Church By The Wildwood

Marie

"I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18)

On Sunday, Mark and Debra (my brother and sister-in-law) took our 91-year-old friend, Marie, back to Pruden, Tennessee where she grew up.  She said there was once a theater, store, school, doctor, and a place for teenagers to gather and dance, but the only building left standing today is the First Baptist Church where she was baptized. 

I was reminded of the old hymn:

"Come to the church by the Wildwood
Oh, come to the church in the vale
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the vale."1

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus, the chief Cornerstone, told His disciples that He would build His church, and they would be part of her foundation — a church so strong that neither hell nor death could ever conquer her — a beautiful bride that Christ would die for. 

". . . Christ so loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless." (Ephesians 5:25-27)

Jesus loves the church, beloved. Jesus loves you.

1  CHURCH IN THE WILDWOOD. William S. Pitts, 1857.