The Wonder of the Church

I'm so sorry I haven't posted recently, but I have had some difficulty with my blogger page. Things seem to be running much smoother now. Thanks for your patience. I do hope and pray that these entries serve you as a source of instruction and encouragement as you walk with Christ. The following excerpt is from Jonathan Leeman's book The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love:

"I am especially grateful for the emphasis some missional writers give to the witness of the corporate body. One author writes, 'In North America, what might it mean for the church to be such a city on a hill? to be salt? to be a light in the world? It means, first of all, that the inner, communal life of the church matters for mission.' In other words, the witness of the church does not merely consist in the fact that it goes; it consists in the fact that it has a distinct corporate life. Its witness consists in the fact that it's distinct in holiness, love, and unity. So Jesus promises, 'By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.' The church's internal work of holiness and love amongst its members is inextricably tied to its outward work of witness. We must display Christ in our corporate life in order to display Christ in our individual lives. The church, Mark Dever has said, is Jesus' 'evangelism plan', because it alone displays the wisdom of God. Paul puts it like this: 'Through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.' Only an all-wise God could take a group of people who were once at war with him and one another and convert them into an assembly of love. Let all the cosmos look on and marvel!"