Keep Restoring

by Mark Tonkery

Is restoration ever completely done? I have a friend who restores old cars. He has put a lot of work into one car trying to make it look like the original. Even though it is restored and looks very nice, there are still many things that he wants to do. His restoration of this vehicle is a work in progress.

My friend and his car make me think of how our attitude should be in restoring New Testament Christianity. With God’s help, we in the church have come a long way with restoring New Testament Christianity, which we have done a great job. As one reads the Bible, ones sees that the church today has put: Christ back in the center of Christianity, immersion as essential to fulfilling God’s Plan of Salvation, taking of The Lord’s Supper on a weekly bases, a cappella sing in worship, leadership of elders, deacons, orderly worship and other important aspects of the church have been restored. Yet with this done we as Christians must not think that we have completed our task or have arrived in our restoration efforts. There is much more that needs to be done in order for us to have the Christianity of God’s intent.

As I read in the Bible we as Christians need to continue to attempt to restore New Testament Christianity by maintaining the things we have already restored as well as pressing forward in continued restoration. We have to keep in mind that there are many things that we have yet restored. Some things we once had and have now lost. We as Christians need to remember to take seriously our New Testament Christianity and keep resorting.

Some things I believe we have lost or we need to restore are as follows:

• Evangelism - It is a fact that our congregations are dying because of a lack of zeal for sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. Jesus thought that this to be such an important command for believers to have that he personally stated it twice Matthew 28:17-20 and in Mark 16:15-16. This is not just the preachers’ job or the missionaries’ job, this is a command for all believers who are New Testament Christians. Yet even though this is a command from Christ himself many Christians avoid evangelism. May all of us as Christians restore this command to our congregations.
• Christ like attitudes - Another important command of the New Testament is to have attitudes that are the same as Christ’s (Eph. 4:23-24; Php. 2:5; 1 Pe. 4:1). Many New Testament Christians have developed attitudes different from Christ's such as self serving attitudes, attitudes of bitterness, laziness, and slander. May we repent of these attitudes and restore the joyous, loving and self sacrifice attitudes that Christ modeled.
• Holiness - means being set apart from the world. Many Christians indulge in the same worldly actives at the people in the world. There is little that sets Christians apart from evil and sin in our day and time. Again the Bible is clear in Eph. 5; Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Pe. 3:11 we are to be holy. Let us say "NO" to ungodliness and evil and strive to be close to God instead of trying to see how close we can be to the world without it harming us.
• Unity - Eph. 4:11-12 states that we are to work toward unity and that our work is not done until we do so. So if we think that we have attained restoration then we need to take a second look at unity. Can we say in our congregations that we are of one mind in Christ, are we united in the work of the Lord, are we striving to get to know each other and make right the wrongs we have made towards one another? Restoration is never complete until there is unity among Christians.

In our Christian walk we must keep a continued restoration effort before us because of the lessons that history teaches us. Since New Testament Christianity, once drifted from the foundation of Christ and His Word, it is possible it could happen again. We must always be diligent in seeking Christ and being His Church.

It is when we have stopped striving to restore New Testament Christian or saying that we have arrived in our restoration that we have been defeated. May we never say these things and keep restoring New Testament Christianity to our world.