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Sender: Tanner

Hey i have a quick question for you. I have been dating a girl for over a year and i think she is the one that i want to marry, but we have one major difference. Churches. I go to the free methodist church and she goes to the united reform. we both like our own churches and she said she will never leave her church but i dont think i want to leave mine either so what should we do?

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Please consider where this question is coming from. There was a time in Christian history when people did not ask such questions, and they definitely did not ask such questions in the first century church. According to the Bible, there is only one church and Jesus Christ is the head. Ephesians 2 reminds us that Christ brought all believers together as one body, not many bodies. In John chapter 17, Jesus prayed to God that all believers would be one, just as he and his Father were one. Ephesians 4 reminds us that there is one body, not many bodies. We are to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. In short, the people of God are a creation of God, not man. The church is not a man-made institution, but one formed by God through Jesus Christ, who bought the church with his own blood, according to Acts 20:28.

The implication of all of this is that which church to do not does not boil down to a matter of preference. According to Acts 2:47, it is God that adds us to the church. We need to make pleasing God first priority, not suiting our tastes. It is not like choosing the color on your car. There are some churches that are moving away from God. Some embrace homosexuality as normative. Others deny the inspiration and authority of the scriptures. Still others do not practice what God clearly had instructed concerning worship and service. It is about pleasing God.

I would encourage you to go to the topical outline section and look up the information I have concerning what the Bible teaches about the church. Here are some links with more information.

http://epreacher.org/sermoutlinestopic.html

http://www.westarkchurchofchrist.org/library/

http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/read/identifying_the_church_of_the_new_testament

John Telgren

P.O. Box 452

Leavenworth, KS 66048

Web: epreacher.org/ask

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