Home again! Praise the Lord.

[michaelvpardo]

I hadn't attended a worship service since well before the beginning of the pandemic and my move to Pennsylvania, but the Lord kept drawing my attention to a small local Baptist congregation on a route I frequently used.
I found valid reasons not to visit for a while, but last night I said to myself, "Let the Lord get me up early enough to attend the first service and I'll go."

I got to bed a little late, but one of the stray cats I've taken in saw fit to wake me up before 7am, so I rose early and attended a 9 AM service. I was a bit early so I was able to meet the pastor. As the Lord would have it, he just happened to be teaching through the gospel of Matthew and was in chapter 24.

I'll confess that when he dived into a pretribulation rapture teaching my attention wandered a bit, but he noticed that not everyone was hearing him and explained that it was a debated doctrine and not an essential one to the faith. That I heard, and was grateful for. A pastor at a calvary chapel was hostile to anyone not accepting the doctrine.

There were only a few dozen people at the 1st service, but the worship combined traditional hymns with some contemporary worship music, and the congregation was racially diverse.

I mentioned to the pastor while exiting that we didn't share a common eschatology but shared the same faith and he didn't appear offended but glad, and asked if we could meet over coffee. Praise the Lord, I have a congregation that I can be comfortable worshipping with, one that greeted me in fellowship, one with room for growth, and one where the movement of His Spirit became evident in worship when one of the music ministry leaders had to stop singing for a moment for his weeping, and was held up by the congregation in prayer. I love the assembly of the faithful. I love worship with them. I'm home again.

 

[michaelvpardo]

I'm pleased to call this man my pastor, an honest and faithful servant of our Lord.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=997175007852656

 

[farouk]

Hi @michaelvpardo The Acts 2.42 exercise to identify with the gathered witness of others is indeed compelling....

 

[michaelvpardo]

Hi @michaelvpardo The Acts 2.42 exercise to identify with the gathered witness of others is indeed compelling....

3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Psalm 22:3
Some translations alter this verse to make it meaningless, but the Lord does indeed "inhabit" the praises of His people.
When we receive Christ by faith we are never alone. The Lord is constantly with us, but in the corporate worship of His saints, His presence is manifested in power. Sinners come under the conviction of His Spirit and are brought to repentance. The sick and weak find new strength. The body finds healing, not just personally, but corporately, and His love is made manifest.

These are things we can't experience alone or even through electronic media. God created us for relationship, not just with Him, but with each other and there is no power greater in His church than corporate prayer.

Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. Isaiah 56:7

This is so important to the Lord that He is quoted in all 3 synoptic gospels rebuking the priests and merchants of the temple for turning the temple into a market for thieves.

And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. Mark 11:17

Even if the parts of a body could remain living when separated and scattered, could it function as a body?

Jesus, in His prayer for us at the last supper, stressed that our unity in the body of Christ, is our greatest witness of His purpose and person to the unbelieving world.
15 I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them away from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 18 Just as You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
20 “I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. John 17:15-21

 

[michaelvpardo]

Our witness in the corporate assembly, our expression of our love for God and for each other, satisfies those commandments Jesus called the greatest and the royal commandment issued from His own mouth.

I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. John 13:34

Our spiritual service to one another builds us up as no private experience can.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16 ESV

Come, let’s sing for joy to the Lord,
Let’s shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let’s come before His presence with a song of thanksgiving,
Let’s shout joyfully to Him in songs with instruments.
3 For the Lord is a great God
And a great King above all gods,
4 In whose hand are the depths of the earth,
The peaks of the mountains are also His.
5 The sea is His, for it was He who made it,
And His hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let’s worship and bow down,
Let’s kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7 For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Psalm 95:1-7

Let’s hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, 25 not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Hebrews 10:23