In Church
Sunday, May 3, 2020 Good morning, Lord V.O.D.: Romans 12:12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; M.O.M.: And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" —Luke 24:32 Today's reading: 1 Kings 16-18 Luke 22:47-71
In Church
A group of friends has discovered 'Zoom' and the opportunity to get together online and have Bible study. They have live feedback and input from each participant. One man has children in several places in the country and they have linked in and it is a rewarding time.
The children of Israel were taken captive into a foreign country and could no longer worship in a way God had intended. Their hearts yearned to be back home but it took seventy years-seventy years. This did not keep the ones who loved God from worshipping for their love for God was a real and living thing.
The new Testament church in the book of acts met at the Jewish temple and from house to house. Acts 5:42 - And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. They had no Christian 'church building' of brick and mortar but that did not stop them from worshipping together and it certainly did not keep the Holy Spirit from their hearts and from filling them with joy.
Recorded history shows the first church buildings were built in the third to fourth centuries. Until that time, the church of the living God in Christ Jesus met wherever they could meet but mostly in homes and the church thrived and spread from country to country.
Yes, we have our conventions-church buildings, pastors, staffs, programs-but what has happened to the commitment to Christ? The Word of God has not changed. The Holy Spirit has not changed. James 1:17 ►Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
If your relationship with Jesus is not real at home, do not expect the church house to make it real nor the people with whom you worship-they can not make your personal life in Christ real. Your time spent before our God is the only way to realize real life in Christ.
Yes, the Bible says: 24And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. 25Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10 This was written before the church building...
We are to meet together and encourage one another and grow together and when we can all get together in one place-when we have a vibrant realtionship with Jesus in our hearts-corporate worship is a great and wonderful thing but it is not the main thing-it is a by-product of vibrant faith-a crescendo of worship built step by step and prayer by prayer of indivual lives outside the walls of the church.
When we get to meet together, it is always a blessing-not just when we get to come back together after a long period of absence from one another. A long absence of contact should not exist today. There are too many ways to reach each other and visit and pray together.
This is to encourage us all to know that God will hold our hearts of love together no matter the distance or time. Consider the parents of children who serve on a foreign field in war or in missionary service to the Lord-separated by continents and years-their love grows. It does not diminish.
God never leaves us and neither do our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are of one body in His love and grace.
...because He loves us...
Father in Heaven, Forgive me my worry and fretting about not being able to be in church. I am in the church-Your body, Lord Jesus. Let me realize all that means. Merciful Father and gracious Lord. In the name of Jesus, Amen