Holiness

What If Church Isn’t What You Think It Is?

~ Pat Vick ~ Leave a comment

WHAT YOU THINK CHURCH SHOULD BE Most people think church is a building. A place to go. A weekly check in point. A social gathering to be seen, mix and mingle. A time to pull out the Good Book and talk to the Man Upstairs. Perhaps you equate church with Potluck Sunday or Dinner On The Ground.

WHAT YOU WANT CHURCH TO BE

Most people want church to fill in the gaps of their already hectic lives. They want to add church to whatever they’ve already got going on. It’s not Biker Church, Cowboy Church, Sports Club Church or any other aspect of your life that you want to add the word “church” to.

WHAT CHURCH IS

Church isn’t a what; It’s a who. It is the ECCLESIA: The Called Out. The church is a people who have responded to the call to come out of the world into the Kingdom of God.

“Church isn’t a what; It’s a who. It is the ECCLESIA: The Called Out. The church is a people who have responded to the call to come out of the world into the Kingdom of God.” Share on X

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.“ (2 Corinthians 6:17-18)

Church is coming OUT and AWAY from previous lifestyles, cultures and beliefs INTO the culture and Kingdom of the Living God. It is a MAJOR change. A new way of THINKING and LIVING.

“Church is coming OUT and AWAY from previous lifestyles, cultures and beliefs INTO the culture and Kingdom of the Living God. It is a MAJOR change. A new way of THINKING and LIVING.” Share on X
  • Church Is Apostolic.

Jesus left His Church in the hands of his disciples, who came to be known as Apostles. He left them with instructions on how His Church should function. It is impossible to have true Church in a way other than the way the Apostles had Church. You can find a very detailed account of the first generation church in the Book of Acts. (of the Apostles) If the Apostles believed it, preached it and lived it, that is what Church should be.

-The Apostles’ teaching and lifestyles included the necessity of the New Birth (Repentance, Baptism in Jesus’ name for the remission of sins, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost evidenced by speaking in unknown tongues.)

-The Apostles’  teaching and lifestyle included signs, wonders and miracles done in Jesus’ name.

-The Apostles’ teaching and lifestyle included the belief in the Oneness of God. This meant very specifically that God, who is a Spirit, manifest Himself in the son to become the sacrifice for our sins. They believed this to their death and in the face of much persecution.

-The Apostles’ teaching and lifestyle included consistent fasting and prayer to subdue flesh and stay in communion with God,

-The Apostles’ teaching and lifestyle included extravagant worship.

-The Apostles’ teaching and lifestyle included the belief in Jesus’ second coming to the Earth to set up a natural Kingdom.

-The Apostles’ teaching and lifestyle included the belief in the Rapture or Catching Away of the Church to be with the Lord forever, at which time they would be changed from mortal to immortality.

-The Apostles’ teaching and lifestyle included the belief in Jesus’ Millennial Reign -When Jesus returns for His Church, He will rule and reign from Jerusalem for one thousand years, and we will rule and reign with Him.

  • Church Is Oneness.

The early Church was totally, 100%, unequivocally believers in the Oneness of God. When early converts were Born Again, they left their beliefs in multiple gods behind them. They came out from these idol worshiping beliefs of the surrounding heathen nations to believe in the one, true, living God whose name is Jesus. The erroneous doctrine of the trinity did not even exist and take root in the Church until the Nicene Council in 325 AD. Until this time, the early Church only baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, not in the titles, father, son and Holy Ghost.

  • Church Is Pentecostal.

No matter what sign is on your church building, the early Church was Pentecostal. Before denominations were a thing, when Believers were simply called “Christians,” they all experienced the fundamental infilling of the Holy Ghost, evidenced by speaking in tongues. Pentecost means fifty. It was the Holy Day that occurred fifty days after Passover. It is God’s Holy Day that commemorates the giving of the Law to the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. On this day in Acts (of the Apostles) 2, God’s Holy Spirit was poured out on Jesus’ followers. They all spoke in languages unknown to them as evidence that they had been filled with the Holy Ghost. To be the Church is to have this Pentecostal experience.

  • Church Is Holiness.

The early Church didn’t try to fit Jesus into their way of living. They forsook everything about their former lives that was contrary to godliness. They were serious and persistent about rooting all sin from their lives. They didn’t have a list of rules to check off. They simply shed everything that related to worldliness: Lifestyles, culture, language, wardrobe, habits, vices, excesses, passions, pursuits, hobbies and pastimes. They walked away from it all into a life of service to Jesus.

BE THE CHURCH

Hopefully, what you want church to be, what you think church is and what church truly is has come into clear focus. One thing is for certain. Church will never be more or less than the example left by Jesus and His Apostles. Church isn’t a what; It’s a who. Be the Church.

 

Life Is a Highway

~ Pat Vick ~ Leave a comment

“The highway of the upright is to depart from evil:
he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.” (Proverbs 16:17)

My heart is so grieved as I look around at people going about their daily lives. I feel more and more pressed in the Spirit with every passing day. How can we continue to go about our business as usual, when there is nothing “usual” about our lives anymore?

Just as a highway runs in both directions, and you have the ability to go either way, so each person has a choice of which direction they will travel spiritually -either to, or away from God.

I am crushed when I see people who have lived for God turn and begin to travel away from Him. People who I have personally prayed and wept with in the altar. People I have laughed with, and hugged, and fellowshipped with. People I love and cherish. People who have been saturated with the Spirit of the Living God. And yet they walk away, because life is a highway.

I cry a little every day, sometimes on the outside, and sometimes only in the silence of my heart. I cry for the choices people make that are so obviously driven by flesh. I cry because of the hardness of people’s hearts that were once so pliable in His hands. I cry because of the stubbornness and rebellion of people who have decided that no matter what the consequences are, they are going to do what their flesh craves. And I can’t do anything other than pray, because life is a highway, and people get to choose the direction they will travel.

Each time it happens, I cry a little. I die a little. I ask God why a little…or a lot. I always get the same answer. Life is a highway.

In these last days before Jesus returns, many will choose to travel the road of self satisfaction, self destruction, and ultimately be lost. Others will be traveling in the lane right beside them, yet going an altogether different direction to a life of blessing, peace, holiness, and ultimately to salvation.  

I will keep praying, and working, and reaching for one more. For that one who is getting weary of traveling away from God. For the one who is aching to be right with God again. For the one who never knew they could make better choices, and not live for flesh and satan. I will keep talking, and writing, and teaching, and believing for one more who will turn around and walk back to God.

Maybe that one is you. You don’t have to keep going in the direction you have chosen. You can turn around, and walk back to God, because life is a highway.

“And an highway shall be there, and a way,
and it shall be called The way of holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those:
the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” (Isaiah 35:8)

THE REMNANT: What Does An Old Scrap Of Cloth Have In Common With The True Church?

~ Pat Vick ~ 2 Comments

We have lived on our farm for the last ten years. We purchased it from a family who had lived on the land for decades. Through the years, as my husband and and sons have worked the ground, they have unearthed many treasures. Not of monetary value, but bits of history. A tool here. A toy there. A piece of metal from a trailer or a tractor. Evidence of past generations that have lived here. Worked here. Died here.

There is one thing that has surfaced time and again. On the acreage in front of where our house now sits, was once a thriving sawmill. Now it is a small lake that hosts a family of Canadian geese and one mallard duck. When the lake was being dug, again and again, we would find scraps of fabric. Not just any fabric. Not multiple kinds of fabric. But remnants of one specific garment.

Even now, every Summer, when one of the men till the ground between the house and the lake or run the bush hog over it, there it will be. Another Remnant.

It always stands out against its surroundings, with its odd pattern and color scheme. Patches of black, orange and pink, interspersed with a trickle of yellow circles. We’ve asked the previous owners if they remember what it might have been. A worker’s shirt? A ladies’ skirt or apron? A table cloth or bed sheet? No, they have no specific memory of it. It could have been anything, really.

But I can’t let it go. It wears on my mind. Why does it matter what it was all these years later? The only reason that I can give is because it keeps turning up. It matters because it was, and still is. The fact that it remains is proof that it is real and vital and true.

That old scrap of fabric reminds me of the Church. Real people who chose to follow Jesus. Real people who repented of their sins and were baptized in Jesus’ name. Real people that He poured His Holy Spirit into. Real people who spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Real people who separated themselves from sin and worldliness, choosing to live a holy and consecrated life to the Lord. Real people who gave all they had -time, money, talents, and even their lives. Real people who were persecuted and hunted and put on trial and killed. All the day long. Year after year. Generation after generation. Dark age to dark age.

The ungodly world would have you believe those people never existed. That what you predominately see today called “church” is what always was. No, my friend. Don’t you believe it. The bedazzled, self-centered, over indulged, superficial, drunk on entertainment, any way you like it thing that is heralded by so many in the name of our Savior isn’t the Church that Jesus built.

How do I know? How could I possibly know? Because every time the ground is stirred up, the evidence is brought to the surface. Another remnant. You can’t hide the Truth when another remnant rises to the top. Oh, it may not be pretty. A bit odd, really, with its awkward patches of patterns and colors. It may not look like the world, or act like the world, or talk like the world. That’s because it’s IN the world, but not OF the world.

You can keep going to that thing called church if you want to. You can blend in with everyone else, do like everyone else, and talk like everyone else. But in your heart, you know the Truth. There was a Church that was different, pure, holy. And the reason you know it, the way you can be sure, is that every so often, the ground is stirred, and another remnant turns up.

CHURCH: Ekklesia (Called Out Ones, Set Apart) Share on X

That co-worker that always wears skirts. That family member that never went to college, but prays in a language that you know she never learned. That teenager that refuses to be a part of the “fun” the rest of the crowd has going. The one that refuses to bend…and refuses to be ignored. For millennia there have been those like her, declaring their story. His Story.

They may have been torn asunder in the sawmill of persecution, yet they live. Just as righteous Abel’s blood cried out from the ground to his God, so does theirs witness of a True Church. Trust me when I tell you, the Remnant is alive and well.

“Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” (Romans 11:5)

Warm Regards, -Pat

If you are dissatisfied with the church you attend because it doesn’t reflect the attributes of the Church that Jesus built, or if you are looking for a home Church, I invite you to check out the UNITED PENTECOSTAL CHURCH, INTERNATIONAL. It is one of several Church organizations that promotes true Apostolic Doctrine. (Including the Oneness of God, the New Birth Experience of Repentance, Baptism in Jesus’ Name & the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, as well as living a lifestyle of Holiness.

As always, feel free to leave a comment, share to social media, SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER, and email me PAT@PATVICK.COM.

What If You Weren’t Beautiful?

~ Pat Vick ~ 9 Comments

A Reflection on Holiness…

I once met a lady (Let’s call her Naomi) who had been burned severely over the top half of her body. She had leaned in to light a stubborn gas stove and it ignited with her bent over inside. The flesh of her scalp, face, arms, hands and upper torso was literally melted off in a second. In a flash of heat, she was no longer beautiful, at least not in any way that society defines beauty.

You might be thinking that you know people who are not beautiful, but I disagree. Perhaps not every feature is aesthetically pleasing, but most of us have what we consider to be our best feature that we rely on to charm our way into other people’s affections. Maybe it’s dark, soulful eyes with sculpted brows, or full pouty lips. Maybe it’s chiseled muscular runner’s legs, or velvety skin the color of warm honey. Maybe it’s a thick, flowing mane of hair, or dimples that beg for attention.

These features become tools of the trade, if you will, to express ourselves, to glean attention, and I dare say to manipulate others into doing, thinking or feeling the way we want them to. Depending on whether we are an extrovert or an introvert, our features enable us to shine in the spotlight or blend into the crowd.

For most of us, our features dictate how we feel about ourselves and how we project ourselves to others. Someone with pearly white teeth is likely to smile more, thereby projecting confidence, while someone having a bad hair day might not make eye contact, and thereby seem withdrawn or standoffish.

Beyond our physical attributes, we use all manner of extras to embellish ourselves. After all, presentation is everything, right? We often feel like we can’t face the world without our makeup mask, a trendy cut, colored and permed hairdo, the latest clothing fashions and lots of bling to top it all off. These exaggerations leave very little room for the Holy Ghost to shine through.

Naomi visited our church with a mutual friend, who had prepared me ahead of time that she would be covered in bandages. I knew she would feel out of place, and expected her to be the epitome of social awkwardness. Was I ever surprised?! On the contrary, she was the embodiment of grace and contentment. It turns out, I was the one who felt uncomfortable, while she projected perfect peace.

She calmly held my eyes as I tried not to show my distress at her physical condition. She spoke genuine and kind words as I reined in my emotions. Naomi knew that she was a curiosity, but she wasn’t embarrassed or offended by it.

Through the openings in the bandages I could tell that she had no defined lips to apply lipstick to. No eyelashes to coat with mascara. No ear lobes to hang jewels from. All of the trappings that we rely on to face the world with confidence had been burned away from Naomi. Still, she was calm and reassuring, not seeking attention, neither shrinking from it.

Oh, I’m very sure she didn’t arrive at this place right away or even voluntarily. My mind flinches to think of the physical and emotional pain she had endured. By the time I met Naomi, she had gone through months of treatments and therapy. It’s not uncommon for someone who has gone through severe trauma to end up bitter toward God and to turn to every form of pseudo peace and synthetic beauty. Not Naomi; she was barely there.

So many people, both churched and unchurched, think of holiness as a list of rules and regulations. Many have called it legalism, and so it is if you are only trying to appear holy. However, if you are seeking for true holiness, you will eventually come to the realization, as Naomi did, that the only adornment the soul needs is the light of God’s pure Spirit.

“Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”

(1Peter 3:3-4)

THINKING POINTS:

-Name an embellishment that you rely on to feel confident.

-How do you feel when you think about being in public without it?

-Do you act differently with it than without it?

X, Y, ZZZzzz

~ Pat Vick ~ Leave a comment

So, the whole transgender movement has me shaking my head. Not only at a President who has dictated his own agenda outside of any legislative process, not only at humans who insist that mine and my children’s rights are taken away so that they can pretend to be something other than God made them, not only at a country that has forgotten it was formed as one nation under God and His laws, but at a Church who is snoozing softly as the very foundation of our great America is being jack hammered away beneath us.

People get confused all the time. Some confusion is from lack of concentration, some from lack of teaching. Some confusion is from too hectic of a lifestyle. Some is because of an underlying medical issue, or some simply from the aging process. This gender confusion issue, however, is an all out deception from satan, himself.

Sometimes, the Church can even get confused, especially by issues that are marketed under the label of Human Rights. In times when we need clarity, we should always go back to the Word of God.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply…” (Genesis 1:27-28a)

“The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.” (Deuteronomy 22:5)

These scriptures clearly reveal that from the beginning, God created man and woman with their own gender specific roles and a clear distinction between the two.

I know there are many people whose core belief system is not founded upon the Bible, but on science. True science, however, will prove, not contradict the scriptures. If the transgender issue is looked at from a scientific point of view, it should all become clear, as well.

If you take a DNA sample from any person, living or deceased, it will clearly reveal whether that person is male or female. According to recent scientific research, the human body has approximately thirty-seven trillion cells (give or take a trillion). The majority of those thirty-seven trillion cells each has a nucleus which carries your genetic code. Within each of those microscopic nuclei there are 23 pairs of chromosomes. These 46 chromosomes are your genetic identity. They are who you are. One pair of these chromosomes are sex chromosomes. If you are a female, you have 2 X sex chromosomes (XX). If you are a male, you have 1 X and 1 Y sex chromosome (XY).

I’m sure that someone might point to random genetic flukes, abnormalities, anomalies, variations or mutations that I don’t have the medical knowledge to even converse about, and claim these as validity for transgender tendencies. To that I would simply say, because sin first entered into the world, death now works in our bodies. But it wasn’t so from the beginning, and since Jesus Christ offered Himself as our sacrifice for sin, it doesn’t have to be that way in any of our lives now.

Others might conclude that people should identify with whichever gender feels right to them. To that I would say, feelings are tricky things. They are manufactured in our hearts that do not always know, believe or live Truth.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10)

I am not any kind of medical professional, but I have been reminded by a few internet searches on “DNA” that our bodies were created by God Almighty by specific design. He wasn’t confused when He coded our genetic identity within each of us trillions of times over. Furthermore, no amount of alternative clothing choices, restroom preferences, hormone treatments or surgical alterations will change the truth of who you are.

There is no reason for the Church to keep hitting the snooze button on this one. Be who you truly are, and encourage others to do the same.

“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee…” (Jeremiah 1:5a)