are willing to share that love of Christ which should bound us in union. Together, even with not many, we will be prepared to see to it that no-one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

Trying to protect the flock, being responsible for the Belgian ecclesia, I shall have to keep the bad things out and should avoid that further damage can be done.

I consider it one of my tasks, for the good of what has to be build up, to see that no-one is in no way immoral, or is godless. We may not sell our soul to any person or any organisation. Our soul (= our total being) should be under one leader of the Church and that is Christ Jesus the Messiah.

We have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned." {Exodus 19:12,13; Hebrews 12:19-20}

I shall continue to bring people to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, even when other individuals or organisation may want to  have me trembling with fear. {Deuteronomy 9:19} For me the main issue is to bring people to Jehovah God, not to make them another member of a human organisation.
Though I do know we do have to have order and law, and are bounded by forms of organisation; but that organisation or church should be under direction of Jesus Christ his commands and not of personal gain.

I would love to bring more people together in an environment where they can feel at home and where they can share their ideas in peace. I would love to bring more people to come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant. I am not willing to see any battle going on.

No blood I would like to see, but the blood of Jesus who liberated us. In remembrance I would love to take the symbols, the bread and the wine, so that we who want to come together may confess in Jesus name. Created things can be disturbed and shaken but we may trust that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for or our "God is a consuming fire." {Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:28-29}

As such I would like to call all those who are willing to unite with the ones who keep on loving each other as brothers. I also would say we shall not forget to entertain strangers and will remember those in other parts of the world, but also those in prison as if we are their fellow-prisoners, and those who are ill-treated as if we ourselves were suffering. {Hebrew 13:1-3}

Though one or more persons, might do all the work to get us divided, we shall try to see over all persons and organisations and shall not fall in the trap of the love of money. Therefore, although our community in this small country may not have many means to survive we shall be content with what we have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." {Deuteronomy 31:6}

There are people in this world who would like to frighten us. To them I would like to say they may perhaps do a lot of terrible things to us here on earth, but we have a better future and hope and believe in what God has promised to them that stay faithful to Him.
So we, in this small country which is not old yet and perhaps can fall in pieces very soon, say with confidence, "Jehovah, the Elohim and Only One God, is my helper; we will not be afraid. What can man do to us?" {Psalm 118:6,7}

I and my fellow brethren shall remember our leaders, who spoke the word of God to us and consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith when they lived according to the commandments of God. And we shall not let us be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.

To keep the teachings clear, we know the importance of gathering, the need of meeting with each other on regular times. It is at such meetings our hearts can be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them.

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise — the fruit of lips that confess his name. As brothers and sisters we should feel united under Jesus his name. We as brothers and sisters do find it important that we do good to each-other and do not keep things away from our other brethren and sisters. Those who intentionally do not allow other brethren and sisters to join with each other we consider have other priorities than to unite people under Christ. As brethren and sisters in Christ we may not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

It is important that all those who want to follow Christ can come together and that they help eachother to grow in the faith. Those making it not possible to share the faith we can not consider to be good at heart and having the right intentions nor the right heart to be a brother or sister in Christ.

We should pray for them and for the whole community that they may receive the heart of Christ and try to live accordingly.

As responsible for the ecclesia in Belgium I from my site have the responsibility to protect the community for false teachers, bad and false influences. Those in charge of the ecclesia do have  to take their responsibility and keep watch over those men and women who are willing to come under Christ and to be a member of the community, knowing that at the end all of us must give an account.

I would like to ask you also to pray for me and for our ecclesia, that we always shall obey God and that we may have a clear conscience and desire to live honourably in every way.

Let us all pray that those who want to follow Jesus Christ  may be guided by the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, and that He might equip us with everything good for doing His will, and that He may work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The UK album cover for the 1969 release of Jesus Christ Superstar. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Preceding:

Not words of any organisation should bind you, but the Word of God

Continue reading:

Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them

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Please do find additional reading:

1. Our relationship with God, Jesus and eachother
2. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
3. Faith
4. Do not forget the important sign of belief
5. Self-development, self-control, meditation, beliefs and spirituality
6. Not enlightened by God’s Spirit
7. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands
8. Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience
9. Choices
10. Always a choice
11. We have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace
12. A person is limited only by the thoughts that he chooses
13. To be chained by love for another one
14. No man is free who is not master of himself
15. Fear and protection
16. Only the contrite self, sick of its pretensions, can find salvation
17. Choose you this day whom ye will serve
18. It is a free will choice
19. For those who make other choices
20. Your life the sum total of all your choices
21. Answering a fool according to his folly
22. You cannot change anything in your life with intention alone
23. What’s church for, anyway?
24. Feeling-good, search for happiness and the church
25. The one who has not had a taste of love
26. Casual Christians
27. Christianity is a love affair
28. The Law of Christ: Law of Love
29. What Jesus did: First things first
30. The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
31. The Greatest of These is Love
32. A treasure which can give me everything I need
33. The task given to us to love each other
34. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love
35. God demonstrates his own love
36. Agape, a love to share with others from the Fruit of the Spirit
37. Unarmed truth and unconditional love
38. Unconditional love
39. The Spirit of God imparts love,inspires hope, and gives liberty
40. No fear in love
41. When we love we do not need laws
42. Love envieth not
43. Love turns one person into two; and two into one
44. Love is like playing the piano
45. Love will cure more sins than condemnation
46. If we love one another, God lives in us
47. Spread love everywhere you go
48. Love and cultivate that which is pure
49. Blessed are those who freely give
50. Those who make peace should plant peace like a seed
51. Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair
52. Work with joy and pray with love
53. Self-preservation is the highest law of nature
54. Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness
55. Growth in character
56. God let my compassionate affection be tolerant and kind
57. Observing the commandments and becoming doers of the Word
58. A Living Faith #2 State of your faith
59. A Living Faith #3 Faith put into action
60. A Living Faith #5 Perseverance
61. Parts of the body of Christ
62. Breathing and growing with no heir
63. God loving people justified
64. United people under Christ
65. Small churches of the few Christadelphians

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The first on the list of the concerns of the saint

 Love One Another

This should, of course, be first on the list of the concerns of the saint. And most of what has been said to this point is obviously related to love. But, as we near the conclusion of these matters, we must make a special effort to consider love once again.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Cor. 13:4-7).

God is a jealous God. He demands all our love and attention. But because we love God the more, do we love our brethren less? Our love for God is different from our love for another person. If we truly love God, we will show our love for Him in practical expressions of love for others. True divine love does not exclude human love; rather, it enhances it.

Verses 4-7 above contain a dozen or so characteristics of Scriptural “love”. We shall consider each one in turn:

“Love is Patient”

We have the example of Christ, who patiently taught his disciples and time after time helped them when they stumbled and lacked faith. Undoubtedly there were times when he wanted to throw up his hands and abandon the effort altogether, for they were so slow to learn and so bent on maintaining their own natural affections. But he loved them dearly; he loved them despite their inadequacies; he prayed for them; and he persisted until his efforts began to bear fruit. Can we do any less for our brethren?

“Love is Kind”

This English word “kind” is one of those pale, sentimental words that just does no justice to the original. We should say, instead, that love is considerate ­ showing an active, involved concern for the needs of others, even to the detriment of one’s own comfort. We probably all think of ourselves as being “kind”, for we certainly are never “unkind”! Are we?

“If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?” (James 2:15,16).

There are times when a “kind word” is no more than hypocrisy, because it masks a failure to help in any practical way. Have we ever been guilty of such an act, in a benign, “friendly” indifference to the circumstances of others? Then we may have been courteous and civil and pleasant, but we have not been “kind” in the Scriptural sense, and we have not been loving.

“Love Does Not Envy”

The divergence of gifts among the Corinthians was a cause of envy. Likewise, envy can result today from comparisons between brethren: “Who is the better speaker?” “Why was he elected Arranging Brother?” “So-and-so wants to run everything. Who put him (or her) in charge?” The person who can ask such questions does not have at heart the best interests of the whole body.

Jealousy, or envy, is a terrible disease, and often fatal in the spiritual sense. It destroys its originator much more quickly than the one at whom it is directed.

“Love Does Not Boast ... is Not Proud”

Envy and boasting are quite closely related. They both stem from the same basic problem: love of self rather than love of others. True love does not have to be pushy. It does not need attention. It can afford to wait. Remember what Jesus said of the arrogant Pharisees ­ who did their works to be seen of men: “They already have their reward.” Let this not be said of us.

“Love is Not Rude”

Sometimes a gentle admonition or even a stern rebuke needs to be administered. It is possible to be in the right ­ even to say the right thing ­ but to say it in absolutely the wrong way. A criticism may be correct in every particular, but if it is delivered with a superior or proud or overbearing manner it will not achieve a good result. As always, the principle is consideration for others: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In short ... love.

“Love is Not Self-Seeking”

Have you ever participated in a three-legged race? You may be the fastest runner at the picnic, but you'll wind up sprawled on the grass unless you can adapt yourself to the style of your partner. This principle also holds true in the ecclesia. We are all members of the one body, and we must learn to function as a unit. We are “yoked together” with our brethren in many endeavors; we cannot always choose the way that pleases us most.

Your way of doing things may always be the best, but it won't always be the one chosen by the majority. Then what do you do? Go along or “drop out”? There have been cases of members leaving meetings because of absolutely trivial disagreements, in which they failed to get their own way and just could not bend enough to go along with others. And they, and sometimes their families, have paid for that stubbornness with twenty or thirty years of self-imposed isolation.

There is an extremely illuminating passage in this connection:

“For even Christ pleased not himself” (Rom. 15:3).

Just six little words, but a world of exhortation and self-examination. If even Christ did not please himself, who are we to think that things should always go our way? Who are we to please ourselves in everything?

“Love is Not Easily Angered”

A person possessing the true love of God has a peace of mind that no other has. In the midst of strife and controversy, he maintains a calm and reasoning mind, and a disposition to peacemaking. He has that same inner serenity that sustained Christ through his great trials.

A person in such a frame of mind cannot be offended by others. He is not provoked to backbiting or vengeance. He relies upon the grace of God, he knows that there is a final judgment that will right all wrongs, and he is not concerned about what man may do to him in the meanwhile. If God is for him, who can be against him?

“Love Delights Not in Evil, But in Truth”

If ever a thought might be coupled with “Let a man examine himself”, surely this is it! Don't we all do this? Don't we all listen to gossip and rumors and evil insinuations? Don't we all ­ sometimes ­ derive pleasure from the shortcomings of others, especially those who have previously appeared to be models of uprightness?

We judge ourselves by the standards of others, and when we do this we are glad to see them fall. We tend to think we are lifted up in proportion as our brother is cast down. But when we live by this standard we are completely corrupting Paul’s teachings of the unity of Christ’s body and the dependence of one member upon another. These lofty ideas lose their meaning when cooperation is replaced by competition.

“Love Always Protects”

We need go no further than Christ’s example. Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree, and more than that he bore our sorrows that he might be a perfect mediator.

The mind lingers on a picture, perhaps well-known to many. One boy with a younger one on his back. “He ain’t heavy. He’s my brother!” Strain is obviously there, but he bears his burden gladly. All things are relative, aren’t they? Yes, in more ways than one! We are willing to do for our families what seems intolerable if done for others.

Do we sit in the meeting on Sunday morning, and feel that those with whom we break bread are really our family? Or are our expressions of “Brother Smith” and “Sister Jones” merely a formal, stylized address? Let us live that family relationship of which the Bible speaks so often; let us rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Let us “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2).

“Love Always Hopes ... Always Perseveres”

The Christian’s life of love is a joyful existence. In the midst of sorrows and pains, he rejoices in the great gifts of the Creator.

His eye is firmly set upon the hope that rises as a mountain before him. There may be a valley to traverse before he reaches that distant peak. But he never takes his eye off that glorious future; and all life’s little annoyances and inconveniences are seen for what they are ­ stepping stones en route to the Kingdom. Paul says in another place:

“I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:12,13).

All that God has given us ­ riches, talents, intelligence, health ­ diminishes with the passing of time. Man grows old and dies. Only love remains, as a bridge between this life and the life to come, a bridge over the chasm of eternal nothingness. Every other gift or talent will fail, just as the Holy Spirit gifts finally ceased. The only thing that endures is the character of man, engraven in the infinite mind of God.

- Brother George Booker
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A New Creation
A Manual for New Christadelphians, Young Christadelphians, and Prospective Christadelphians Chapter 46

Dutch translation / Nederlandse vertaling > Het eerste op de lijst van de zorgen van de heilige

Character transformed by the influence of our fellowships

"Character is transformed by the influence of our fellowships. No man can become good merely by trying. A deepening character is generally the unconscious result of consciously chosen influences. Find a friend, believe in him and love him; see a great cause and give yourself to its work; feel the power of a book and saturate yourself with its spirit; find a brotherhood of spirits like yours in aspiration and join it; and loving your friend, serving your cause, absorbing your book, and co-operating with your brotherhood, do not think too much about your own character, for your character will take care of itself. You cannot choose to be Christ-like and attain your choice by trying; but you can choose Christ for your Friend, His Kingdom for your cause, the Bible for your Book, the Ecclesia for your Brotherhood, and these consciously chosen influences will unconsciously transform your life."
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"The Manhood of the Master" (1913) - Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969)

"We all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as from the Lord the Spirit"
2 Corinthians 3:18

Dutch translation / Nederlandse vertaling > Karakter omgezet door de invloed van onze omgang