A few years ago a major study revealed that the ultimate question that people have is this: What is my purpose? This was the main question regardless of race, religion, or lack of religion. This could only be the result of there being an inherent destiny that is created in the heart of every human being. Interestingly, even those who do not believe in God believed that they are here for a purpose. The Scriptures confirm what all of our hearts tell us—we all have a destiny, a purpose. Seeking our destiny is a quest that adds richness, depth, and fulfillment in experiencing life.

One of the main reasons many Christians cannot find their destinies is because they have not found their places in His body, the church, which is the only place we can come to truly understand, much less fulfill, our destinies. As we are told in I Corinthians 11:27-30, this leads to weakness, sickness, and even premature death.    

    Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
     But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
     For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly.
     For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.
    
    We partake of communion in an “unworthy manner” when we partake of the ritual, thinking that this fulfills our obligation to do what the ritual represents. In this case, the ritual represents communion, or the “common union,” we are to have with Him and therefore also with His body. We cannot be properly joined to the Head without also being properly joined to His body. If we have been severed from His body, just as if any of our limbs were severed in the natural, we will get weak, sick, and possibly die.

    It is easy to understand why so many Christians do not feel that they fit into the church as it is today, but the church needs for them to help make it into what it is called to be. This can be a very hard, frustrating process, but we need this process in our lives to mature in Christ and to be prepared for our purposes. If we are waiting for the church to mature before we join it, we will not be able to fit in with it because it will be too far down the road. If the church was already perfect—if it was already all that it needed to be—we could not fit into it because it would not need us.

    As the kingdom unfolds and grows, the church will be the vehicle through which the kingdom is revealed. The church is going to go through radical transformations in the coming times. You have probably already sensed in your heart that many transformations are needed. Don’t miss out on them. Find your place in His body. Christians who are not in their right places will find it increasingly difficult to walk the path of life, and they will fall away. As the Lord Himself warned, their love will grow cold (see Matthew 24:12). This was not a warning to unbelievers because they do not have His love in the first place, but it is an obvious warning to His people. Those whose love is not growing stronger will grow weaker, until they will have drifted from the faith. Now is the time to turn this around. Now is the time for you to find your place in His church, begin to function in it, and resolve every week to get closer to the Lord and love Him more. This will be the discipline required of those who will endure to the end.

    I would like to finish this week’s word with one of Leonard Jones’ daily blogs: 

In the world today, we see people emigrating from one country to another country where their prospects seem brighter—Eastern Europeans in mass are moving to Western Europe, Latin American people are coming to the U.S., and so forth. Coming to Jesus is no less real as someone who immigrates to another country. It literally is moving from one kingdom to another kingdom where prospects are brighter. There is a quote on our Statue of Liberty, and I believe it is what God is saying to the world right now: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.