posted
I maintain that meeting be connected to assembling. In my experience, I've seen very little else than a congregating that does not assemble and where people's idea of meeting becomes an experience of politely avoiding each other's intimacy behind the distance of respect. The worst case of that was when I went to a bible study where people had congregated for 29 years. Because of politeness and respect, the people who are born and raised here did not know that their host was a traditinal Chinese doctor and that the guy speaks 12 Chinese dialects and all kinds of other information which is vital to their available assembling of who God means us to be to each other; 29 years!!! So by connecting the word meeting with assembling according to the Spirit, we ought to come from and to lead to the deployment of the New Covenant which makes it very clear that "...no one will teach no one "know God" for all shall know me from the smallest to the greatest...says the Lord". The assembling of such foundation and the foundation for such assembling was laid by the apostles and the prophets. When we read the order of the daily meetings in the Acts, there was the teaching of the apostles who were eliminating the need for teaching one another about God and who were translating the Old Testament's shadow of things to come, blazing the passage's trail into the eternal reality of the New Testament, where God Himself gets to be hosted to lead us all, in our most intimate of Her/His supremacy. People were actually inspired to sell all they had and they were being drawn to one another to be built into the nation of God's prophets on earth. That has never changed. Sharing the learning that God gives us and teaching one another about "knowing God" are not the same. One builds the Church with eternal life materializing because the justs live by faith, whereas the other builds clergy-laty and ritual-tradition structures which leaves the law of sin and death intact in its rule over the body's appetites and the soul's passions that substantiates our independent will power's inclinations. When we read the order of the meetings it says: "They were persevering daily into the teachings of the apostles, into the fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers." The fellowship spoken of here is the getting to know one another in the light of God's presence and voice. So that their communication was no socializing but communion based upon one another's needs and gifts, so as to learn how to fit with each other. We are being fitted to one another's reality, when we get to be assembled by God. Once the veil is lifted, the sight of the Kingdom becomes the site of eternal life that sprouts on earth as in heaven. So the fellowship talked about here, is the communion of people whose entire life and livelyhood was brought together on the line against the flesh, the world, Mammon, Ceasar and Satan, by God Himself.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
-------------------- ...all blessings be with us all... Benoit Couture
posted
It should go without saying here, but unfortunately it cannot, that the details of church life are not the abc-xyz of life nor of God's revelation to man-kind. Serious Christians can and do disagree on this stuff, imo. These items are discussed in our Cafe with a host of other issues. Jesus, did however, pray for unity among his people and matters of church structure do divide the church to this very day. In short, church government is just an end to a means that God would be all and in all as the saints are equipped and encouraged for ministry.
Last week, as I was being informed that there wasn't a command to regularly meet, that there was nothing which specified "who, what where, when" and that to even pursue the topic was a manifestation of an "IC" and a works mentality, here are some things I encountered in my travels:
In our little town, a man dressed in a white robe rang a little bell, burned incense, and put a blessing on the cats, dogs, and goldfish in the name of the Lord and in the tradition of saint Francis of Assisi. The kids loved it, btw.
Driving near the Dollywood vacation area, I noticed a large billboard for a "Miracle Chapel" where anyone, lotto-fashion, could go for an instant jackpot. "Jesus is ready, are you?"
Flipping through the TV channels while on break at work, I landed on a guy who spent the whole time begging for "seed money" for the Kingdom. So rampant is his message that one of the major news magazine, Time, just did a cover story on it. "Does God Want Me Rich?"
Doesn't consistency with some of the views expressed in part 1 of this thread require that we accept church as a pet-blessing, fund-raising, or drive-in miracle, etc, etc, meeting?
And why, pray tell, does the institutional church get frequently slammed by those who claim that there exist no specific guidelines about "doing church?"
If there are no rules about how to meet, then it is impossible - totally impossible - for ANYONE to do it wrong. Can we get that far or will we leave it to others to draw the unmistakable and unavoidable conclusion?
Today or whenever it is convenient, I also wish to know why, say, 1 Corinthians 13 is authoritative and binding about love but the very next chapter, 14, about meeting protocols is irrelevant and out-dated. I would like a short, plain, sensible, working answer which doesn't contradict itself nor the Scriptures. I am not asking, right now, for a sermonette on something supposedly related nor about anything which happened in your past. Thank you.
posted
The short answer is that if there is no assembling, then the meeting is not in Christ-Jesus. As you point out, the love spoken of in 1Cor 13 and the order prescribed in the next chapter comfirm this reality. Should I remove my long post at the top?
-------------------- ...all blessings be with us all... Benoit Couture
Email this page to someone.
