Order

 Ours is not a God of chaos. He is a God of order, so intricate and detailed in His purpose that for you and I to tread upon the earth, breathe air, feel the sun, and smell the freshness after a spring rain, a billion, billion finite details had to come together just right. If the earth’s orbit moved just a bit closer to the sun, we would all be crispy critters. If it moved a bit further, we’d all be icicles.

Objectively speaking, taking everything into account, it takes a lot more faith to be an atheist than to believe in a Creator who lovingly spoke the universe into being, created the earth, and then man as the crowning jewel of His creation.

I’m not talking about the IQ-challenged kids who scream about spaghetti monsters and how anyone who believes in God is a simpleton while they themselves insist that they’re a cat and sit in life-sized litter boxes. I’m talking about rational, logical, analytical people who can look upon the whole of creation and somehow conclude it all came together perfectly by accident.

You see, there was a bang, and then, voila. You don’t say. And just like that, synchronous, perfect, fully fleshed, formed, and functional. That would be akin to taking the parts from ten individual cars, throwing them up in the air, and when they landed, they were complete, perfect, and working.

Something so wondrous that it makes Picasso, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, and Da Vinci look like toddlers doodling with finger paints came about purely by accident, with no intelligent design or creative force. Got it. Thanks. And somehow, we’re the intellectually closed-off and stunted ones?

If God is a God of order, and there is order in the universe He created, then there must also be order within the household of faith. The order of the church is well established in the Bible, and although the church today is very different from the church in James’s day, it does not negate or do away with the need for order.

I’ll be the first to call out the failures of the modern-day church. The household of faith was never intended to be a monolith, with branding executives, diversity, equity, and inclusivity representatives, public relations departments, and multi-year growth specialists. The church was never meant to be a business, but in many cases, that’s what it has become.

You have televangelists boasting about how they’re a brand unto themselves and not some country preacher, as though that made them superior to those who labor in the same harvest field. You have church boards making decisions based on what’s more profitable rather than Biblical; you have the message of the Gospel being watered down to the point of ineffectiveness, but through it all, God is still a God of order.

Even those who strongly oppose the corporatizing of the church tend to swing too far the other way, wherein there is no structure or leadership, and everyone does as they will. That is a recipe for disaster, and I’ve seen more fellowships split and split again over not having a shepherd than for any other reason.

James instructs us to call for the elders of the church if any among us is sick. This presupposes that there is a church body and that elders have been appointed to oversee its spiritual well-being. It doesn’t presuppose a church building, a building fund, or a corporatization and charter of a particular denomination, but it does presuppose the spiritual authority of seasoned, mature individuals who walk in the power and authority of God.

We can’t ignore God’s design because finding a church that preaches the truth is difficult and becoming more so daily. There are still those who stand on the truth of the gospel and will not compromise for the sake of popularity, and it’s our duty as individuals to seek them out.

It won’t be the ones who draw the eye or are starved for attention; it won’t be those who prance on stage and make it about themselves, but the ones who point the way to Christ and the cross, those who serve rather than demand to be served, and those who though deemed nothing more than country preachers by the boastful and proud, are men of substance who are fearless in their teaching of the Word. They are still around; you just have to look a bit.

When Elijah thought he alone remained, God had to inform him that seven thousand others remained who had not bowed to Baal and whose mouths had not kissed him. There are moments when you may feel alone or that you’re the only one who still pursues a life of righteousness and holiness unto the Lord, but you are not. God will always have a remnant. God will always have a people, and there will always be those who will not bow the knee to Baal, no matter the cost.

You are not alone. Neither am I. We are the family of God, the body of Christ, and when the day of sifting comes, we will know those who are wheat and those who are chaff. Do not despair. You are not alone. When the day comes, and you see your brothers and sisters standing beside you, unflinching, bold, courageous, steadfast, and determined, you will know that though not all who spoke the name of the Lord served Him, there are those who do.

As an aside, if you go looking for the perfect church with the perfect pastor and the perfect parishioners, you’ll never find it. Demanding perfection of others while we ourselves fall short of the mark is illogical. That said, if you search hard enough, you will find a church body that pursues righteousness and has set its eyes upon Jesus.

The priority isn’t whether or not they have a good worship team or an engaging children’s ministry, whether the pastor can fit into a pair of skinny jeans, or whether the pews are comfortable. The priority is whether the truth of the gospel is preached. That is the standard. Everything else is tertiary.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.