No 13
(Local church/Spiritual church)
The World Book dictionary defines church
as a building for public Christian worship or religious services. The Bible defines church as people who have
been saved by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. The word church appears 116 times in the
Bible and it always refers to people, never buildings. This difference seems relatively easy to make
– one is a building and the other is people, but through the centuries, it has
become increasingly difficult to make the distinction. People ask: “Which church is the right
one?”;
rightfully so! There are literally
hundreds if not thousands of different “churches”. There is the United Church, the Presbyterian
Church, the Methodist church, the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) just to name a few. That’s not counting the many different kinds
of Baptist churches. For many people,
the Catholic Church is the only real Christian church in the world and the Pope
is the head. As true born-again
Christians we can easily make the difference but for the rest of the world, it
is confusing. Jesus said: “That they
all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be
one in Us” (John 17:21). I ask you,
if Jesus wants us to be one, who could possibly want us to be divided?….. When Jesus spoke
to Peter about how the people perceived Him, Jesus said the following
monumental statement: “And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter and upon
this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it” (Matt