Daily EncouragementSample

The most encouraging things that can be said about the Church find expression here. The Church belongs to the Lord. It is “my Church.” The analogies used to describe the Church are various - bride, body, temple, for example - but the Owner is always the same. “He is the head of the body, the church” (Col. 1:18). The church is built on a firm foundation: “on this rock.” This is true whether or not we accept interpretations like Augustine’s - “the Church is built on Him whom Peter confessed, for what Christ said to him was, ‘You are Peter,’ not, ‘You are rock.’ The Rock was Christ.” It is also true when we think of the church as “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20). The church is being built by the Lord himself: “I will build my church.” “You . . . like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house,” (1 Pet. 2:5) says Peter. “You are God’s building,” (1 Cor. 3:9) says Paul to a church which seemed from some viewpoints to be very much the work of man. The Church is invincible: “the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” History bears witness, recent as well as ancient. Visit China if you doubt this. And always, behind the scenes, the powers of darkness view her as “terrible as any army with banners” (S of S. 6:10, AV).