PRAYER- 8: Prayer and T Swift

FINALLY have a chance to sit down and write on here again, here we go.

Since we defined prayer as our response to God, we must now explore how it is that he first speaks to us, and then how to answer him.

My relationship with God is meant to be much more of a conversational and meaningful relationship than is my relationship with Tim Keller or C.S. Lewis or Rubel Shelly. I read Keller, I read Lewis, I read Shelly, I read God’s Word, but one of those is quite different than the rest.

God decreed in the Old Testament that the prophets would speak for Him, that once a prophet received God’s words, they could be written down and could be effectively read as God’s speech when the prophet is absent or after he is gone. We also have this likewise prophecy of Christ

Deuteronomy 18:15-18

¹⁵ “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶ just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ ¹⁷ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

The scriptures were God’s speech, God’s word when it was written, and it is no less God’s word

today!

Now here is a kind of cool and crazy conclusion found in scripture: GOD ACTS THROUGH HIS WORDS!

In the beginning how did God bring about creation? With His words.

“Let there be light.”                                                       

Hebrews 4:12 says God’s words are “alive” and “active.”

Therefore, YOU WANT TO HAVE GOD ACTIVE AND MOVING DAILY IN YOUR LIFE?

 “THE WAY TO HAVE GOD DYNAMICALLY ACTIVE IN OUR LIVES IS THROUGH THE BIBLE.”!!!! 

He goes on,

 “The Bible is the way to ACTUALLY HEAR GOD SPEAKING and also TO MEET GOD HIMSELF”!!!!! (Keller)

You only know who you are praying to if you have learned it in the Bible.

(pg 55 of Prayer- Keller)

“Eugene Peterson reminds us that ‘because we learned language so early in our lives we have no memory of the process’ and would therefore imagine that it was we who took the initiative to learn how to speak However, that is not the case. ‘Language is spoken into us; we learn language only as we are spoken to. We are plunged at birth into a sea of language . . . Then slowly syllable by syllable we acquire the capacity to answer: mama, papa, bottle, blanket, yes, no.  Not one of these words was a first word. . . All speech is answering speech. We were all spoken to before we spoke.’ . . . We speak only to the degree that we are spoken to.”

Before you can speak to God, God must speak to you. I don’t mean in some mystical way, I mean clearly and definitively in scripture. Like babes, we too must go through the stage of “dadda…..ball…..blanket….yes….no” Our prayers should arise out of our immersion in scripture.

“We should plunge ourselves into the sea of God’s language, the Bible.”

We should read and think on and listen to the Bible and our hearts will naturally respond, maybe with shame or joy or confusion or appeal, but regardless, that response is the essence of prayer.

If we have nothing to use to find out who God is and to discover Him, then we will make a God up in our minds that looks a lot like the God we want instead of the God that actually is. We must pray to and only to the REAL God, and the Bible is where we discover Him.

We cannot hear God clearly outside of scripture; and at the very least, nothing will ever compare to the clarity that is found in scripture.

Take a second and watch some of this video.

She doesn’t know this guy, yet she creates this amazing prince charming that dances with her at a ball and cries to her from the ground as she stands on a balcony, meeting her in the woods with a lantern, the man of her dreams!!!! 

. . . . . This dude could be a serial killer, she doesn’t know anything about him. Why not? They have never talked. She has never heard from him. All she has done is taken who she wants this guy to be and made him into a guy that he never was and never intended to be.

This, sadly, is what we, and so many, do so often in prayer. Instead of letting God speak to us and hearing from Him, we make God into the god that we want instead of the god that IS. We make God into a God that we think is the right god and the way that he should be, instead of the God that He declares Himself to be.

Edmund P. Clowney puts it this way:

“The Bible does not present an art of prayer, it presents the God of prayer. …. Without immersion in God’s words, we may be responding not to the real God but to what we wish God and life to be like. We naturally want to make God into a god that is like us. Without prayer that answers the God if the Bible, we will only be talking to ourselves.”

“The lesson here is not that God never guides our thoughts or prompts us to choose wise courses of action, but that we cannot be sure he is speaking to us unless we read it in the Scripture.” (TK)

Good to be back.

Grace and Peace

(BACK TO PRAYER) 7- What is Prayer?

Muslims pray 5 times a day, while Jews have traditionally prayed 3 times a day. Each branch of the Christian church has different types of prayer whether it’s prayer from a book or just from one’s heart.

Buddhists use prayer wheels which fling prayers for compassion into the atmosphere. Hindus pray to gain union with the Supreme Being and escape the cycles of reincarnation.

People through other cultures like many Native American tribes pray through singing.

“Prayer is one of the most common phenomena of human life.” - Keller

One 2004 study found that nearly 30 percent of atheists admitted they prayed “sometimes” and another found that 17 percent of nonbelievers pray “regularly.”

Efforts to find cultures, no matter how small or remote or isolated, without some form of religion and prayer have failed. There has always been some form of attempt to communicate between humans and divine realms.

All of this Prayer is not all basically the same thing.

“Prayer presents a dizzying variety to the eye of the observer. Just look at the religious trances of Native American Shamanists; the chanting in Benedictine monasteries; devotees doing yoga in Manhattan offices,; the hour long pastoral prayers of the 17^th century Puritan ministers; speaking in tongues in Pentecostal churches,; Muslims engaging in sujud, with forehead, hands, and knees on the ground toward Mecca; Hasidim swaying and bowing in prayer; and the Anglican priest reading from the Book of Common Prayer. 

This leads to the question: In what ways are all these kinds of prayer the same and in what ways are all these kinds of prayer the same and in what ways are they different?”

Most prayer can be divided into two main types according to Keller: Mystical and Prophetic.

Mystical prayer is praying with the intention of becoming one with God, looking inward instead of outward seeking inner peace and a change of consciousness, to remove the boundary between you and God and to become part of Him or part of the spiritual force, this mystical hard to explain meditation.

Prophetic is closer to the type of prayer that we are familiar with in Christianity, it is prayer that is not focused on some inward meditation but is focused outward on God, this is a talking to God.

“The aim of prophetic prayer is not absorption into God but nearness to God.”

“While mystical prayer tends toward the loss of the boundary between the self and God, prophetic prayer leads to a much greater sense of the difference between the self and the majestic God, an awareness of sinfulness.”

From the Biblical perspective, prayer being a nearly universal phenomenon is not surprising.

John Calvin, “There is within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of divinity, …. therefore the seed of religion is planted in all.”

Romans 1:18-20

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Have you ever heard someone say, “God doesn’t believe in atheists”? In a sense that is true. The Bible tells us that EVERYONE, whether they admit it or not, knows in the depths of their soul that there is a God, and those who pretend not to are “suppressing the truth.”

To get an idea of the image Paul is painting with that phrase, think of when you were young and playing in the pool. Did you ever grab a big rubber ball and try to hold it under the water? The whole time, you were having to fight against that ball as it moved in every direction trying to get back to the surface. 

This is the picture the Word paints for us of those who don’t believe in God. They spend much of their lives fighting this truth that they know is true.

“We can define prayer as a personal, communicative response to the knowledge of God. All human beings have some form of knowledge of God available to them. Prayer is seeking to respond and connect to that being and reality.” - Keller

Since we understand prayer as a response to the knowledge of God, that means that prayer is profoundly different based on the amount and the accuracy of that knowledge.

We will discuss this more in our next article.

Grace and Peace 

(TEASER, THERE WILL BE A TAYLOR SWIFT VIDEO INVOLVED IN THE NEXT ARTICLE)

(Detour) WHY CHURCH? - Conclusion

We are concluding our discussion on “Why Church?” today. I am assuming that you have read the previous 4 articles on the subject so I won’t rehash everything that we have covered so far again. I will however give you the acronym thus far:

Commanded to meet together

Hard to remain faithful without it

Realize your Identity

Imitate Christ

Selfish not to

True and Eternal Plan of God

“We have a generation not forsaking the cross, but forsaking all that the cross bought.”

I heard that in a poem about a year ago and thought it to be quite true. We don’t have a generation and a culture that is necessarily forsaking the cross, but we do have a generation that is forsaking much of what Christ did for us at the Cross.

The church is the true and eternal plan of God. This has been the plan since the beginning, not to save just you, but to save the body and bride of Christ as a whole. Ever since Adam and Eve made the mistake on our behalf, God has had his plan to bring about reconciliation and his Kingdom that is the church to the world.

In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul ties the marriage relationship, husbands loving their wives and giving themselves up for them, to Christ and the church. Watchman Nee points to the garden of Eden in reference to this passage and points out that Adam was a type of Christ (made clear by passages like Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15) and Eve was a type of the church, his bride. Adam being put to sleep points us also to the cross. Why was Adam put to sleep? Adam had to be put to sleep for Eve’s VERY CREATION! She could not have been created if Adam had not been put to sleep. In the same way, Christ had to be put to sleep not JUST for our justification, not JUST for our cleansing, but also for our VERY CREATION! The only possible way that his bride could exist was if he was put to sleep.

“In the same way, husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” Ephesians 5:25

Christ did not die for you and you alone, Christ did not die so that you may attempt to live Christianity out on your own; Christ died for us all, together, unified as one body and one bride, with the intention of us remaining united and living life together as that body and bride.

It would be like on Christmas morning you wake up, and your dad or your husband or wife has gone through all of this trouble to buy you a brand new car, whatever your dream car is. You have wanted this car for so long but knew you would never be able to have it. You walk outside and see it, and you just start crying at how amazing that person is to do this for you, realizing the sacrifice that they must have made in order to give you this amazing gift. You jump on them, hugging them and thanking them for it. They then toss you the keys and say, “Drive it on to work.” You respond, “O no thanks, I don’t actually want it, I’ll just walk.” When we want Jesus and not the church, we are missing the whole point!

What if someone walked up to you and said something like, “Rene, I like you, but man I can’t stand being around Ariel. She is manipulative, and stuck in her ways, and hard headed. She refuses to change with the times. She is boring.” How would you react to someone saying that about your wife or husband? If you don’t want my wife, you don’t want me. This is what we do when we tell God that we want Him, we just don’t like His church, His bride.

How bout this, what if you ask someone after church,

“Do you like that Rene’ guy?”

And they respond, “You know, I like his head, but his body I just can’t stand.”

“What? All I’m asking is if you like Rene.”

“I answered, I like his head but not the rest of him.”

 That doesn’t make any sense! This is what it is to tell God that you like Him but don’t like His church, the body.

If you take the hottest coal in the world out of the fire, it will turn cold, and hard, and black. It doesn’t matter how on fire you are or you get one day, you will always need the church.

Jesus tells us to pray OUR Father, Give US OUR daily bread, Forgive US OUR trespasses as WE forgive who trespasses against US. Lead US, deliver US.

God, Christ never intended for us to live the Christian life alone, it was always meant to be lived together.

To sum it all up:

Why church?

We are Commanded to put a priority in our lives on meeting regularly together with other Christians.

It is Hard, if not impossible, to remain faithful while not being connected consistently and with commitment to the church as a whole. The devil has an easy time picking off the ones away from the pack.

The church is not where you are asked to lose your identity, but is where you will truly Realize it. You will begin to understand why you were made, how you were made, and how you are meant to serve the body.

One of the foundations of Christian living is to Imitate Christ. Christ found it important enough to meet every week on the Sabbath with believers.

It is Selfish to not be involved in the Christian community. We are all different parts of the body, so not only will you not realize your purpose outside of the body, you are also depriving the body of what it needs from you. You were given gifts by God not for your benefit primarily, but for the benefit of the body.

And lastly, the church, us living life together, us holding hands and chasing after Christ together, is the True and eternal plan of God. Telling God that you want Him but not His church is illogical and disrespectful.

I hope this has helped, I love you all. We will get back to the prayer articles as soon as I can.

Grace and Peace

(Detour) WHY CHURCH - 4

Continuing on our 5 part series on “Why Church,” today we will talk about the I and the S. We have already discussed that it is Commanded to meet together with other Christians regularly as God knows that we need it desperately. We discussed that it is Hard to remain faithful without regularly being with and living alongside other Christians. We said that the church does not force you to lose your identity, but on the contrary, is the place where you will finally Realize your identity and why you were created the way that you were created. Today we will discuss our next two points with our acronym of CHRIST.

I.

Imitate Jesus

Luke 4:16

(The message puts it like this) As He always did on the Sabbath, He went to the meeting place

One of the goals of Christian life is to become more like Christ in every way (which includes in suffering by the way, but that’s another article). It was important to Jesus to meet together with other believers and others that were trying to follow the Father. As Luke puts it here, as Jesus always did, He went to the meeting place on the Sabbath.

I wonder why Jesus went. I wonder if he left the meeting saying things like “Man that singing or music really just didn’t do it for me,” or “Well the preaching was a bit dull and I didn’t get much out of it.”

What do you think? What was His purpose for going?

Jesus did not go to the meeting place primarily for Himself, He went primarily for others.

S.

Selfish not to.

Woah Rene, it is selfish not to put a priority on meeting together with other Christians? Ouch, don’t you think that is a little harsh?

Here’s the truth:

Romans 12:5-8

For as in one body we have many members,  and the members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ⁶ Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

1 Corinthians 12:12, 14-21

  

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

We discussed last time that we are all members of a body, and that we realize our identity once we become part of that body. I gave the illustration that if a hand is lying on the ground on its own, it wonders why it exists, its life makes no sense, what was it made for; however, as soon as it is placed onto a body, it begins to understand why it was made the way that it was made, and the purpose for its life.

Now look at it from the other side. If there is a hand lying on the ground, there is also a body that is missing a hand. Look at verse 21 of 1 Corinthians 12 again:

“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’”

You want to know why the eye cannot say that to the hand or the head cannot say that to the feet? Because THE EYE NEEDS THE HAND! THE HEAD NEEDS THE FEET! We need each other! If you are a hand that refuses to be constantly and consistently joined with the rest of the body, then we are handless.

I have heard some say, “There is a YOU shaped hole in the body of Christ that was made for you to fill.”

Look at this verse:

1 Peter 4:10

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace

God has gifted us all in a specific way, and He says that the reason you have that gift is to serve one another.

The reason God made you a hand or a foot is so that you may be attached to the body and become the missing hand or foot that the body needs.

If you decide to keep your gifts to yourself, to not primarily use them for others, to not attach yourself to the church and to not put a priority in your life on regularly being with and living alongside other Christians, that is selfishness.

Grace and Peace

Rene

Conclusion hopefully tomorrow.

(Detour) WHY CHURCH - 3

I am quite sick and am currently medicated, so I hope these thoughts make sense. We are now to our third article on Why Church? We have discussed that gathering with other believers is Commanded, and that it is Hard to remain faithful without regularly being with and living alongside other Christians.

Thirdly, regularly being with the church is important because it helps you Realize your Identity.

A group of animals got together to make a school. There was a rabbit, a duck, a squirrel and a bird. They were going to create a curriculum that brought up the perfect animals, so they would all take all of the classes. The rabbit insisted that running be in the school’s curriculum. The duck insisted on swimming. The squirrel insisted on tree climbing. The bird insisted that flying be included. So they began their school.

The Duck was doing amazing at swimming, but he was at the bottom of the class at running. So the duck stayed late every day to practice running until eventually he had severely damaged his webbed feet until he was a sub-par swimmer. The Rabbit was straight killing it when it came to running, he had no problem at all with that class; however, when it came to tree climbing, he wasn’t so proficient. He would try and try to climb the tree, but he would keep falling back and hitting himself on the head, until he had had so many concussions that he couldn't even run well anymore. The squirrel was doing GREAT at tree climbing, but he kept jumping out of the tree, hoping to fly, only to fall to his injury to the ground; eventually, he could barely climb anymore. The bird had an easy A+ in flying, but whenever he tried to climb the trees, he kept damaging his wings until he couldn't fly anymore.

There is a misconception in the world that the church and Christianity demand that you be one specific kind of person, that in order to be part of the church you must give up your identity and who you are. There is the idea that the church takes rabbits and tries to make them climb trees, or takes squirrels and tries to make them fly, but this was never the intention of Christ.

 (I do think that many churches today are making this mistake, trying to force all of God’s children into one mold; however, that has never been the biblical model of the church.)

On the contrary, the church is here to help you Realize your identity, not lose it.

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts,^[e] yet one body.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

1 Corinthians 12:14-22

The Bible teaches throughout its pages that we are made differently and encouraged by God and each other to be who God has made us to be. What can be more freeing than that! Here is the deal: God has made some of us hands, some of us mouths, some feet, and those body parts are precisely what God intends for us to be.

GOD WANTS YOU TO BE WHAT HE HAS MADE YOU TO BE! HE WANTS YOU TO DO WHAT HE HAS GIFTED YOU TO DO! HALLELUJAH! 

If a hand is lying on the ground, what good is that hand? It is useless, constantly wondering what it is good for, what it was made for, why it exists. Its life makes no sense. But if that hand is picked up and placed onto a body, things start to make sense. The hand starts to realize what it was made for, how gifted it really is, the reason for its very existence.

We are the church, we are the body, come and find your place in it. We do not want to take away your identity and your freedom, we want to help you discover who you really are, and who you were made to be.

Grace and Peace

(Detour) WHY CHURCH - 2

We have taken a week long detour from our discussion on Prayer to discuss why "church" is important for Christians. We discussed the C yesterday as "Commanded." Please read that article before this one if you have not done so already.

H.

Hard (if not impossible) to Remain Faithful Without It

I was watching discovery channel and saw this wildebeest that had just birthed a new son just minutes earlier. She and her new son were standing apart from the rest of the pack. The mother was urgently nudging the new calf, trying to get it to stand and move on with her. She nudged and moo’d, but the calf could not stand. The camera then moves to the left as we see why the mother is acting so nervously. A hyena is stalking the wildebeest and moving ever closer. The mother takes a few strong steps towards the hyena and scares it away; however, the camera then shows many more hyenas moving toward the pair. The mother fights as hard as she can, but eventually a few of the hyenas distract the mother as the rest grab the new calf and drag him away. All the while, a few hundred yards away stood thousands of wildebeest that could have easily handled the small pack of hyenas.

Why did the hyenas go after these two? It is obvious right? They were away from the pack, and therefore easy pickings. They wouldn’t dare attempt to attack a wildebeest in the midst of the group of thousands led by the strongest bulls, especially when these two were out on their own, asking for it.

Satan, like the hyenas, is on the prowl, and he also has lots of help. The Bible even describes him as a roaring lion, going about, seeking whom he may devour. 

Newsflash: Satan is much much stronger than you, much smarter than you, much more experienced than you are. He has existed since the beginning of the earth and has been devouring men and women since the Garden of Eden. He is good at what he does. You cannot defeat Him alone, you are guaranteed defeat. You cannot survive spiritually without other Christians there supporting you, guiding you, protecting you. When you become a Christian, you are adopted into the family of God, adopted into a pack of millions of wildebeests that will do whatever it takes to keep you with them. This is one of the main reasons God created the church.

Our habit in today’s world is to live our lives basically alone, to ourselves, to keep our distance. That’s not God’s way though. When you separate yourself from the pack, you are easy pickings for the devil and his demons; you are asking for it.

When we separate ourselves from the pack, we miss out.

We miss out on the Guidance, Protection and Support promised by the pack as a whole and specifically by the strong bulls that are there for our protection and guidance.

1 Peter 5:1-7

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed:  shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.  Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Hebrews 13:17

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

God set up the church, the pack, for your benefit, why would we not take advantage of it?

Grace and Peace

(Detour) WHY CHURCH - 1

I am going to take about a week long detour from the series of articles on prayer to write about our assembling together as a church.

It is no longer a possibility or a prediction, we are in the midst of many people leaving the local bodies that assemble on Sundays and citing a lack of necessity when asked for a reason. Why should I go to church? The church has gotten it wrong in so many areas. The church doesn’t look like Christ. If I love Jesus, isn’t that enough? Why do I have to go sing and listen to a sermon every week to be a Christian? I don’t like getting up on Sundays to go sit with a bunch of old people. I can’t find a church around here that I like. Why church?

Now, most of you know that the biblical definition of church means the group of people that are Christians. One did not go to church, one was the church. Therefore there is a very fundamental problem with the statement “I don’t need the church to be a Christian.” This is obviously absolutely false. Saying you don’t need the church to be a Christian is like saying you don’t need brothers and sisters to be a sibling. It is the very existence of those brothers and sisters that makes you a sibling at all. Christ Jesus did not live and die for the salvation of you alone, but for the church, his bride, his body.

There is nothing wrong with what the word church has come to mean, I say every week that I am going to church, as long as you know that the church is really the entire body of Christ around the world.

You take part in the assembly of believers around the world the moment you believe, and you take your place in the body of believers around the world as you take your place in your assembly near you. You take part in the worldwide body by taking part in the local body around you. So understand that as we discuss the church, we are discussing BOTH the assembly where you are where you do or do not attend regularly, and the body of believers around the world.

In order to answer this question we will be using the name of the boss, the master, the leader, the CFO, the CEO, the founder, and the King of this particular Kingdom: C.H.R.I.S.T.

C.

It is Commanded.

Sherlock Holmes and Watson were out camping one night, relieving some stress from all of their latest endeavors. They had a little too much to drink and fell asleep. In the middle of the night, Sherlock awoke and turned to Watson,

SHERLOCK:

“Watson, look up, what do you see?”

Watson looked up into the indescribable night sky that can only be seen in such glory when far away from man made light.

WATSON:

“I see more stars than I could ever count and a boastful full moon.”

SHERLOCK:

“And what does that tell you Watson.”

WATSON:

“Well, astronomically it tells me that there are millions of stars out there, astrologically it tells me that Saturn is in Leo, ontologically it tells me that there are things of which their coming to be is unknown and mysterious, theologically it tells me that God or the Divine is much larger than we are and we in comparison look quite insignificant, meteorologically it tells me that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow, why Sherlock, what does it tell you?”

SHERLOCK:

“Watson you fool, someone has stolen our tent.”

Sometimes the best answer is the simple one. Christ knew that we needed to be meeting together, and so did the writer of Hebrews.

“Do not neglect meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.” Hebrews 10:25 (Every preacher’s favorite verse right?)

Apparently they were having similar struggles even then. Some saw meeting regularly with other believers as unimportant, not worth their time, not necessary to the faith. The writer of Hebrews exclaims that it is indeed important to take time out of our busy schedules to meet together.

Now, obviously this does not say, “Do not neglect going to church on Sundays,” but that is an easily and correctly made application. There is rarely, if ever, a time for you to meet with so many other Christians together, for the primary purpose of edification of one another and glorification of our shared Father and Lord, like there is at the gatherings of the organizational church.

We are, as faithful Christians, supposed to meet together. And just like all of the other commands that are given to us throughout scripture, Christ gives this one also to us for our good. He knows how desperately we need constant and consistent Christian community and how desperately we need to have our eyes forced back upon the Cross and the Gospel and how desperately we need to receive and give encouragement to other believers.

We call these other Christians our brothers and sisters, let us prioritize meeting with our family from this day forward.

There are, in my estimation, even better and more convincing reasons to be involved in the “corporate church” coming in the next articles this week.

(In a Q & A after one of Keller's Sermons)

Questioner:

“Can I be a Christian and not go to church?”

Tim Keller:

“Not a faithful one.”

Grace and Peace