Any Good Writtings Besides the Local Church?

[Indiana]

Relating by life

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:2)P

The way to relate are to one another in the Body of Christ is by having a thorough dealing with the world and not being conformed to this age. How do you relate in the Body? The Body is 100% a matter of life. It is organic and it only responds to life. It only receives life.

Anything that is not life it rejects. So if there is anything of the world in us, any conformity to the age, then in that degree we will not know how to relate in the Body.

The Body is not something organized. It is not something we merely mentally grasp. We apprehend the reality of the Body by experiencing Christ as our life.

To relate in the Body by life, our minds need to be renewed, our thoughts need to be renewed. The renewal of our mind and our thoughts is related to our dealing with the world and not being conformed to this age. Whenever there are dealings with the world, dealings with this present evil age, dealings over what our hearts are riveted to, there is a quickening among us concerning the reality of the Body. However, if the Body is not that real to us, it may be due to our lack of dealing with the world. If we have not dealt with the things that possess us, and instead have closed out light and life, the Body will not be that real to us.

The real dealing with the self will issue in relating properly to one another as members of the Body. Thus, dealing with the self issues in the Lord's building of the church. May the Lord do his work of exposing this self so that we can deny it and terminate its tyranny over us (Matthew 16 23- 24.) By this dealing we shut the gates of Hades and cast Satan out so that the Lord has a way to build us together and spread his economy on the earth (Ephesians 1:10; 3: 9, 1st Timothy 1 3-5.)