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Has anyone else ever wondered why times that people gather together in a particular place to worship God is called a service? You know, the questions that are asked to you and me. What time is your service and where do you meet? Odd really the more I ponder upon this phrase. I have really been chewing on this when asked over the weekend, “did you guys have a service Saturday?” and my answer has been…..”Yes we did at MTSU” (not the game mind you hahaha, that was a sacrifice for the Warhawk fans)….let’s take a peek
Hebrews 10:25 (NLT) And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
We see this verse right after we are reminded for us to think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works (Hebrews 10:24)
I love what the verse doesn’t say. We are not told when to meet, we are not told where to meet, we are not told how to meet. We are simply asked to not neglect or not to forsake (KJV) our coming together. Or we are asked to not give up meeting (NIV). We do see in several places in scripture where we are given some feedback on some ‘how to’s’ when we do meet or come together as a church.
Check out the defintion of church (ecclesia)…
1) a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly
2) any gathering or throng of men assembled by chance
3) an assembly of Christians gathered for worship in a religious meeting
4) those who anywhere, in a city, village, constitute such a company and are united into one body
5) the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth
Isn’t that AWESOME?!….look at each part of the definition and allow the fact that God is in our EVERYTHING, EVERYTIME. We know that verse that tells us, For where two or three gather together as my followers, [fn] I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20). So most of our lives we are in constant mode of church…..so there is no way to put a bulletin on that type of service. You see your/our service is 24/7……it’s more dynamite than Krispy Kreme’s HOT NOW neon sign wooing you in to take in a dozen of those delightful babies!
So our meeting is looking more like what we see in Philemon 1:2 and to our sister Apphia, and to our fellow soldier Archippus, and to the church that meets in your [fn] house. OR Colossians 4:5 Please give my greetings to our brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church that meets in her house…….but check this out…before Paul was Paul…before his encounter with Jesus on Damascus road look where he went…Acts 8:3 But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.
DAG GUM it and look look at our brothers and sisters response as we scattered Acts 8:4 But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went.
That word preach here is to instruct…to herald to scream out the Good news of Jesus Christ..guys we are doing this…the list is really starting to get longer and longer of those that are jumping in with each other to live life with every age group and instruct, show how to live out Christ WIDE OPEN!
So when asked when our services are? HOT NOW….uh I mean RIGHT NOW
Family discussion questions:
ask your child “what are some ways we can meet together in our home?”
for those of us that go into a place of work, or school… “how can we develop times of meeting together in order to encourage others?”
for ALL of us….thank you for learning that whenever and where ever we meet, we are doing so to make HIM famous!
love em up!
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