Greetings, all.
Today (Thursday) our focus on this third day of our week of prayer is the church. We will gather again as we have the past two days at Memorial at 6 p.m. for one hour.
Of course, when we speak of "the church" we are not talking about a building; and we are not just talking about Memorial AME Zion Church (although that is our concern). The church is more than a building. The word most commonly used in the New Testament for church ("ekkleesia") never meant or implied a building. The word church refers to the particular association of believers who were characterized by such features as faith (John 1:12; Acts 8:37), fellowship (Acts 2:44; Acts 4:32; Romans 12:5) and unity (John 17:20-21; Ephesians 4:4-6; Colossians 3:11).
Please prayerfully consider these passages of Scripture today as we lift up the church in prayer.
"I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off" (Isaiah 56:5).
"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18)
"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God" (Ephesians 2:19-22).
Psalm 119:33-34
"Let truth, the light of my heart, speak to me, and not my own darkness!"
Augustine, Confessions, Book XII, Chapter 10
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