ECCLESIOLOGY: A Very Peculiar People!

On the MSN Home Page there is a link called “The Word of the Day.” Each day a new word is supplied to the site by Microsoft's Encarta. One word offered was:

sui generis | soo-eye-JEH-nuh-russ or soo-ee-JEH-nuh-russ | adjective: constituting a class alone : unique, peculiar

Example sentence:

"No one before or since has had such a blend of wildness and vulnerability, such pretty-boy looks crossed with such rawness ... James Dean was sui generis." (Robert DiMatteo, Video Review, December 1990)

The selection went on to explain:

English contains many terms that ultimately trace to the Latin forms "gener-" or "genus," (which are variously translated as "birth," "race," "kind," "gender," and "class"). Offspring of those roots include "general," "generate," "generous," "generic," "degenerate," and "gender." But "sui generis" is truly a one-of-a-kind "gener-" descendant that English speakers have used for singular things since the late 1700s.

Its earliest uses were in scientific contexts, where it identified substances, principles, diseases, and even rocks that were unique or that seemed to be the only representative of their class or group. By the early 1900s, however, "sui generis" expanded beyond solely scientific contexts and is now used more generally for anything that stands alone.

Seems to me God used this concept long before the 1700s. In fact, I believe it was first used by a man called Simon, later known as Peter, in the first century AD. I believe he wrote something like:

"But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY."

1 Peter 2:9-10

And if my memory serves me correctly, the folks who translated the KJV said we are a "peculiar" people.

God long ago decided that all of His children should be sui generis – in “a class alone,” unique and peculiar.

Christianity, Illustrations, Religion

CONSECRATION: Let’s Get Cirrus!

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus”

John 12:20-21

Freshly graduated from seminary, a minister of a small Texas church in an area suffering from drought, went to visit a farmer-church member one hot afternoon.

Leaning on a fence, they discussed the weather. "Those are serious clouds over there," the old man said, pointing southwest. "Don’t you mean Cirrus? Actually, they're probably Cumulus," the newcomer stated somewhat smugly.

The old man eyed him for a moment, then said, "Yung'un, they's just two kinds of clouds -- them what's serious and them what ain't."

Church folks are like that farmer’s clouds; some’re serious, some ain’t!

[Adapted from "Life In These United States" by All Henager; © 1996; The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., all rights reserved]

Christianity, Illustrations, Religion

CHURCH: The Bride is bloodied and bruised by not down or out!

THE DAVIE POPLAR: [Ephesians 5:27]

Clearly the contemporary church in the Western world is not what she should be; in fact, she's pretty beaten up for a gal who's engaged to the King of kings.

Davie Poplar is a large tulip poplar tree, approximately 300-375 years old, located on the campus of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, named in honor of a Revolutionary War general, and founder of the university, William Richardson Davie.

The most enduring legend associated with the tree is that as long as Davie Poplar remains standing, the University will thrive. If it falls, the University will crumble. As such, many attempts have been taken to preserve the tree.

In 1918, it was struck by lightning, and fear that the tree was dying led the University to make a plant grafting, called Davie Poplar Jr. Later, another tree called Davie Poplar III was planted nearby from a seed of the original tree.

In 1996, Davie Poplar was badly damaged by Hurricane Fran, after which the trunk was filled with cement and strung with cables to keep it up.

The Church of Christ (not the denomination) was founded by another military hero, the Captian of the Lord's Host; this officer is far greater than Gen. Davie.

His Bride has also been hit by lightening, and on several occasions, out of fear that she was dying, grafts were talen. And her seed has birthed children everywhere.

But here in the last century, as a result of the beating the church has been receiving from the enemy, you would think she had also been "filled with cement and strung with cables to keep her" standing.

But, glory to God Almighty, He will neither forsake her or depart from her.

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