You Are A Vital Part of the Living Church
Everyone is an advertisement for his or her church. We are a walking advertisement of our church and the religion it proclaims. We may be a good advertisement or a bad advertisement depending on whether we take out of these four walls of our church what we have learned here and make it alive, or not, in the everyday affairs of our life. In fact, for all practical purposes, we are the church to the man in the street. When people think of our church, they think of us, the members. The church is measured not so much by what we say but what we do and how we act. How we act in an emergency determines how much “salvation” we truly have: the application of it or the lack of application.
For example, how do we act when we are involved in some kind of automobile accident? Do we leap out and start blaming the other driver? What do we do when a mistake is made in our favor in a store or restaurant? Do we think, Oh, well, that’s their mistake or do we say, this doesn’t belong to me and correct it right there. Who knows? That person might have been testing us just to see if we truly are Christ-like.
Our church “professes” a concern for people. Do we express that concern in the way we act toward people? Our church claims to have “a gospel” that will save and recreate persons, opening to them a more satisfying, healthier and happier life. Are we a demonstration of that claim? How do we act during the altar service extended to unsaved people? Our daily acts preach more sermons and teach more people than words that are spoken in the four walls of our church building.
We are a vital part of the living church. A believer in the Lord Jesus can bring great blessing to others without ever being aware of it. That’s what happened in the Philippian jail where Paul and Silas were. Their backs were raw and bleeding and their feet in stocks. They sang hymns of praise to God. They were not thinking about impressing an audience. They were just filled with the joy of knowing that Christ was with them. The prisoners heard them, and the jailers also. As Paul and Silas prayed and sang there was a sudden great earthquake and the Mighty Wonder Working Hand of God is now stretched out for their deliverance.
It was a very dark moment in the experience of the jailer when he drew out his sword intending to commit suicide, but it was immediately followed by the brightest experience he had ever had. He called for a light that might guide his feet into the inner prison of the suffering saints, but when he cried, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” he was calling for another Light that might guide his feet into the paths of righteousness and peace in The Holy Ghost.
What a change! A few hours before this the jailer was fastening their feet in the terrible stocks; now he’s bathing their wounds, taking them into his house and giving them food to eat. An early hallelujah breakfast! That’s what God can do for fallen man. We that are believers, may we never forget that we are representing The Lord Jesus, no matter where we are or what we may be doing.
So, let’s be kind, thoughtful, honest, pure and joyful. If we are, then we as God’s children can have a blessed ministry without ever knowing it. Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do things beautifully. When Our Savior pardons our sins, He also unites us with Himself and thereby nourishes and strengthens us. He becomes the secret reservoir of our joy and any fragrance of testimony we exhibit to the world comes from Him and Him only.
If we keep in close contact with the Savior through Bible study and prayer, The Holy Spirt will energize our life with a beauty and freshness that will never fade. Our hearts should be at all times attuned to praising Our Lord and worshiping Him.
There is more mentioned in the Bible of WORSHIP than there is of Heaven, Hell or the “catching away of the Saints” (the Rapture). Three hundred sixty-six times we’re commanded to sing praises to God. That’s one for every day of the year and one for leap year.
