This morning, we met at the Marriott. There were several away who were assembling at other gatherings and who were visiting in other places. We were thankful to be able to present Courtney with her new Bible in honor of her recent graduation.

We had a discussion about God 's divine church, that church that is made up of imperfect people. By imperfect, we do not mean sinners or those who are willfully disobedient to God, but rather people who have faults, shortcomings and who have even experienced failure.

While we understand the biblical standard of perfection, we also realize that people are human and they make mistakes. An out of balance message in some cases has led to people not realizing, or admitting their own faults and in some cases has led to hypocrisy and dishonestly. Someone once said, “If you find the perfect church, don’t join it, you’ll ruin it”.

When we read the New Testament, not only do we see a church with great victory, we also a church with many faults and occasional failures. For instance, consider the following church as described in the books listed below:

o   Acts: The disagreement over circumcision
o   Romans: Some using grace allows Christians to continue in sin (Rom 6:1)
o   Corinthians: Well, where do we start????
o   Galatians: False teachers and the misuse of Christian liberty. “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you”
o   Ephesians: The converted Jews separating themselves from the Gentile converts, hence so much discussion on unity in the letter. This was a continuing saga in the early church.
o   Hebrews: Christians reverting back into the OT law
o   Etc….

There were clearly faults in every assembly, hence the reason for many of Paul’s letters. Some faults were collective (within the assembly), others involved individuals. Yet God still loved them and He still used them in a great way!

In Revelation chapter 2 & 3, we read about seven churches. Five of the seven churches had serious errs within them. Yet we see where Jesus points out the good things about them first, then He address the bad things (except two of them) and finally, He presents them with a solution and a promise. Click here to view chart for details.

Is it easy to see and observe the faults of others. It is more difficult to see our own (and we do have them). Peter said "above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." The saints were encouraged to take an honest look at ourselves and where there are shortcomings, allow God to provide a solution. If we need to repent and ask forgiveness, let’s do it and not allow an unbalanced perfection theology/doctrine to get in the way.

How true the song “He’s still working on me to make me what I ought to be.” “How loving and patient He must be”

Click here to view complete outline.

The saints met in the afternoon at the Forrest Glenn Health Facility.