Your Priority.
by
Dean Gotcher
Your Priority, if you are a minister, is not to the "institution" or the congregation,
Your Priority, if you are a member of the congregation, is not to the minister or the congregation,
Your Priority, if you are a worker, is not to the boss or the job,
Your Priority, if you are a legislator, is not to the constitution and the constitutes,
Your Priority, if you are a judge, is not to the constitution and the court,
Your Priority, if you are a major, governor, or president is not to the constitution and "the citizens,"
Your Priority, if you are a husband, is not to the land, the business, the wife, and the family,
Your Priority, if you are a wife, is not to the husband and the family,
Your Priority, if you are a child, is not to the parents,
Your Priority is your Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
That is, if you are a believer (an "extremist," a "social misfit," not "a team player," a "resister to 'change,'" "in denial," psychological, etc., ). Otherwise all the above do not apply and you are "normal," i.e., "of and for yourself," i.e., "lusting" after the pleasure of the 'moment,' serving all that is of world that stimulates it.
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." "And whosoever doth not bear his cross [endure the rejection (hate) of men for righteousness sake], and come after me, cannot be my disciple." "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:26, 27, 33
"No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
" Luke 16:13
"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matthew 16:24-26
"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4
"For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." Matthew 12:50
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6
"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Matthew 10, 32-39
"Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [(but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also]. Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." 1 John 2:22-27
Those who think "gestalt" are in error, thinking that the "feeling" of unity ("human relationship") is the whole that is different (greater) than the sum of the parts, when the presence of the Lord, in the midst of the believers who come together in His name, is added to the parts instead. Fellowship is a byproduct of believers coming together in the Lord. When the "church" makes the fellowship (the "building of human relationship") the priority, then the believer finds himself alone (a misfit), having to leave to come together with believers somewhere else, with the Lord in their midst.
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20 ", and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." 1 John 1:3
© Institution for Authority Research, Dean Gotcher 2016