5/13/14- The Church in Every Age

We most surely believe that God preserved, instructed, multiplied, honored, adorned, and called from death to life his Kirk in all ages since Adam until the coming of Christ Jesus in the flesh. (Scots Va)

Matthew 16:16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,^band on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades^c will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be^d bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be^e loosed in heaven.”

Thoughts: Just as God created the universe out of nothing (ex nihilo), so God calls the Church from death to life in every generation and age.  This confession tells us God preserves the church from being destroyed.  The confession says God instructs the Church in every age- so there is always room to learn from the eternal Teacher.  God causes the Church to grow in every age from nothing (or a remnant) into a fruitful Church.  God honors the Church- lifting her up when she is humble and discouraged in every era.  God adorns (makes more beautiful) the Church in every time period.  Without God's help and grace, the Church would appear plain and unattractive.  God also calls the Church from life to death- so that when the Church appears to be dead, it is not.  The Church could do nothing without God   The Church's power, life and hope  did not stop in the past, God is God yesterday, today, and forever.  The Church may shrink to the point that it appears to disappear.  John Knox lived this.  One year he was in the Galley of a French Slave ship.  Thirty years later Scotland declared Protestantism the law of the land.  

Prayer: Lord, work in my and my church as you have in the past.