MY CHURCH? I tuned to a Christian radio station while driving to the store in my automobile last week.  I listen to the station very frequently for I enjoy the music that they play on the air.  Of course, the price to listen to the music is that I must also listen to the commercial.  One particular commercial really caught my ear.

There was the sound of a choir singing a beautiful hymn; the voice of someone teaching a Sunday School lesson; and then the Pastor began to preach, but then there was the sound of a door slamming shut and a lock being turned.  An announcer's voice then rose above the other sounds and spoke this:  "First Church (not the real name) is reaching Atlanta for Christ!  But...we have outgrown our facilities and we are presently in the process of building OUR new church so that we might win the City of Atlanta and the surrounding communities to the Kingdom of God!  You can help us build our new church by donating to the First Church building fund.  Together we can build a glorious church!" "...we can build a glorious church!"  Wow!  They are really on fire for the Lord, aren't they?  Maybe...?  I think sadly, perhaps, that they are on the wrong road to glory.  Nowhere in the pages of God's Word have we been called upon by God to build a glorious church.  You and I are the building blocks of which the Church is constructed, but we are not the builders church. In Matthew 16:18, we read: "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build MY church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."  The occasion was that Jesus had just asked His disciples this question:  "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?"  Peter then gave the reply in these words, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." We are not the builders of the Church, Jesus is.  The Church is to be glorious--a living Body reflecting the Glory of the Lord.  It is not my church...it is not even your church...it is the Lord's Church for He is the Builder and Maker.  Peter reminded us that we are the "lively stones" of which the Church is constructed.  Trouble comes when WE try to build the Church!  Selah.

• Topic: Devotionals

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