Quotes About Church

God created the institution of human marriage to reflect, or mirror forth, this eternal union. In other words, human marriage exists to point men and angels to the eternal marriage of Christ and his church. The gospel made this divine marriage possible. Here is our point: human marriage exists to preach the gospel. It exists to illustrate the fruit that should follow the preaching of the gospel in the church. To

It were better to be of no church, than to be bitter for any.

And I have not forgotten what the inside of a church is made of, I am a peppercorn, a brewer's horse.

I have a good eye, uncle: I can see a church by daylight.

No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve: ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.

The "why" is plain as way to parish church.

It follows, therefore, that the church's evangelism ought to be one in which all the counsel of God is made known to men. We need a recovery of belief in the converting and sanctifying power of the living Word of God in the teaching of the pulpit, and its ability to transform the lives of men and produce in them the lineaments and fruits of mature Christian character.

Hence the vocation of the Church of Christ in the world, in political conflict and social strife, is inherently eschatological. The Church is the embassy of the eschaton in the world. The church is the image of what the world is in its essential being. The Church is the trustee of the society which the world, not subjected to the power of death, is to be on that last day when the world is fulfilled in all things in God.

The Church must be free to be poor in order to minister among the poor.

The ecclesiastics were, practically speaking, surrogates of the State.

When prayer is moved to the periphery of the church, it can only mean that God has, too.

I said to myself, 'He has done this and he has paid for it. Isn't that enough? Is a man to be condemned forever? Why do I go to church and repeat the Lord's Prayer if I don't hold to it, if there is no forgiveness? Is our own behavior higher than the founder of Christianity, that we should set a higher standard for others?

Why do people attend the movies and go dancing? Because [327] they are empty. They do not have God as their joy. The reason I do not attend the movies is not because the church has a regulation against it. The church does not have a list of commandments against such things. However, although there is no such prohibition, I would not attend a movie even if you paid me thousands of dollars to do it. I have something better. I am filled with Christ and I have no capacity for anything else.

What is the church? The church is a part of Christ; it is nothing less than Christ Himself. The church is the element of Christ in the believers. When this element in so many believers is added together, it equals the church. The church is not a composition of Americans, Mexicans, Japanese, and Chinese. The church is the totality of the Christ in all His believers.

This is the need of the church today. The church is not in great need of miracles, gifts, teachings, or knowledge. Today the church needs the ministry of Christ.

Whenever you feel that you are weak, you must call for God's faithfulness, saying, "O God, You are faithful. I am weak, but You must make me strong according to Your Word." We are all living under the covenant with God's faithfulness as the sure sign that the flood will not come. This is the church life.

Although the Lord has accomplished much with regard to Israel to prepare her for His return, He must also prepare the church as His bride....I believe that it will be impossible for the Lord to prepare His bride in today's Christianity as a religious system with all its traditions, rituals, and forms. I also doubt that those entrapped in Christianity will be able to do much to prepare the bride that will bring our Lord back.

Second Corinthians speaks concerning the ministry, which is constituted with, and produced and formed by, the experiences of the riches of Christ through sufferings, consuming pressures, and the killing work of the cross. The ministry is not merely a matter of gift. A person may be able to speak fluently and eloquently and give many good illustrations and proverbs, but this is just a gift. What the church, the Body, needs today is the ministry.

We all have to see that the practice of the church life is not by bringing everyone into agreement with one another through discussions, talks, and negotiations with certain terms or conditions. Rather, the way to practice the church life is to put everyone and everything on the cross and to have everyone take Christ as life. Then we will be permeated and saturated by Christ and with Christ. Then we will be wholly, thoroughly, and absolutely a member of Christ from within to without.

The building up of the church is based upon the building up of the individual members. Furthermore, the building of the members depends on their growth, which, in turn, depends upon being rooted in Christ and absorbing the riches of Christ to become the very element with which the members grow.

In typology, this means that after all of the experiences of affliction, the church life will be expanded and become spacious. Then we shall have a richer seed and a wider, broader church life. The seed within us will be richer, and the land without us will be broader.

Ephesians 5:25-27 is actually one long sentence. In these verses Paul is saying that husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. He did this that He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of water in the Word, in order that He might present the church to Himself glorious, without spot, wrinkle, or any such things.

We believe that Christ is going to come again. But do not think that the Lord Jesus will automatically come if we sit and passively wait. No, there is a work which the church must do. As the Body of Christ, we must learn to work together with God. We should never think that it is enough just to be saved. It is not. We must be concerned with God's need. (CWWN, vol. 34, "The Glorious Church," pp. 61, 63-64)

The spiritual warfare is defensive, not offensive, because the Lord Jesus has already fought the battle and won the victory. The work of the church on the earth is simply to maintain the Lord's victory. The Lord has already won the battle, and the church is here to maintain His victory. The church's work is not to overcome the devil but to resist him who has already been overcome by the Lord.