Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Daily Church of Jesus

Once you start reading the New Testament it becomes clear that the original followers of Jesus had only one day set aside for worship, fellowship, teaching and community. That day was called “Every day”.

For example, the book of Acts tells us that “every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” (Acts 2:46) We also know that “the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.” (Acts 16:5).

The author of Hebrews calls for Christians to “encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:13)

Paul the Apostle took a handful of followers of Jesus to the lecture hall of Tyrannus and “had discussions daily” (Acts 19:9).

When the Grecian Jews complained that their widows weren’t being cared for it was in regards to the “daily distribution of food” to the poor which the apostles themselves were performing as true servants. (Acts 6:1)

When the Bereans were commended it was because “they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)

This really should come as no surprise to us, however. Jesus stressed that only those who “take up (their) cross daily” could follow him (Luke 9:23) and he taught his disciples to pray daily and to ask for “daily bread”. (Matt 6:11)

So, instead of arguing over what day of the week we should worship or gather or teach, perhaps we should stop and realize that, according to the New Testament, every single day of our lives should be devoted to God, and to the community of faith. We need to be the Church every day of our lives, not simply attend one each week.

-kg

1 comment:

Glenn Steers said...

Amen, Brother!!