Our life is to be a LIVING DEMONSTRATION of the indwelling Christ! When others see us, listen to us and interact with us they need to witness Christ in us!

That is the demonstration the world is starving for. That's the witness that's lacking in our churches today. The lack of it is why Christian marriages, families and churches are going the way of society.

Is Christ the Preeminent One in your life? If not your religion is useless. It cannot save you. It cannot empower you. Without Christ you cannot fix your marriage or change your family or energize your church. Only Christ in you can and others can tell the difference!

Have you ever gone into a church that claims to be God's visible church on earth and upon entering it; no one welcomes you? Then after attending for months you find yourself not belonging? Oh people say good morning but quickly move on to their own social click or position of comfort. You look around and you see others not belonging either. You take note of the numerous social clicks that basically live unto themselves. Yes they attend the "right church," know the "right doctrines" and even involve themselves to a degree in some occasional "righteous outreach." But there is little to no demonstration of the indwelling Christ in their interpersonal relationships with those not belonging to their group.

God is not pleased! God wants a demonstration! Jesus came and lived a demonstration! That's why He's our example. He is the enabling power that empowers us to move outside our comfortable social circles and touch other lives. He empowers us to live as he lived. To care for the unfortunates, the non-belongers, the widows, the elderly and those searching for hope and purpose. He wants us to cultivate a culture of caring and to tend to all of His people.

So why did Jesus spend 30 quiet years tending to the needs of His parents, His family, His home and His local church? Because it was His training ground for His three and a half years of active ministry. If He could demonstrate it there, He could deliver it out there.

Are we missing something?

If we could recover the videos in heaven's archives of your life as lived out in your marriage, your home and your local church, would it have passed the test of 1 Timothy 3:4-5? "One that ruleth well his own home, having his children in subjection with all gravity; for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?"

Tough test you say. But isn't this the demonstration of the living gospel? What you say and do in your marriage, your family, your local church testifies to whether you have the indwelling Christ or mere cultural religion. It was Jesus that said, "By their FRUITS (demonstration--life's responses) ye shall know them." Matt 7:16

Are you willing right now, in your daily life, your marriage and family and in your local church to live in a way that always exalts Him? If those who know you could always see you demonstrate the life of Christ, wouldn't they be motivated to seek a Power outside of themselves as well? That Power of the indwelling Christ is what is missing in our churches today.

When others watch you face trials, whether that be disappointments, a health crisis, daily irritation, financial struggles, lifestyle temptations, social non-acceptance, do they witness your faith in the indwelling Christ. Would they testify that your relationship with Him is not in word only, but is in demonstration of a living connection to the God of this universe? Would they see a demonstration of a marriage they would long to have? Would they see a demonstration of how to care for others outside of their social circle?

Is that you? Or would those who know you say you have a FORM of godliness but deny its power? 2 Tim 3:5. Are you living God's love in the moment? 

That power which is being denied is the HEART of Christianity. The indwelling Christ always leads you into a living demonstration in all aspects of your life. That way your proclamation of the special truths for these last days will be accompanied with an indwelling power. Your character is transforming. And your warning of the judgments that will come upon those who spurn the preeminence of Christ in their lives and His principles will testify that you have possess the Pearl of Great Price.

However, to proclaim and warn and not have a living demonstration is to be a mere religionist. It is to possess churchianity, truthianity and reformianity without the indwelling Christ.

"Lord, help us live a life worthy of You. May others come to know You as we bear witness of Your loving character lived out in and through our every day lives."

Living to honor Him,

Jim & Sally