Come Together

Meditate: Acts 2:44

Another Half-truth from Hell: I don’t need a congregation to be a Christian.

If there’s no congregation then where will you do your “gathering together?” I don’t mean if there’s no cute, steeple-topped chapel-I mean if there’s no assembly of believers where will you go for this spurring toward love and good deeds? Where will you go for encouragement?

There’s a pop song from the early 70’s that contained the chorus: “Me and Jesus, got our own thing goin’. / Me and Jesus, got it all worked out. / Me and Jesus, got our own thing goin’. / We don’t need anybody to tell us what it’s all about.” (I think I just heard someone say, “That sounds pretty good to me…”)

See, when someone says, “I don’t need a church to be a Christian” usually that translates to “I don’t want accountability. I don’t want leadership. I don’t want to learn or be taught. I don’t want to help. I don’t want to contribute. I don’t want to change…”

Yeah. Sounds pretty ugly when you put it like that, doesn’t it?

It’s no accident that when the Bible teaches on how the Church should be, the most common image used is “the Body.” Now, I’m no doctor, but I’m pretty sure that any part that cuts itself off from the rest of the body is in for a rough time. Cut off from the oxygen and nutrition and cleansing and immunity that come from being a part of the whole body, any one part will rot and die.

Not need a church? Can the eye say to the hand, “I don’t need you?” Check out the reading and meet me here tomorrow.

• What’s my relationship to church?
• Am I in genuine relationship with the Body?
• Any areas where I’m trying to go it alone?
• Anything rotten?

Pray:
Praise: You are the Fountain of Living Water. Those who drink from You will never thirst. You are Life and Health and Peace to my soul.

Confess: My culture teaches me independence, “get a grip”, and that You “help those who help themselves.” It’s all a lie.

Thank: You bring new life to me. You renew me.

Ask: Teach me Your Truth. Draw me into Your presence and into Your Body. Show me my need and Your supply.

Digging Deeper: I Corinthians 12:12-31

Posted by email from Ferndale Tonight (posterous)