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Our Purpose
Our Purpose? What should be the purpose of any true believer in Yeshua Mashiach, in Jesus Christ Of Nazareth. Well, we most certainly must begin with the great commission. Before a person can come to the level of Peace or Shalom, he must first know Jesus. So we are here for anyone who may come across our site and be interested in knowing more about the Gospel. Then there is edification.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
This is just one of those scriptures that that tell us to edify one another. Edification is the building up of believers. Hopefully by everything that you read and see on this site can build you up. This site will be addressing topics that are relevant to the Kingdom of God. Trust me, although we all read the same Bible, worship the same Savior, and we're led into "all truth" by the very same Spirit, there will be disagreements and differences on what we are saying the Spirit is revealing to us. Hopefully we get closer to understanding it all.
Every ministry, although they have a general and common goal, will have a specific purpose, a specific area of ministry. The church today should be at the level of power, but that power as 2 Timothy 3:5 is being denied. Hopefully we can come to a better understanding as we move through our studies, but what I would like to do is put forth at least three main objectives of this ministry.
1. Shalom--- It is about Peace. It's about every believer reaching that level of fulfillment of life. That means it is about a lot of things, not just about wealth and riches. There are a lot of wealthy people who do not have the fulness of life. This site is about doing things in order in the Kingdom of God. That order for the believer starts at home. This one has a particular burden on my heart. How can an individual be so excited about, grasp, and apply the principles of being prosperous but be so nonchalant and callous about their deteriorating relationships between mother, father, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts. It is as if we are now the scribes and Pharisees and Jesus is now saying to us, Woe! We now have omitted the weightier matters, like loving one another and concerned with the lighter matters like prosperity.
Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise
and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith:These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
23:24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
23:26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited
sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
23:28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are
full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Could it be that this is us, that on the outside we seem beautiful and blessed and into prosperity, but on the inside we are unclean with our issues of love.
When Matthew 24:12 says that "the love of many shall wax cold" it is not talking about this condition existing among the people of God, but among the ungodly. How is it that family members attend spirit-filled churches, but they cannot go by each others homes because they can't stand each other, and there is consistently failed attempts, or no attempts at reconciliation. This baffles me. This also includes the body of believers. There are church members who hate each other. The Bible says that if you don't have love then you don't have God. Read it for yourself.
1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us:
And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
3:17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up
his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
3:19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: For love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
4:12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us,
and his love is perfected in us.
I can put scripture, after scripture, after scripture, but you need to go to your Bible and read it for yourself. Some of you are playing church, and you are deceived into believing that you know God. But you'll say, " I love them, but we just can't get along." Nonsense! We must visit and continuously revisit this issue of family until a solution is obtained. Don't continuously visit and revisit this issue, then on judgment day this issue will visit you.
2. Division---- I squared off a 5 mile radius in my neighborhood. I drove down every street. I counted every church across the street from another. I counted every storefront church. The numbers were astounding. In one very small center there were six businesses, three of those spaces were occupied by three different church denominations. In the majority of these shopping centers there were at least two churches. The sad part is that although each of these groups claim that they are worshipping the same God and are eventually going to the same place, they don't know each other, talk to each other nor worship with each other. In the case of the storefront churches, part of their resources are used to pay rent to a landlord who knows nor cares nothing about Jesus; furthermore, the neighborhoods in which these churches exist seem to be in no better condition because of it.
1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the
same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
1:11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
1:12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
1:13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
The things Paul had to deal with is the same things we have to deal with today. The same questions are being asked, that by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among us, that we be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. In the last days in the house of God, some of us are saying I am of Martin Luther: And I am of John Wesley: And I am of John Calvin: And the list goes on and on. We are over 200 different denominations, but the question still goes out;
Is Christ divided?
The church needs the power to operate properly in times like these, but to do so we must cross over these dividing lines, pool our talents and resources, and push forward to that level that God intended.
3. Finally, here is where we at Ministry of Peace beseech you for your assistance. It is about an area of ministry that you hear little or nothing about. It is about those of us whose ministry exist in those undesirable areas of town. In those areas where the harvest is ready but the laborers are few. Our churches are located in those neighborhoods where the drug dealers roam. The neighborhoods where the ex-convict is released home to. The neighborhoods of the prostitutes. This is the neighborhoods of the undesirables of society, the same types of people the Jesus came to save. The tithes and offerings collected is not enough to buy the pastor a Lexus or put him on a church salary. During the week he has to work a 9 to 5, and at the end of the month if the collection plate did not collect enough to pay the rent on the church building, then the difference has to come out of his pocket. This is an area of the body of Christ where the work is hard , and it is dirty. One of the latest trends that I have noticed is that if there is a church on one side of the city that has prospered through their increasing membership of doctors, lawyers and business owners; what this church will do is franchise out to the opposite side of the city, sort of like a Burger King or McDonalds might do, and the locale of this church (part 2) is another neighborhood of doctors, lawyers, and business owners. What is sad is that I have counted as many as four other churches within 100 yards of their selected site. Without me spelling out every detail, I want you to think seriously about the ramifications of what this is saying. At any cost, our neighborhoods which consist of the minimum wagers and those on welfare, pretty much stay the same. The big churches which are part of the same body, don't seem to notice the condition of this stubbed toe.
Friends, our ministries are experiencing progress, but that progress is slow and tedious. As Paul carried the Gospel throughout Asia, he asked those communities to remember the poor saints in Jerusalem. They were going through a hard time, and help came from other areas of the body. I am now petitioning those communities outside of our own to remember our community and ministry. The saints at Corinth, Galatia, and throughout Asia did not remember the saints at Jerusalem in thought, but in deed.
So what can you do? First and foremost, please pray. Please continuously pray for this ministry. Secondly, and funds or donations of clothing, computers, etc. are welcomed. Third, , tell all your friends, and family, coworkers and church members about us and ask them to visit. Fourth, on our links page there will be some companies who have agreed to donate a portion of anything purchase when you click on their site. So far we only have an agreement with Verizon, but keep checking, there will be more to come. So when you are thinking or doing your shopping online, pas by us first. Finally if you have any suggestions or information mation that can assist this ministry in achieving its goals, please let us know. Thank you and may God Bless you. Shalom.
Minister Karl Stephens