✨ Those Who Walk With Jesus — Part 45 ✨ Oh Say, What Is Church?
✨ Those Who Walk With Jesus — Part 45 ✨
Oh Say, What Is Church?
📖 “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” — Ecclesiastes 3:11
📝 Their Message (Summary)
Elder Eyring recently gave a talk called “The Power of Sustaining Faith.” In it, he warned that not sustaining church leaders would bring “sorrow to you and to those you love—and even losses beyond your power to imagine.” He urged members not only to sustain leaders, but even to examine their own thoughts to see if they had thought or spoken of any weakness in those leaders.
That’s a heavy burden. And it raises a haunting question: what is church?
🔥 The Contrast
Think of Joseph Smith. The Doctrine and Covenants is filled with rebukes to him personally. God repeatedly corrected Joseph—sometimes sharply—and Joseph didn’t hide it. He published his failings to the world. Paul did the same. He wrote of his “thorn in the flesh” and called himself the “chief of sinners.”
They showed us a pattern: prophets and apostles are men corrected by God, openly confessing weakness, and pointing us back to Christ.
Now contrast that with today. Members are told not even to think of leaders’ weaknesses. We are taught that sustaining means silent loyalty, unquestioning trust, and reverence so high that even private doubts are dangerous.
How far we have come from Joseph’s pattern! Instead of scripture that records a prophet’s chastisement, we now get polished PR that insists prophets are nearly flawless. Instead of apostles confessing weakness, we are warned not even to imagine it.
🏛️ Institution vs. Body
The early church bore no resemblance to the structures we see today. Apostles then walked without purse or scrip. They were mocked, beaten, stoned, and cast into prison. Today’s apostles fly first class, sit on corporate boards, and are honored by governments.
In Acts, Stephen was stoned. Today, leaders are applauded at universities. Which looks more like Jesus’ pattern?
But here’s the key: the church of Jesus is not an institution. It is not a program, not a 501(c)(3), not an assignment list. It is wherever two or three gather in His name, and He is in their midst (Matthew 18:20). It is the body of Christ—living, breathing, unstoppable.
🌿 True Church
Church is not stone flown in from across the earth, nor marble temples, nor sustaining votes. True church happens at kitchen tables, on mountainsides, in hospital rooms—wherever people are knit together in love and Jesus is in their midst.
Real ministering isn’t an assignment that gets reshuffled every year. It is love that burns so deeply it can’t be scheduled. It is when you kneel and pray: “Lord, I am Yours. Take my life, my family, my house. All that I have is Yours.”
This is the church Jesus promised to build—the one not even the gates of hell could prevail against.
🕊️ The Invitation
So ask yourself:
Have I confused loyalty to men with loyalty to Christ?
Do I measure “church” by programs and reports, or by love, sacrifice, and communion with Jesus?
Am I alive in Him, or am I simply sustaining an institution while sleepwalking spiritually?
📖 Scriptures to Ponder
“For without me ye can do nothing.” — John 15:5
“Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” — Matthew 18:20
“That He might present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle… holy and blameless.” — Ephesians 5:27
🙏 Prayer
Lord, strip away every false covering. Teach me to see “church” not as stone, structure, or institution, but as Your living family. Let me walk in the humility Joseph showed, confessing weakness openly, trusting only in You. Make me part of the church You are building—a people alive in Christ, radiant with Your love.
🔗 Walking with Jesus — A Family’s Story
This is part of a series sharing the six-year testimony of a family walking daily with Jesus.
Previous: Post #44 — Sleep Walking
Next: Post #46 — (coming soon)
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