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Love Your Church: 1
‘Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.’ Ephesians 5:25 NKJV
Before you criticise your church, remember ‘Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.’ He hasn’t given up on His church, so don’t you give up on it! And stop talking so much about what you don’t like. If your church was perfect, you’d be out of place! Noah didn’t sail on a cruise liner; he sailed a glorified cattle boat. Can you imagine the noise, confusion and the violent tossing of a ship in a storm big enough to destroy the world? And how about the smell? All those animals all cooped up! But despite the conditions, one thing stands out—everybody inside the ark was saved while everybody outside was lost.
So there was this aristocrat bragging about his royal lineage and pure-blooded ancestry. Irritated, one of his listeners remarked, ‘Don’t forget your forebears were on board the ark with Noah!’ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘my family had their own boat!’
Right! There’s only one craft that’s guaranteed to make it safely into Heaven and that’s the ship of salvation.
Do things sometimes stink in the church? Sure. Jesus issued one of His harshest rebukes to Peter, the disciple who was destined to become a leader in the church: ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on things of God, but on things of man.’ (Matthew 16:23 AMP)
But the great thing is that when you mess up, the same grace that restored Peter will be there for you too. So, the word for you today is: love your church!
SoulFood: 1 Ki 17:1–6, 1 Ki 18:16–39, 1 Ki 19:9–18, 2 Ki 2:1–12
word4today an adaptation of The Word For Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright © 2018
