Being born again doesn't mean being perfect. It simply means you've been born a second time, this time not physically but spiritually. You've been baptized into Christ by acknowledging and accepting the sacrifice of Jesus and receiving His Spirit into you. You receive a new spirit as the former spirit dies, but your body and mind still remain the same, and if you're not careful, if you don't allow your new spirit from God to gain dominion over the rest of you, its possible you would keep on living like before as if you were never born again.
But it doesn't change the fact that you're really born again and that the Spirit of God lives in you. It simply means you've not completely yielded yourself to God, and He would never force you. Being born again happens in an instant, but living the Christian Life takes for you to pick up your cross daily, having constant fellowship with the Lord, abiding in His Word and letting His Word abide you. This doesn't happen overnight, but happens gradually. A woman who goes into full labour might take a few minutes or hours to deliver the child, but it would take 18 years before that child becomes a full grown adult. Even at that age the parents still need to keep counselling and guiding the child, because they have seen more and know better. Training a child needs lots of patience, love, understanding. ... From teaching him to sit to crawling to standing to walking to running to talking to eating to pooing in the potty to having good manners.... The list is endless. This is what our Christian walk is like. Different children grow at different rates and we are supposed to help one another, not criticise or bring down one another. The Church, which is you and I and every Believer out there is an avenue for us to be gradually perfected. When we stop fellowshiping with one another, its like an eye or ear or finger etc in the body telling the rest of the body to go away, he's fine by himself. And if your fellowship with the brethren is not there, your fellowship with the Father will be badly affected and that is the ultimate peak God wants us to achieve - oneness with Him not just in spirit but also in mind, body and every aspect of our lives.
You MUST NEVER EVER allow other people's mistakes or misbehaviour cost you the fullness of what God has for you. You'll answer for yourself and what other people did is no excuse for what you didn't do. What we do here on earth prepares us for our reward and assignment in the hereafter. Its beyond just going to heaven. There's a lot more to it than that.
If Jesus was looking at our behavior, He wouldn't have bothered coming to the earth not to talk of dying that shameful and heart-renching death on the Cross. Even though lots of people out there are still talking lots of trash about Him, He would still do it all over again even if it means only one person would fully embrace Him and become One with Him. That's God for you. He destroyed hundreds of thousands of men in a flood, and was ok with the family of 8 who fully accepted Him. What He can do with one person is far more than we can imagine. Learn from Him. Be who you're supposed to be and do what you're supposed to do for His sake, irrespective of what people around you are doing or saying. That is why it is a personal conviction and a personal relationship.
A true Christian, one whose heart is totally for God, would never forsake Church. If he's not ok with the Church meeting centres (churches) around him, he would keep searching until he finds the one his spirit is at peace with, and will become part of it no matter how far away it is from his residence. If you're a Christian but you've given up on 'church', or you restlessly jump from one church to another or you feel resentment towards pastors and the Brethren, check yourself, something is wrong somewhere. Any one part of the body that suddenly decides he wants to be cut off from the rest of the body and exist on its own is sick. It just doesn't happen. The body would be deformed and the cut-off part would gradually and steadily die because it's been cut off from its Source. Remember, the Body doesn't consist of just other Believers, the Body has a Head, Jesus. Do yourself a favor and open up yourself to the Great Physician and let Him examine you by His Word and work on you by His Spirit. But the first step is admitting you've gone wrong somewhere at some point. If you're still sitting on your high horse and telling yourself you're better off without 'church', then you're not yet yielded to Him to receive His correction. When you're ready, He'll be there to take your hand and lead you the rest of the way. But hey, don't take too long, you're missing out on so much already!
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