{"id":2865,"date":"2013-12-16T06:37:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T14:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/?p=2865"},"modified":"2015-10-21T07:16:41","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T14:16:41","slug":"how-to-fix-my-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/2013\/how-to-fix-my-church\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Fix My Messed-Up Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/mvp\/wp-content\/partial-hmc-upside-down.jpg\" style=\"width:400px; height:300px\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"upside down image of Hopewell Mennonite Church\" title=\"Sometimes I see my church, upside down and bleary\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Come to think of it, since I am part of the church&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:25px\">Maybe I see it that way because I am unstable and teary.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the case, I wish it were <strong>right side up, crispy, clean, shiny<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/mvp\/wp-content\/little-hmc-circle.jpg\" style=\"width:139px; height:138px\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"hopewell, right side up\" title=\"my church, as I wish it\" \/><\/p>\n<p>How do you suppose God sees my church? <!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>God sees it, <strong>redeemed<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>God sees it, <strong>washed by His Word<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I want to learn to see my church &#8212; my fellow members and me &#8212; through the prism of God&#8217;s Word.<\/p>\n<div class=\"quotes\" style=\"line-height:1.8em\"><em>&#8220;That he might sanctify and cleanse it<br \/>\nwith the washing of water by the word,<br \/>\nThat he might present it to himself a glorious church,<br \/>\nnot having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing;<br \/>\nbut that it should be holy and without blemish&#8221;<\/em><br \/>\n(Ephesians 5:26, 27).<\/div>\n<p>I want to see what my church is in God&#8217;s eyes &#8212; <b>made clean, holy, and glorious!<\/b><\/p>\n<p>If I can learn to see it that way, then I will be able to see it this way&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/mvp\/wp-content\/hopewell-right-side-up.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/mvp\/wp-content\/partial-hmc-bigger.jpg\" style=\"width:500px; height:375px\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"hopewell, washed\" title=\"my church, as God sees it\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center; font-size:200%; font-weight:bold; color:red\">Wow!<\/p>\n<p><strong>I want His Word to make us right side up, crispy, clean, and glorious!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Click the last image for the fuller, bigger image with proper photo credit to my son Andy.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes I see my home congregation as upside down and blurry.<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[894,292],"class_list":["post-2865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-101","category-lessons-for-living","tag-inspirational","tag-photography"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prJUJ-Kd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}