Will you please turn to 1 Corinthians 3? We will read from verse 9 through verse 15. First, I will read it in English, and then my dear brother will read it in Spanish.
For we are God’s fellow-workers: ye are God’s husbandry, God’s building.
According to the grace of God which was given unto me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon.
For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble;
Each man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man’s work of what sort it is.
If any man’s work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire.
Will you please turn to Ephesians 4? We will read from verse 1 through verse 16.
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called,
With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling;
One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
One God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in all.
But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Wherefore He saith, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
Now this, He ascended, what is it but that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.
And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ:
Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
That we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
But speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him, Who is the head, even Christ;
From Whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.
Dear Lord, as we meet together this morning, we want to declare that we all gather together unto Thy name. We believe that where Thy name is, there is Thy presence.
Lord, we are standing on holy ground. We want to remove our shoes as bond-servants of Thine. We want to wait upon Thee.
We pray that Thou wilt open our hearts. Grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may be led into the reality of Thy living Word.
May Thy Holy Spirit reveal the Father’s heart to each one of us and draw us into that which Thou hast in Thy mind. Make us what Thou wouldst have us to be, and glorify Thy name.
We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Thank God for gathering us together again this morning. We mentioned before that on the island of Patmos, John was given a heavenly vision—the vision of the seven churches in Asia, represented by seven golden lampstands. He saw One like unto the Son of Man standing in the midst of them.
This is the vision of the heavenly ministry of our Lord Jesus. We are familiar with the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus. We know that He is the Apostle of our confession. We know that He was sent by God into this world to fulfill a mission.
And He did fulfill that mission. On Calvary’s cross, before He died, He shouted, “It is finished.” Thank God for this word, because the work of redemption is finished. So far as that work of redemption is concerned—the work that saves us to the uttermost—it has been done. It has been fully fulfilled.
On the basis of that finished work of Christ, we find that the Father raised Him from the dead, and He ascended into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of God, because the work has been done.
But, brothers and sisters, probably we are not too familiar with His work in heaven. Among all believers, John was the one who knew the Lord Jesus most intimately.
As you read the Gospel of John, you find that it is different from the other three Gospels. The other three Gospels record the works of Christ on earth. But while John was writing his Gospel, you find that it is not only His works that are recorded there.
The miracles are called signs. That is to say, these miracles point to something much higher and more spiritual than the miracles themselves.
But even the apostle John was not too familiar with the heavenly ministry of our Lord Jesus before he was exiled. He had been laboring in Asia Minor, and you can imagine how faithfully he served those churches.
I would even say that among all the people who served the churches, none could compare with the labor of the apostle John. He was a most faithful and understanding servant of God.
Yet even with him, when he saw that heavenly vision, he saw none other than the ascended Lord serving His churches. There in heaven, He is ministering to the churches as the High Priest. He is the One building His church.
When John realized this, he fell as one dead. But thank God, the Lord Jesus raised him up and said to him:
I am the first and the last,
And the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore,
And I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Dear brothers and sisters, what we all need is to catch this vision.
Paul caught the vision on the road to Damascus, and that transformed Saul the Pharisee into Paul the apostle. Every one of us must catch that vision. We must have the vision of the Son of God, and with that vision we will be transformed. We will be transformed from dust into living stones.
But, dear brothers and sisters, we need to catch a third vision—the vision that the apostle John saw on the island of Patmos. That, too, will transform us, especially so far as our service is concerned.
We all know that we are saved to serve. Nobody is saved simply for himself or herself. The reason God saves us is that we may serve Him.
In a very real sense, every brother and sister in the Lord lives to serve God. There is one terminology that I often feel is wrong. I hear people say, “I am in full-time service.” In other words, they live for God and serve God, not doing anything else.
But, brothers and sisters, as a matter of fact, every believer is serving God full-time. If you are not serving God full-time, then whom are you serving? What are you doing? What is the purpose of your life?
Every believer must offer his body as a living sacrifice. Brothers and sisters, we are all saved to serve. We may serve in many different ways; nevertheless, we are all serving the same Lord.
Therefore, it is very important to know how our Lord Jesus builds His church.
We have mentioned that, so far as the church is concerned, there are two different aspects. One aspect of the church is what we call the universal church. That is to say, there is only one church, and this church is the body of Christ.
Every believer is a member of that body. Even though the members are many, we cannot count how many there are, because from the very first Christian to the very last, they are all members of that body. The members are many, but the body is one.
So, brothers and sisters, we find that there is the universal church. It is the body of Christ, and it is the church of which our Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church.”
But while we are still in this physical body, we are limited by time and space. Because of this, we find in the Bible that there is also the local church.
Just as in that heavenly vision, we find the seven churches in Asia. There were more than seven churches in Asia Minor. The church in Colossae was not among them. Therefore, we know that God picked out these seven churches because they are representative churches.
They represent the churches in the first century, and they represent the churches throughout the centuries. In whatever century or culture you may live, you will find that the conditions of the churches are included in these seven churches.
In that heavenly vision, when you see our Lord Jesus ministering to these seven churches in Asia, we know that in the same way He is ministering today to the churches throughout the world.
How will He build the universal church? He builds it in a practical way, and the only practical way He can build it is by building up the local churches. That is what you find in Revelation 1 through 3.
When you turn to Revelation 21 and 22, what do you find there? You find a holy city, a new Jerusalem, descending from heaven onto the new earth. That represents the universal church.
It is the gathering of all the works of God throughout the centuries. There you find not only His work in Old Testament times, represented by the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on the twelve gates, but also all the Lord’s work in New Testament times, represented by the names of the twelve apostles on the twelve foundations.
Thus, in the New Jerusalem, we find the universal church. This is the way our Lord is building His church.
Now this morning, we would like to go into some details concerning how our Lord Jesus builds His church. In 1 Corinthians 3:9, the apostle Paul says, “We are God’s fellow-workers.”
Of course, the apostle was referring not only to himself, but also to people such as Apollos. They are God’s fellow-workers. But as a matter of fact, when we think of the expression fellow-workers, we may have a wrong concept.
We may think that they are equal with our Lord Jesus. But we have already said that our Lord Jesus is the One who builds His church. Are all these apostles equal with our Lord Jesus? Of course not.
This translation is not quite precise according to the Greek original. The thought is that they are like workmen carrying out the work of the chief builder—like foremen.
When you read on, you find that Paul says, “I am like a wise master builder.” Again, we need to understand this properly. Who is the architect of the church? If you read Colossians 1, you find that all things are created in Him and for Him.
Everything in the old creation and in the new creation is created in Him. What does it mean to be created in Him? It means that He is the Architect.
When you see a building, you can say that the building was created in the architect, because it was the idea of the architect. He designed the building; it is a result of his mind.
In the same way, our Lord Jesus is the Architect of the church, because the whole concept of the church comes out of our Lord Jesus.
Therefore, when the apostle Paul says, “I am like a wise master builder,” it simply means, “I am only a foreman. I am used by God to lay the foundation.” There is no other foundation than Jesus Christ.
In the building of the church, we find that our Lord Jesus uses apostles and others as foremen in the building. But He has also called every believer to be a laborer.
Let me put it this way: the church is not built by you or me. The church is not built by so-called workers. The church is built exclusively by Christ Jesus.
He is not only the foundation of the church; He also prepares the material for the church. He is the One who uses those whom He has saved to be laborers in the building of the church.
In other words, it is Christ Who is building His church, but He is using every one of us to be involved in that building work. Brothers and sisters, we need to be very clear about this.
We should not have the idea that we are the ones building the church. No, no. Strictly speaking, Christ is the only One Who builds His church. But on the other hand, it is very true that He is building the church using us.
First, He builds Himself in us. Then, out of what He has built in us, He uses us to build into the church.
The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:12:
But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble;
Each man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire.
In the actual building of the church, every one of us is involved. It is true that there are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers; but every believer is a laborer. Every one of us participates in the building of the church.
How do we build the church? There are two different ways. One way is to build with gold, silver, and precious stones. The other way is to build with wood, hay, and stubble.
What does this mean? If you build with gold, gold in Scripture represents the nature of God.
When you read Ezekiel 1, you find that Ezekiel saw a vision of the glory of God. He saw a cloud: outwardly it was darkness, but inwardly it was full of light. He saw One sitting there, like glowing metal.
People do not know precisely what that glowing metal was, but many believe it was a mixture of gold and silver. In other words, gold in Scripture represents the nature of God.
Gold is the most precious of metals. It is unchangeable, and it is full of radiance. Therefore, it represents the nature of God.
What is silver? Silver in Scripture represents the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus.
If you read Numbers 3, you find that the tribe of Levi represented all the firstborn of the twelve tribes of Israel. But when they counted the firstborn of Israel and counted the Levites from one month old, they found a difference of 285.
This number had to be redeemed. Each one paid five shekels. That is the reason silver represents the redemptive work of the Son of God.
Then there are the precious stones. What do these precious stones represent? Where do they come from?
These are materials buried in the depths of the earth. They remain there in darkness for a long time, and they go through great pressure. Out of this, precious stones are formed.
This represents the work of the Holy Spirit—how the Holy Spirit works so patiently in our lives.
Brothers and sisters, what does it mean to build the house with gold, silver, and precious stones? It simply means that, when you are involved in building the church, you put in what is gold, silver, and precious stones: the nature of God that has been imparted to and developed in you.
You remember that the purpose of God in our lives is revealed in Romans 8. Those whom He foreknew, He called; those whom He called, He justified; and those whom He justified, He glorified. We are being transformed and conformed to the image of Christ.
This is God’s purpose. God works in our lives, and the Holy Spirit works in us to put the nature of God within us and to allow the nature of Christ to become our nature.
As He is righteous, He makes us righteous. As He is holy, He makes us holy. As He is love, He makes us loving. God is working Christ into our lives.
All these are the nature of God. That is what Christian growth is: God’s life increasing in us.
Of course, it is also the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus working in us—all that He finished on Calvary’s cross. The redeemed shall return with joy.
The Holy Spirit patiently works with each one of us. We are put under great pressure. Sometimes we are buried, as it were, in darkness. He uses the cross to work in our lives until precious stones are formed.
As a matter of fact, every day we are living, unconsciously we are building the church. Unconsciously, we are preparing materials for the building of the church.
Now, is what you are putting into the church of God, of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit? Or are you building with wood, hay, and stubble? What do these mean?
Wood in the Bible always represents man. We are like trees. When you read Judges 9, you find the parable of the trees seeking a king. They went to the olive tree, the fig tree, and the vine, but they would not become king because their duty was to glorify God. Finally, they went to the bramble.
Thus, in the parable, trees are used as a type of man. Wood always represents human nature.
Do you remember the ark? It was built with wood, but covered inwardly and outwardly with gold. It represents Christ as our Redeemer. He came as a man, but inwardly and outwardly He is the Son of God.
Wood represents man’s nature. Every day we are living, serving, and building. But what is the material that we are putting in? We may put in what is of ourselves—our nature, our likes and dislikes, our ideas, and ourselves.
Or we can build with hay. Everyone should know what hay represents. In Genesis 11, people used straw to make bricks in order to build the tower of Babel. In Exodus, Pharaoh put the children of Israel to making bricks, and they used straw to make those bricks.
Hay represents the glory or beauty of man. If you read 1 Peter 1, it says that all flesh is as grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass.
Then, of course, stubble is the straw used to make bricks. It represents the work of man.
Brothers and sisters, every day you are living as a Christian. You may not be conscious of it, but actually you are building the house of God. It is the way you live, the way you express yourself, and the way you work.
Does this all come from the source of God? Has your life been transformed? Is the nature of God’s life increasing in you? Are you enjoying the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus? Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to work in your life?
When you live in that way, you are building the church with gold, silver, and precious stones.
But on the other hand, you can live on your own. Even if you are saved, you may not live by the life of Christ within you. You may still be living your own life, enjoying your own talents, and working according to your own ideas.
Brothers and sisters, this is the way you live. Then you are building the house with wood, hay, and stubble.
As a matter of fact, if you build with wood, hay, and stubble, you do not need to pay much cost. You can build a big building. Everybody can see it, and people will praise you.
Oh, how we want the church to grow and grow, so that there may be hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands. We think this proves that the church is wonderful.
But, brothers and sisters, if you build with wood, hay, and stubble, it can be big. If you build with gold, silver, and precious stones, because they are costly, perhaps what you build will be very tiny and very small.
If you judge by today’s standards, you will find that those who build with wood, hay, and stubble can build big churches admired by people. But if you are really building with gold, silver, and precious stones, it may be small. It cannot be large, because it is costly. People may not even notice it; people may even despise it.
If you judge by today, wrong judgment will be the normal thing. But are you building for today, or are you building for eternity?
The Bible tells us that one day the fire will appear. When the fire appears, God’s judgment comes. Those who build with wood, hay, and stubble will have their work burned up. But gold, silver, and precious stones will be refined by the fire and become more radiant.
Brothers and sisters, are we working for time, or are we working for eternity? What materials are we putting into the construction? How do we live before God? How do we serve the Lord?
That fire represents the fire at the judgment seat of Christ. When the Lord comes, He will gather His people in the air, as you find in 1 Thessalonians 4. There we will go through the judgment seat.
Now, brothers and sisters, we who believe in the Lord Jesus have escaped the judgment of the great white throne.
One day, God will set a great white throne. The very idea of a throne means judicial judgment. It is a judgment of eternal death or eternal life. Every dead person will be raised and stand before the Judge at the great white throne.
If your name is not in the book of life, you will be judged according to the way you lived.
Everything that you do, every thought that you have, everything in your life has been recorded. One day, God will judge according to all the records.
Where are those records? The records are in your mind. When a person is drowning, in that moment his whole life may be revealed to him. It is as though there is a record in the mind. God has a record in each of our lives.
One day all the records will be revealed. The Bible says that people will be judged according to everything that they have done. It is a judgment of eternal death.
Thank God, we who have believed in the Lord Jesus have had our judgment borne by Him. Our Lord Jesus has already died for us. Therefore, we will never go to the judgment of the great white throne.
But that does not mean that, as the family of God, we will not be judged. Indeed, we will not be judged at the great white throne, but we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
According to 1 Corinthians 3, if your work is burned, you still have a ground that cannot be burned. You are still saved, yet so as through fire.
If the work is not destroyed but is refined by fire, it becomes brighter. Then you will be rewarded—to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, remember: it is Christ Who builds the church, but He uses each one of us as material. He is the One Who prepares the material.
If we respond to His work and allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, there will be gold, silver, and precious stones, and these will be built into the house of God.
But if we still live for ourselves, then all will be burned. Only the foundation remains, and the foundation is Christ. You are still saved, but your whole life is wasted.
This is the way the Lord is building His church. But we need to remember one thing: when the Lord is building His church, this is more than a personal, individual matter.
You remember when Solomon built the house of God. He used huge stones to build it. But during the building time, you could not even hear the sound of a hammer.
Why? Because these huge stones, when they were cut down from the quarry, had all the work done there. When the stones were transported to Jerusalem, every stone had been numbered.
They simply put the stones one upon another, one beside another, and there was a perfect fit. They did not need to cut off any corner, because all the work had been done in the quarry.
This is the way our Lord works. Brothers and sisters, not only do we become living stones out of the Rock, but when we come to Christ, we are built up together.
Peter means a small stone. Peter tells us that, when we come to Christ, we also, as living stones, are built up together as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ.
The work of the Holy Spirit is hidden. He works in each and every one of us. People may not know what you are passing through. Other people do not know how the Holy Spirit is working in your life.
You bear the cross, as it were, in darkness. Then, when all these stones are put together, outwardly there should be no sound of hammers.
Unfortunately, today you find that when the Lord is building His church, there is a great deal of noise.
I come from a family of construction. My grandfather was a builder, my uncles were builders, and my brother was a builder. They were all building houses. When I was young, I visited those working places. You found dust everywhere and noise everywhere.
But, brothers and sisters, in the building of the church there should be no such noise, because all the dealings are done in private.
God puts us together, and there should be a perfect fit because all the work of the Holy Spirit has been done. This is how wonderful it is.
Finally, if you turn to Ephesians 4, the apostle Paul tells us how we can be built together into one in a practical way. We are called to be the body of Christ. How can all these members be put together as one?
In Ephesians 4:1-16, you find the word unity used two times. The first time is the unity of the Spirit, in Ephesians 4:3:
Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Thank God, we who believe in the Lord Jesus have been given the unity of the Spirit. What do we mean by the unity of the Spirit? It is explained from verse 4 onward.
There is one body and one Spirit, even as also we were called in one hope of our calling. This is the unity of the Spirit.
We have one Spirit—the Holy Spirit of God—and we have been called to one hope of our calling.
How did we become the body of Christ? On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down, and in one Spirit we became one body. We became one body through the Holy Spirit.
He is like the nervous system that goes through every member of the body and connects us with Christ. We have one Spirit, and this one Spirit makes one body.
We have one hope. The hope of the body is that, as the body matures, it becomes the Bride of the Lamb. This is our blessed hope.
Then Paul says, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” This refers to the second Person of the Godhead. We have one Lord, our Lord Jesus. We have one faith, and this faith is the basic faith—our confession:
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Without this faith, we are not saved at all. We have this one faith, and we have one baptism.
Remember, the Holy Spirit is the element used by our Lord to baptize us. Strictly speaking, “the baptism of the Holy Spirit” is not a precise term, because it is not the Holy Spirit Who baptizes. The Lord Jesus is the Baptizer; He uses the Holy Spirit as the element in which we are baptized.
Just as one uses water in baptism, so the Lord Jesus uses the Holy Spirit. We are baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
In the Lord Jesus, we are one. We have Jesus as our Lord, one faith, and one baptism.
Then Paul says, “One God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in all.” We are one in God the Father. He is our God, and He is our Father.
Thus, in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we are one. This is the unity of the Spirit. Every believer has it.
When we meet one another, we discover that we have the same Spirit, the same hope, and that we are in the same body. We have the same Lord, the same faith, the same baptism, and the same God Who is our Father.
In these seven things, we find that we are one. This has already been given to us. Every one of us already has it.
Now listen: keep it. Why must you keep it? Because it is so precious that it can be lost.
If you are walking on the street with a thousand dollars in your pocket, what will you do? Unconsciously, your hand will be upon your pocket, because it is precious to you and you do not want to lose it.
But if your pocket has only a few pennies, when you are walking you may forget that you have them, because they are almost nothing.
Brothers and sisters, the unity of the Spirit is so precious. We have to keep it and not allow it to be lost.
When you meet another Christian, you find that you have the same Christ and the same God. Immediately there is a bond there. You can fellowship with each other because we are members of the one body.
We may discover that, aside from the basic faith, there are differences in smaller matters. But in Ephesians 4:13, Paul says:
Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
Here you find unity used two times. In verse 3, it is called the unity of the Spirit. The unity of the Spirit is the sevenfold oneness that we have in God. This is our basic faith.
But in verse 13, it is something at which we have to arrive. It is not like verse 3, which we already have. Verse 13 is an attainment: the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
What is the unity of the faith? It refers to all the truths in the Bible. In the Bible we find many truths, and all these truths come together to form the faith.
What is the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God? It refers to our experience. You know the Word, and you experience Christ Jesus in a certain way.
I experience Christ, and you experience Christ. So far as our experience of Christ is concerned, we are all different. But one day we shall arrive at the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God.
One day our faith in the Word of God will become one, and our experience of Christ will be brought into fellowship as one. That is the maturity of the body. That is what the Bible means when it says that we are to become full-grown.
Let us remember that there are two unities. At the beginning, there is the unity of the Spirit. At the end, there is the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
The unity of the Spirit is something we all already have, and that is why we have fellowship with one another. What is the use of fellowship? Fellowship is to share the same Christ.
As I share my experience of Christ with you, you share your experience of Christ with me. I share my understanding of the Bible with you, and you share your understanding of the Bible with me.
Nobody should insist, “This is the way I believe, and you have to believe in the same way. This is the way I experience Christ, and you have to experience Christ in the same way.” Otherwise, we have no fellowship.
If we take that attitude, we will never arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. But if we love one another, are willing to learn, and never insist upon ourselves, one day we will arrive there.
Let me give you an illustration. When I was in New York, a couple came to us. This couple loved the Lord. They were graduates of a Bible institute, and they came to New York to be missionaries to the Jews.
They were connected with a Baptist church. But while they were there, the Baptist church discovered that they believed in universalism.
At one time, universalism was very popular in the New England states. What is universalism? Universalism teaches that because God is love, everybody will be saved—even Satan. It asks, “How could God allow anyone to perish?”
This couple believed in that teaching. When the Baptist church discovered this, they dismissed them. They could no longer meet with the Baptists because it was an error and not according to the truth.
But this couple loved the Lord, so they came to us. They were very honest and told us everything. We discovered that they were genuine believers and that they really loved the Lord. But unfortunately, they had this wrong teaching.
We tried to speak with them and convince them, but we could not. Finally, we told them, “You are brother and sister, and you are welcome to fellowship with us. But we request one thing: when you are in our midst, do not propagate universalism.”
They said that they would not, so they began to fellowship with us. They enjoyed the fellowship, but somehow they felt that because of universalism, we could not give them full fellowship. There was something that held them back.
So they went to the Lord, and the Lord revealed to them that universalism was not the truth. They cut off every relationship with universalism.
After that, they came to us and told us that they had been delivered from universalism. Then they could enjoy full fellowship with the brothers.
After some time, that brother became a responsible brother in the meeting in New York.
This shows us that through fellowship—with open hearts, without insistence, and without narrowness—we can arrive at the unity of the faith and the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God.
This is the growth of the church until we enter into full growth. Then we will not be tossed to and fro by every wind of teaching. Every member ministers to one another for the increase of the body.
Brothers and sisters, this is real experience. Thank God, we are all Christians. Thank God, we love one another. In spite of many differences, we can fellowship, learning from one another and ministering Christ to one another.
This, we believe, is the working of God.
Dear Lord, Thou art truly the beginning and the end. Thou Who hast begun a good work in us wilt surely bring it to completion.
Thy purpose will be fulfilled. Thy church will be built, and Thy glory will be manifested.
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.