In teaching children, it is crucial that from the earliest age that children are taught to understand exactly what the real church is and what the church is not.
It is common that most people of all ages think of the church as a building. Ask a teenager “What is the church,” and almost 100% of answers will be “the church is a place where Christians meet and worship.” Yes, that is true, the church IS a PLACE where believers meet and worship, but the church is much more than that.
There are thousands and thousands of church buildings, synagogues, mosques, temples and other places of religious worship in the world. But there is only one real church of God’s people. The real church actually is not just a building or a place where Christians meet and worship, the real CHURCH is the PEOPLE who meet and worship. Every person who knows Jesus as Savior, whether age 6 or 60, is part of God’s real church and IS God’s CHURCH.
Many people are “in” churches, but not all people “in” churches are part of God’s real church. There are many who go to a church building or place of worship every week but are not fully committed to God. Sometimes people go to church out of custom, or because their parents said they should go, or because going to church makes them feel good, or they get a sense of forgiveness even if they have never asked God to forgive them of their sin. If people only go to a church to meet with other religious people to make them feel they are part of God’s church, that doesn’t make them a part of God’s real church.
If you put a horse in a garage, it doesn’t make a horse a car. If you put a car in the middle of a herd of horses, it doesn’t make the car a horse. It’s the same thing with people being part of God’s church. Just because a person goes to a church that doesn’t make them part of God’s family. We only become part of God’s family when we believe that Jesus died for our sins and we ask God to forgive us. 1 John 1:9 says, “But if we confess our sins to him, (Jesus) he can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. And it is perfectly proper for God to do this for us because Christ died to wash away our sins” (TLB).
The Bible talks about the church in many places, but most of these Bible passages talk about what church people did, not about a building.
The church began when Jesus came to earth, died for everyone’s sin, and those who believed in Jesus became the first group of believers or the first real CHURCH. Later the apostle Paul established many groups of people who believed in Jesus as their Savior, and who asked God to forgive them of their sin. These people in many different countries and cities, got together every week with others who believed in Jesus. The gatherings were a REAL CHURCH of people. The apostle Paul taught them how to live every day by following the teachings of Jesus and doing what Jesus told them to do before He left this earth.
Then the Holy Spirit came and lived inside all those who believed in Jesus. Today the Holy Spirit lives inside each person who believes in Jesus and helps to guide us to live the way Jesus taught.
Jesus spent His time on earth showing everyone how live for God every day. Jesus taught those who believed in Him how to care for and help others. He taught them how to pray for others and for themselves; to be kind, loving, and forgiving.
If you believe in Jesus as God’s only Son and believe that Jesus died for you so that your sin can be forgiven, and if you have asked God to forgive you, then YOU are part of God’s real CHURCH today. 1 Peter 2:9-10 says: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (CSB).
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