Get Your Pretense On!

76 • Get Your Pretense On!

the reward for our labor at his judgment seat (cf. Rom. 14.7-12; 1 Cor. 3.10-15; 2 Cor. 5.8-10).

Furthermore, it will be the Church that will enjoy sweet communion together with all the saints, living and dead, to dine with Christ at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, (Rev. 19.6). And the Word is clear: it will be the Church that will reign with Christ in the new heavens and earth, where the will and reign of God will continue forever, through unending days of bliss and joy (Rom. 8.17; 2 Tim. 2.12; Rev. 5.10; 20.4). No other group, entity, nation, organization, or enterprise can take its place, or substitute for her life and mission. Without a doubt, the Bible testifies that the life of the Kingdom of God is both present and being offered in the midst of the Church. The Shekinah (the glory of God) has reappeared in our midst of his people, God’s temple (Eph. 2.19-22). We are, today, the people ( ecclesia ) of the living God, the people of Christ from every kindred, people, nation, tribe, status, and culture (1 Pet. 2.8-9). God’s Sabbath rest has been found and is being enjoyed and celebrated here, with its freedom, wholeness, and the justice of God (Heb. 4.3-10). The year of Jubilee has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ; now we can experience God’s forgiveness, renewal, and restitution in our relationships with others (Col. 1.13; Matt. 6.33; Eph. 1.3; 2 Pet. 1.3-4). Yes, the pledge of God’s Holy Spirit ( arrabon ) indwells us: God lives here and walks among us here (2 Cor. 1.20). And, we taste the powers of the Age to Come in our little assemblies: Satan is bound in our midst, the Curse has been broken here, deliverance is experienced in Jesus’s name (Gal. 3.10-14). Scripture declares all these things to be true, today, right here and right now. What’s the deal, then? Why are folks so utterly bored with church services, church life, church ministry? Why