Still on the topic of being Church... as I mentioned in the previous post - the Church is a living organism and not a building. I have not changed my mind on this. However, I would like to compare the Church to a building in this post.
This picture of St Pauls during the blitz (World War II) is displayed at the cathedral. It reminds me of the trials and tribulations we (as Christians / Church) go through.
Being a Christian does not indemnify me. There are no guarantees that bad things will not happen to me too. In fact, when you read through Acts, you are confronted with a lot of things that went wrong.
Yet... through all of this God protected the Church. God protected the Church through times of prosecution and lots of trials. St Pauls stood through the war and is still beautiful. In my mind, it became a picture of the Church, the Bride and God's protection. I know that this magnificent building will not stand forever, but we have God's promise that the Church will be there for ever.
As a teenager I once saw a picture of two fortresses - one had Christians from different denominations in it and the other had representatives from all the other religions in it. The gunmen in the second fortress aimed at the Christians. And the Christians? The Christians took aim at each other.
We have God's promise that the Church will exist and is Jesus' Bride. God protects the Church and yet we attack each other and I don't know why? Why is it so easy to see other Christians' sins and errors when Jesus said we have to remove the logs from our own eyes first?
I pray that God will help me to love the Church the way He does. I pray that He will soften my heart and help me to remove the log from my eye before I fiddle with the splinter in my brother's eye. I pray that God will change me first.
May you have a blessed day!
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