Title:- God’s Glorious Gathering?
Hebrews 10:24, 25 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Friend, lest I be misunderstood, know that today, I am not speaking of any one particular church, but rather am painting a composite picture of far too many churches that I have witnessed in both faith and action. Churches that are supremely correct in conduct, congregation and covenant, yet, they are what I have come to call ‘Oh God help us!’ kind of churches.
The gatherings of such congregations are usually based on a strict interpretation of the Scriptures and for purity’s sake, any offending areas are as externally and internally stripped clean of anything as they possibly could be that is not found in the New Testament. Nothing of the world, the flesh and the devil and of unbiblical denominations especially, will be allowed to hinder the prim and proper, shining purity of their pursued goal, so regularly and promptly reached out for, twice on Sundays and especially in the mid-week meeting. No sir, these folks are a deadly serious, lean, mean fighting machine.
Lean on numeric growth that is,
Lean on retention of new arrivals and
Lean on the fat of prosperous spiritual living.
Mean in method,
Mean in scowl and especially mean in their opinion of others who are not as Biblical as they are.
Fighting for pre-eminence,
Fighting for power;
Biting one another in gossip,
Grinding criticism and
Grumbling un-thankfulness.
Yet there they stand in ever diminishing numbers, still proclaiming the truth “once delivered”, inviting people to their not so glorious get-togethers. “Just plug and pray,” they say “get your life in order and make sure you adhere to all the constitution, covenants, and statements of faith and by-laws. Then ye shall be an industry standard and well approved Christian.” However, I say “God help us with these kind of churches and good riddance when they die!”
Please allow me to be wrong today and brethren, allow me to give you the opportunity to be gracious to me today for I have an observation to make. Having wondered and wandered in the get-togethers of such ‘particular’ people for far too long a time, I must say that I have never felt the near presence of God in any ‘Microsoftly’ perfect plug and pray kind of corporate worship. My fault maybe, but please allow me to make a statement, and then you be the judge. Here it is:
The gathering together of the sons of His love should snap, crackle and pop with the felt presence of God. The individual Christian should hunger for the time of the saints assembling together, for then and there, the seen and moving, inviting and captivating love of Jesus will be manifest in all His glorious and gracious goodness. Then and there, at our gathering together, Christ in you, the hope of glory, will collectively be assembled to magnificently minister to us all, yes even as we minister to Him and from such glorious get-togethers, we shall eventually and reluctantly leave, touched, challenged and above all shiningly changed! People and perspectives, lives, and relationships, sons and daughters, will never be the same again because He who bought us, turned up as we gathered together unto Him and when He did, Oh friends when He did! Our testimony shall be that “it was moving, it was magnificent, it was bloody death to sinful self, it was a river of hope running red with repentant tears, it was wave upon wave of glorious release, it was life changing, it was tide turning and tyrant toppling; it was a tumbling trembling of the inner man as tumultuous torrents of grace upon grace, pouring down upon our heads and flowing over our bearded and lifted faces, shook us with thankfulness to the core of our being; Yes! it was revolution, it was release, and Oh my God, it was holy, holy, holy.”
Friends, our gatherings should be glorious! so, let me ask you two things today. When you go to church do you expect God to join you? If it’s 'not happening' in your gathering together unto Him, then just what are you going to do about it? My advice to you for your own hearts sake is either get hell out of there, or get the hell out of there yourself!
Listen:- I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you , the hope of glory. Col 1:24-27
But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. Psalm 22:3 Gen 1:
Pray:- Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence --As fire burns brushwood, As fire causes water to boil --To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence! Isa 64:1-2 NKJV
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