A NEWSLETTER FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE GREENWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST

VOLUME 2 NO. 7                                             APRIL 3, 2005

“Kuriakos”

BY STEVE NIEMEIER

This word means “of or belonging to the Lord.”  We might recognize the word “ekklesia” more quickly as we have been taught its meaning, “to call out.”  When Jesus made the statement in Matthew 16:18, “...I will build My church...”  He basically stated that there would be those called out of something and would then belong to Him.

Peter provides an insight to what one is called out of in I Peter 2:9, “...that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light:”  In Matthew 8:5-13 and in Luke 13:22-33 Jesus gives a detail of the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  What we can comprehend from this is that those that do not come into the marvelous light of the Lord are in darkness and if they do not follow the Lord then they will be cast into the outer darkness or eternal torment (Matthew 25:46).

We must not confuse the “calling out” to be something that is miraculous.  II Thessalonians 2:13-14 states that we are called by the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We can understand that our faith in this good news of Christ comes as a result of hearing or comprehending His word (Romans 10:17).  As a result of our faith we then establish our belief in the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Acts 8:37).  In so doing we also establish our belief in His death, burial and resurrection from the dead.  Once we have established our belief we are then led to repent of our sins just as those that heard and believed on the Day of Pentecost did (Acts 2:38).  Paul tells us in Romans 10:8-10 that we are to confess Christ with our mouth and thus because of hearing His word, believing His word, our willingness to repent of our sins we then should be eager to confess to all that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and be baptized into Him for the remission of our sins (Acts 22:16).

As a result of our conviction to Jesus Christ, we will be added to the church that He built according to Acts 2:47.  Thus our journey from darkness to the marvelous light has been completed.  However, to keep us in the marvelous light we must continue to be faithful until death (Revelation 2:10) to our conviction to Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 6:4-6 warns us about going back into the darkness as it puts the Son of God to an open shame.

While most of our readers are thinking to themselves, “We know all of this” let us be reminded of something that we soon forget once we have “come out of the darkness into this marvelous light.”  Once we have done this we are different, a lot different than those that have not taken these steps from the darkness.  Peter tells us in I Peter 2:9-10 that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people and we are these things so that we can proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of the terrible darkness of sin into the marvelous light of righteousness.

We should really stop and look at ourselves and see if we are acting like we are convicted to Christ.  Can I see the “holy”, “chosen”, and “royal” in me?