The Church God Designed: A Divine Plan with Divine Resources for the Human Need

By Edward L. Maxwell

God is sovereign and eternal, and he created for us a world in which we arrive and begin a pilgrimage, a journey, that ultimately leads us back to our Lord in eternity. Today this world has been darkened by confusion, and our journeys can be interrupted or even cut short. Yet in this finite, earthly world, God has provided a place of refuge that is spiritual in essence and eternal in existenceand this amazing place of hope and joy is his church.

In The Church God Designed, author Edward L. Maxwell outlines the arrangements God has made for our glorious return back to our place of origin. Although we think of the church as a physical place, the design of the church was based on a divine plan that was established in eternity past by a spiritual and eternal beingand this design is far beyond human reasoning, involves knowledge that is far beyond human intellect, and requires power far beyond human ability. Therefore, the only church that is true in the divine eyes of God is the very one he planned, designed, and built.

We are but the living stones of the spiritual house God has provided for us, and it is only the church God has designed that can guide us back to him. God has provided the means for our redemption and the process to obtain it, and it is impossible for us to manufacture that which God gives his only Son the authority to do.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973632443

Edward L. Maxwell

Edward L. Maxwell currently serves as the dean of academic affairs at the Northeast Baltimore Bible Institute and College. He has worked as a behavioral psychology counselor for teens, also acting as an anger management and conflict resolution counselor and consultant. Maxwell has spent twenty-five years in public education as a teacher, counselor, and administrator, and he has served as a minister in the Church of Christ for forty-five years. Today he serves at the Suitland Road Church of Christ, where he has ministered for the past thirty-one years.

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Copyright © 2018 Edward L. Maxwell.

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-3243-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-3244-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018907564

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/2/2018

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: A Divine Plan for an Eternal Kingdom

•   Designed from Eternity Past

•   Design Superior to Human Wisdom

•   Superior Understanding of the Past, Present, and Future

Chapter 2: The Church as God Designed—Spiritual

in Nature by Design

•   Planned From Eternity Past

•   Spiritual In Essence

•   Spiritual Dynamics of the Church

Chapter 3: The Church as God Designed—Uniquein Its

Life-Changing Qualities

•   The Function of Its Light

•   The Dynamics of Its Power

•   The Essence of Its Powerful Existence

Chapter 4: The Church as God Designed— The Human Element

•   What Man Was Made to Be

•   The Downfall of Humanity was a Matter of Choice

•   Rising to Victory a Matter of Choice

Chapter 5: God’s Design for Entrance into the Church

•   Teac.hing

•   Believing

•   Obedient Conviction

Chapter 6: Growth of the Church by God’s Design

•   Impossible to Stop

•   Impossible to Humanly Manufacture or Restructure

•   A Spiritual Process

A Brief Summation

Preface

As the world turns, there is an environmental concern that is more serious than the biological one. This critical dilemma of humanity pertains to the spiritual environment as it relates to the soul and spirit of man. The world has become so dark, so confusing, and so frightfully chaotic that the path of hope and salvation is obscured by its cloud of darkness.

There was a western show about an old farmer who was kidnapped by two bad guys who wanted to claim his farm as their own. They took him far out into the wilderness to a place where he was not familiar and where there was no water. Their intent was that he would die of natural causes while trying to find water. The man wandered through the prairie and finally gave up all hope of survival. He relented to the heat, yielded to hopelessness, relinquished the spirit of trying to survive and accepted what he considered as defeat and his ultimate end. However, as he begins to breathe what he thought to be his last breath, a thought came to his mind that gave him a spark of inspiration. He thought about his enemies celebrating and claiming that for which he had work so hard. The more he thought of his farm, the more inspired he became. At times he could only crawl, but he kept going. When he crawled into his yard, his two assailants had just finished spinning an incriminating story to sheriff. They were arrested for their crime, and after the farmer’s recovery, he celebrated the victory, which was the fruit of his steadfast determination.

In the world in which we live, Satan has used his influence on man’s fleshly nature, to cloak the glory and light of God. He has