Gospel Reflections #333: The Church is a place for the imperfect and inadequate people

Exodus 18:25 "And he chose able men from among all Israel, and made them captains of the people, captains of thousands, captains of centurions, captains of fifties, and captains of tens."

It is the same in the world and in the world of faith that as the number of human beings increases more and more, various problems arise and control becomes difficult unless rules are established.

Just because we believe in the same God does not mean that everything will be in harmony.

Even within churches, there is a tendency for people to feel that free will has been lost due to organization, or to focus only on people rather than God.

In the pioneer days of the faith, some feared that "organization would turn the church into Babylon," but Ellen White pointed out that "lack of organization turns the church into Babylon.

Ellen White pointed out that "a church is a group of people who believe in God," not an organization.

The church that God wants is one that praises, worships, and rejoices in God by sharing how He has been involved with us and how He has worked in us.

The church is also a place where we, imperfect and inadequate people, can practice God's love.

It is also a place where we can practice forgiving others, compensating for their deficiencies, supporting, encouraging, understanding each other, and recognizing each other's differences in our relationships.

It is also a place where we can show that God is with us and works in each of us.

The church is supposed to be an organization of love.

In order for this to happen, we will need to reconfirm what we are looking at and what we are focused on.

The organization of the church should not be the same as the organization of the world.

There will be times when the church organization needs to focus on people rather than rules.

I think the bottom line of a church organization is for each person to first have a living experience with God, to realize that they are loved by God, that they are filled with God's love, and that they are filled with joy from God, and by sharing what they realize with others, they can have greater joy and we can have confidence in our love for God by sharing what we have realized with others.

Without this foundation of love, no matter how splendid an organization is built, it will be an organization without God.

The organization of the church is not something that is completed when a form is created; it is completed when the relationship between God and each individual matures.

The church should be filled with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, generosity, charity, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control.

God is working faithfully and sincerely for us without rest in order to do so.

It is not by working hard to the point of exhaustion, but by receiving God's love that He will mature the fruit of His Spirit in us.

This Gospel Reflections page is written by Masae San who lives in Hiroshima, Japan. She is a devoted student of the Bible who passionately embraces the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She shares her daily reflections on the Gospels as a way to reach out to others and spread the message of God's true love through the Christ-centered approach of Biblical Reflections. We're sharing her message here so