I don’t know about you, but this stay at home stuff is getting old fast. (Maybe I blasted past ‘getting old’ a while ago 🤔) I miss getting together with brothers and sisters on Sunday morning and with home fellowship on weeknights. Nancy and I often attended church on Sunday morning and then two home-fellowships during the week. Weeks when there were no home gatherings seemed more troublesome and challenging. We are supposed to live in community with other believers. We are encouraged, bearing each other’s burdens and joining in harmony for mutual support and worship, for they are our traveling companions. Like Andrew and the traveling eunuch, God places brethren alongside us to help guide us through this wilderness as we wander toward the promised land.
God admonished believers not to forsake the gathering together of the Body of Christ, knowing that we need the reinforcement, encouragement, and strength of the brethren to keep on the narrow path. But in this time of isolation, on Sunday, Nancy and I sometimes watch multiple church services online, singing along with the worship team, and praying with the pastor. We watch the list of believers scroll past, pointing with satisfaction when a friend’s name rolls past on the screen. Gosh, I miss the gatherings. But, are we really missing anything?
Church Today
The church, as we think of it today, the shiny white spires, smiling greeters to shake our hand, the preacher in the pulpit – this is all a new thing as Christianity goes. God designed fellowship as a stroll through the garden, listening as God speaks to His children. Today, God calls His children to come, walk with Him, and listen. For a short time, we have the privilege of hearing His still, small voice speaking to our hearts without the cacophony of voices, the troublesome hierarchical structure, or social status displayed in our attire. All the trappings of western life are stripped away, and it is only God’s voice and us. What does God desire to teach us in the days of social distancing, with our daily lives stripped away?
Church is us, all of us.
Take advantage of the stillness to listen.