"Join together the whole structure, growing into a holy temple in the Lord"

Our joy-filled desire at Grace is to build a body. That is, our desire is not ultimately to subdivide our church into numerous "smaller churches" based on age or race or a thousand other ways we could divide ourselves. Rather, we desire to join together the whole structure “in Christ,” being joined together, growing into a holy temple in the Lord [Ephesians 2:21].

A Reason To Believe

This quote is from R.C Sproul's book: A Reason to Believe. I am rejoicing today that GBC is full of sinners! What a gracious Lord we serve.

What happens is that people observe church members sinning. They reason within themselves, “That person professes to be a Christian. Christians aren’t supposed to sin. That person is sinning; therefore, he is a hypocrite.” The unspoken assumption is that a Christian is one who claims he does not sin. It reality just the opposite is the case. For a Christian to be a Christian, he must first be a sinner. Being a sinner is a prerequisite for being a church member. The Christian church is one of the few organizations in the world that requires a public acknowledgment of sin as a condition for membership. In one sense the church has fewer hypocrites than any institution because by definition the church is a haven for sinners. If the church claimed to be an organization of perfect people then her claim would be hypocritical. But no such claim is made by the church. There is no slander in the charge that the church is full of sinners. Such a statement would only compliment the church for fulfilling her divinely appointed task.

"will not pass away"

Even in the face of “earthquake” [Luke 21:11] and “famine” [v. 11] and “pestilence” [v. 11] and “terrors” [v. 11] and “imprisonment” [v. 12] and “persecution” [v.12] and “adversity” [v. 15] and “death” [v. 16] and “hatred” [v. 17] and “desolation” [v. 20] and “distress” [v. 23] and “perplexity” [v. 25] and “fainting with fear” [v. 26] and “fear” and “foreboding” and “shaking” [v. 26] –

Even in the face of all of this, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” [v. 33].

Enslaved by whatever people want to call corporate worship

If the Bible is not the standard when we worship corporately, we risk becoming enslaved by whatever "privatized spiritual experiences" a group of people may want to call corporate worship. We may flirt with idolatry, if the Bible is assented to but muted, or make idols of the people or things that have taken its place. Doc