file: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db941030.txt
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OUR DAILY BREAD                         Sunday, October 30, 1994
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READ: Acts 8:1-8



                  "THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD"

                Those who were scattered went
                everywhere preaching the Word.

                        - Acts 8:4

I recently saw a photograph of people leaving a church after
a service. They were carrying Bibles and smiling. As I
looked at those men, women, and children, I thought, there
goes the church. The building will stay, and it will be re-
ferred to as "a church." But those bricks can't preach and
those pews can't witness. Only people can do that.

Author R.C. Sproul wrote, "Where the people of God are,
there is the church - under the lordship of Christ and
indwelt by the Spirit."

This is the essence of the commission Jesus gave to His dis-
ciples just before He left them. He promised then power
from the Holy Spirit, and said they would be His witnesses
in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth
(Acts 1:8). And when the first-century church of Jerusalem
came under persecution, that's what happened. They were
scattered and proclaimed the gospel wherever they went
(8:4).

When believered in Jesus Christ leave a worship service, the
building stays, but God's people - the church - fan out into
the community. Throughout the week, they continue to be the
church wherever they are in the world - in shops, universi-
ties, restaurants, and homes. I wonder, is the world hear-
ing the gospel from the church?

Author: David C. Egner

        The witness of the church on earth
        Must shine with brightest light
        To all who need the second birth
        And strength to live aright.

        - J. David Branon

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
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The world won't go to the church,
   so the church must go to the world.

The Bible in One Year: Luke 7-9

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