Going Against The Grain

Matthew 18:20 – For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” (NIV)

I thought I would start this post off with the above scripture to encourage people that if you don’t make it to the meeting place (church) during the designated time of worship,  Jesus Christ will meet you where you are. When in doubt, just return to the above scripture and read it again. I can remember many of Sunday mornings that I did not take my family to church, we stayed at home and worshiped together. I realize the idea of this would make most Pastors uncomfortably, but there is no sin in that.

Religious people will say, “Doesn’t scripture say; Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together”? (Hebrews 10:25). You are correct, it does say that, now my question would then be, What Does It Mean? You can’t apply this scripture to the one that missed Sunday Service, nor can you apply it to the one who hasn’t been their in months. Let me explain: To forsake means:  to abandon; to abandon with the intention of never returning. Who else would know your intentions unless you state them, who else would know your intentions but you and God.

When you have decided that, you will no longer be in the company of believers, you have forsaken the assembling of yourself together, with the saints, you have also abandoned the fellowship of believers; it is this, that the scripture (Hebrews 10:25) says to do not.

I believe that we should meet, I believe that we should fellowship and come together. The purpose of coming together is to encourage, inspire each other. Hebrews says to: “exhort one another…”.  Fellowship is what keeps us strong and on track. I realize this is what God expect from us (assemble ourselves together). What makes it so terribly difficult are the leaders that think church members exist to server them, we are there to support, encourage, exhort, be an example to each other; we serve one another.

Where there are two or more people gathered together in the name of Jesus Christ, Jesus said that He would be in their midst.  Worshiping with your family , your husband or wife or two friends is the basic form of fellowship (it is fellowship) and fellowship is what God requires. It is when you decide to be an island and that you can make it on your own is where you will run into problems.

How can any one person determine that you has forsaken the assembling of yourself with the saints, when you have missed 5 Sundays out of the 52 in the year?  I’ve had fellowship with believers in isle 3 of a department store and we started with two and it grew to a crowd of five of us sharing and talking about the goodness of God.

You can fellowship anywhere! In that case,  the church (the five that were present)  met in a department store and we lifted up the name of Christ for twenty or so minutes and went on our way rejoicing.

Fellowship, don’t forsake it, it only takes a minimum of  two.

(Disclaimer: Do not use this post as your justification to stop meeting with the saints or use this post to justify consistently meeting with the same person, you need to meet with other saints so that you can be challenged to grow and be a well rounded and spiritually mature believer.)