October 12, 2025
Greetings and blessings to all of you. Question…Do we say on Sunday something like ‘it is time to go to church” or do we say “it is time to gather with the people of God?” Do you recall how God sees His church; His Body of Believers? Me and You. Even though Jesus was speaking to the Israel nation- the Jewish people- this verse does apply to us also. In First Peter 2:5, 9-10 the Word says, “ You also a living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…But you are a chosen race a royal priest hood a holy nation a people for God’s own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light- for you were once not a people but now you are the people of God you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.” We are as First Cor. 3:16 says, “Do you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” How offensive it is to God to think of ourselves as a dead pile of brick and mortar. The “church” is part of God’s design. He wanted us to …interact with each other and we Christians should build His church with the teachings of Jesus. He said “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” If we want to get rid of the church, we have to get rid of Jesus! We can pick and choose what teachings we will follow however you would be disobedient and unfaithful and there are consequences. In reading Eph. 1:22-23…you will understand that Christ is the Head we are His Body therefore we should behave accordingly. I get it…the idea with gathering in person with imperfect, broken, ordinary people make some of us despair BUT the fact that Jesus started the church with imperfect people should make us marvel at God’s incredible grace, love and mercy. Think for a second about the church at Corinth. That “church” consisted of people who appeared to be staunch individualist. It was all me me me. They were okay with many gods. They were committed to the ‘let us all get along’ ideology even if it meant following false teachings. They catered their behavior to accommodate the culture; setting aside the teachings of Christ to believe, accept and affirm false teachings such as Greek philosophy -science is above God. Immorality was accepted. The Resurrection was false. Christians pray for the Body of Christ.
With the Love of Christ
First Lady Vivian C. Currie
Pastor ALC