March 14.
God’s Church

3 John 1:5-6

Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers; ‘Which have home witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well.

This is what the church should really be: the church should be a lighthouse shining forth its light upon a dark and stormy world. It should be a restaurant feeding the souls of men with the pure satisfying word of God. The church should perform as a hospital ministering to sick of sin and shame – a lifeboat that rescues victims from the raging sea of life. It should exist as an orchard producing wholesome fruit of the spirit, a baker displaying the bread of life. The church should be a house where souls can find compassion, love, and understanding, a service station where souls can refuel for a journey ahead. The church should be a factory where faithful employers produce godly work. The church should be a dry cleaners where spiritual garments become cleaned and pressed. The church should be an insurance agency giving free assurance against the fires of hell. It should be a lumberyard where the supply could be secured to help build new lives. The church should function as a working water department making the water of life available for whosoever will. The church should act as a travel agency giving directions, a signpost guiding souls to the straight and narrow. Best of all, the church should subsist as a jewelry store where God purchases precious jewels to be placed in safe keeping.

And what I discovered about the church saints is you can not stop it. You can cut the church’s head off and it will come back with new heads. Put the church in the water and she will come up cleaner from her washing. Put the church in the fire and she will come up pure from her burn. Starve the church and she will come back with bread in her hands to feed the hungry. The true church of the living God!