Dobler: We need to give up everything to be part of the body Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Thursday, July 1, 1999 FORT WORTH - Calling it one of his favorite scriptures, David Dobler read from the opening verses of Acts 13 during a praise and worship service in Fort Worth sponsored by Presbyterian & Reformed Renewal Ministries International. Following a time of praise through song and prayer, Dobler, a former GA moderator and executive presbyter of Yukon Presbytery, spoke on surrendering all, including individual choice, to be part of the body of Christ. "Antioch was a city of firsts," said Dobler. It was Antioch where believers were first called Christians and where believers first preached to those who were not Jews. Dobler said when he "looks back at those days in Antioch, there was awe for what God was doing." He spoke of the fasting, the preaching and the praying that the church was doing. To be "alive in the body of Christ today, we need to be like that," he said. "The congregation was consumed in prayer," he said. "They prayed together, worshiped together, fasted together." "This was not about individual experience, but about all being in prayer together. …They worshiped all the time on the Lord's Day, and all of the other days, too. And in the midst of fasting and praying, the Holy Spirit spoke to all of them together, not just to the preacher, but all," he said. Surrendering all "They, in humility, surrendered all to God," said Dobler. The Antioch church had black and white, Jew and non-Jew on staff, he said, adding that it was no easier then than now to cross cultural bounds. "All had been surrendered to belong to the body of Christ." Referring to Acts 13:2-3 where the Holy Spirit calls Barnabus and Saul to leave the Antioch church to do His work, and the church "having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away," Dobler said, "No one asked if they were willing." "They surrendered individual choice to belong to the body of Christ. The content of the faith was not up for grabs … There is nothing less biblical, less charismatic than 'I'm doing it my way,'" he said. No evaluation Dobler said the church sent Barnabus and Saul "with no way to evaluate their effectiveness. We like to quantify things. That's not what they were up to in Antioch. They were not interested in statistics or programs, just obedience." In Antioch, he said, "there was no evidence that Christians could be on their own. They were always trusting the body. They lived with abandon and it cost them everything." "Grace is free - but it costs you everything," he said. "If we claim to be evangelists, if we claim to be sent ambassadors of Christ, then we need to give up everything to become part of the body of Christ. "If I am going to live in Christ, then I have to surrender everything and the only way I have a hope of beginning is if you pray for me and I pray for you," he said. PRRMI "Exalting Jesus Christ, that's our passion," said PRRMI executive director Brad Long when opening the service. "Our passion is igniting the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit." The organization's vision directives include prayer, leadership development, congregational renewal and mission outreach. "The purpose of all of this," said Long, "is so the church may be empowered to do all that God commands." |
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