This church of God cannot be destroyed. It is indestructible. Neither the devil nor any of his children will ever have the privilege of attending the funeral of the Church, for the Word says that even “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Because of that she is like the ark of Noah, floating over the angry billows, but not engulfed. She is like the burning bush, on fire but never consumed: like a city that is ever besieged but never captured. She will stand safe because Christ is the foundation and the capstone; and all the world cannot remove her. And what is true of the church as a whole in this respect, is true of every member of it.
For the first few centuries the church on earth was a beautiful monument of grace. She walked stately before the world; she stood before kings and princes, and went everywhere God told her to go; she was a power that the world feared; and for three hundred years every step she took left a mark never to be erased. When she was in that condition she groped into the alleys of the cities with the Gospel message; she climbed the broken stairways of the tenement houses and brought a message of compassion; she went down deep into the mines and took the heavenly sunlight there; she stepped into the forecastle with the sailor and said, “When Jesus was on the vessel and it was about to sink, He spoke to the winds and the waves and there was a great calm.” She went into the tent with the solider, and to the farm with the farmer and reminded him of the day the Son of Man walked through the beautiful fields of grain and His disciples plucked of it to satisfy their hunger; she went into the counting-room with the merchant. And that is not all; like the air, she pressed equally upon every side of society, east, west, north, and south. Like the ocean she flowed out until her waters laved every shore. Beloved, the church made herself felt as no other organizations could, because Christ was in her.
But alas! A change took place. The world came and made a proposition. He suggested to the church: “Come walk with me.” But the church withdrew her snowy hand and said, “I will not go with you.” The world coaxed and she gave him her hand. The world said, “If you want the patronage of my people you will have to dress as they do.” And the church laid aside her pure white garments and decked herself with the fashions of the day. The world said again, “If you want the patronage of the world you must leave your plain meeting-houses and build fine edifices.” – S.A. Jamieson, The Great Shepherd
For the first few centuries the church on earth was a beautiful monument of grace. She walked stately before the world; she stood before kings and princes, and went everywhere God told her to go; she was a power that the world feared; and for three hundred years every step she took left a mark never to be erased. When she was in that condition she groped into the alleys of the cities with the Gospel message; she climbed the broken stairways of the tenement houses and brought a message of compassion; she went down deep into the mines and took the heavenly sunlight there; she stepped into the forecastle with the sailor and said, “When Jesus was on the vessel and it was about to sink, He spoke to the winds and the waves and there was a great calm.” She went into the tent with the solider, and to the farm with the farmer and reminded him of the day the Son of Man walked through the beautiful fields of grain and His disciples plucked of it to satisfy their hunger; she went into the counting-room with the merchant. And that is not all; like the air, she pressed equally upon every side of society, east, west, north, and south. Like the ocean she flowed out until her waters laved every shore. Beloved, the church made herself felt as no other organizations could, because Christ was in her.
But alas! A change took place. The world came and made a proposition. He suggested to the church: “Come walk with me.” But the church withdrew her snowy hand and said, “I will not go with you.” The world coaxed and she gave him her hand. The world said, “If you want the patronage of my people you will have to dress as they do.” And the church laid aside her pure white garments and decked herself with the fashions of the day. The world said again, “If you want the patronage of the world you must leave your plain meeting-houses and build fine edifices.” – S.A. Jamieson, The Great Shepherd
“The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teachfor hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon theLord, andsay, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.” Micah 3:11
LAKE FOREST, California — Evangelical pastor Rick Warren appealed to parishioners at his California megachurch Wednesday to help fill a $900,000 deficit by the first of the year. –December 31, 2009, Associated Press
“Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, itshall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.” Micah 2:10
Saints if you are in a church that allows worldly pollution leave it right now. Do not be a partaker with it's judgment:
"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" 1 Peter 4:17
