Category: Biblical Church

I’ve never had children. I am blessed to have had lots of nieces and nephews and it was a joy to have walked one of my nieces down the aisle to get married. When they were younger it was fun spending time with them, playing, hanging out, talking and then saying goodbye as they returned to their parents. Most uncles and aunts will have limited influence on their nieces and nephews. Parents are the ones that will struggle though the hardships of life and experience the joys associated with being a parent and then a grandparent.

Attending a corporate church once a week is kind of fun. Coffee and donuts in the foyer, greeting those around you, singing and worshiping, hearing an inspired speaker, a closing prayer and then home. I would say for most it averages an hour a week, for some there might be a midweek service or other activities. I would suggest going to a corporate church is like visiting your niece or nephew, have some fun but then you leave to go back to your normal life not really engaging in the intimate part of any ones life.

Parenting is not easy and doing life in a House church is not easy. You can’t hide and wearing a mask doesn’t work. People quickly see who you are and what you truly believe. Our culture and life experiences have shaped our personalities and our belief systems, sometimes for the best and sometimes not so much. We all have different ideas, theologies, gifts and struggles but when we decide to do life together we supernaturally become connected as sisters and brothers and commit our lives to Christ and each other. We love each other despite our differences.

Understanding our shortcomings and understanding that Christ still loves us despite those shortcomings allows us to show the same grace to others. As family we are committed to each other and we are committed to experiencing life together, not only one day a week but throughout the week. We bear fruit as we learn to love each other and pray for each other, allowing Christ to do the hard work of conforming us to His image.

Parents may be frustrated with their children at times but I would assume the joy and love they feel as their children grow and mature far outweighs any frustration. I pray the Lord finds joy as He sees us loving and caring intimately with our brothers and sisters.

My friend Derek, who makes amazing salads, has well developed biceps. Probably not as bulging as the picture below but way above the average males definition. Our House Church group knows that he works out about 4-5 times a week. I’m sure if I went to the gym and worked out like he does I would have well defined muscles also. I choose not to.

Although I don’t look like this in the natural, I sometimes imagine myself looking like this in the spiritual. Have you ever imagined what you look like spiritually? Do you picture yourself as a mighty Warrior pulling down the strongholds of the dark one? If not, the question arises…how do we get there, how do we ‘work out’ spiritually?

Sometimes it’s easier if we all work out together, helping each other grow. 1 Corinthians 14:26 says…

 How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.

Edification or body building occurs when we all participate. Over the years, being a facilitator of House Church, this has been the greatest hurdle to overcome. Most people have been accustomed to going to a conventional church where there is no expectation of giving (except money).

There must be a paradigm shift in thinking. At first it is a struggle to engage and hear from the Lord. We are too busy or we just don’t know how to hear. It could be we don’t know what our gifts are or we don’t know how to minister our gifts in a small group setting. Ephesians 4:7-16 is another great passage…

⁷ But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ⁸ Therefore He says:

“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.”

⁹ (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

¹¹ And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

The last verse above is so important, especially where it says “…every part does its share…”. The mystery is that as we all share we all get built up! As a group we must be committed to going to this gym and putting in the work! It’s difficult at first but it does get easier over time.

My friend Vince and I stopped to search for some fire agates around Safford, Arizona. I found a bunch of small pretty rocks that just lent themselves to being polished. I always wanted a rock tumbler and this was a great excuse to purchase one.

When it arrived the instruction booklet said this…”Oceans and rivers take hundreds or thousands of years to polish stones. The Advanced Rock Tumbler will help you get faster results than nature, but you’ll still need to tumble your rough gemstones for about a month for maximum polishing results. Be patient!”

The process is very simple, add your rocks, add water to cover the rocks, insert the grit and start rolling. You have to continue the process four times using finer and finer grit. The biggest complaint about a rock tumbler is the noise it creates while rotating. You can hear the motor but it’s the sound of rock tumbling on rock that causes the most noise.

Paul’s writing in Ephesians 4:12-16, takes us through the process of a Christ follower’s growth that includes maturity, stability and integrity. The believer is expected to grow up, but it is apparent that many believers never seem to achieve this…they seem like rough gemstones out in nature getting slowly tossed by the waves of life.

The rock tumbler, or House church, is the perfect environment for getting polished up. In doing life together we are in close contact and we rub against each other. We use the water of The Word and the grit of life to help in the process. We all have heard Ephesians 4:15…

but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ –

We’ve also all heard truth spoken to us without love, and we can tell the difference.

Speaking the truth in love is key to spiritual growth. As we do life together we will inevitably see rough spots in the people we fellowship with. We can then gently speak into each other’s life, our mutual love and respect allowing us to consider the observations made. It’s in this process that the Lord helps us change becoming a beautifully polished gemstone!

I’ve always loved the exchange that Jesus had with his mother and his disciple John. It is recorded in John 19:26-27. A tender exchange right before Jesus proclaims, “It is finished!”

When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Women, behold your son!” Then He said the the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.

In this act Jesus fulfills a beautiful scripture recorded in Psalm 67:5-6.

A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families…

Throughout scripture Jesus would refer to God as Theos, Kyrios, Great King, Lord of Heaven and Earth, God of the Living, Most High, and Abba. However, I would suggest the most used, most common and most relatable term used by Jesus would be Father. It is worth the time to ponder why the creator and sustainer of all life would want to be known as a father and not by some grandiose cosmic name. What would you call yourself if you had that position?

The Bible says when we decide to follow Christ we become part of His family. We are adopted, God becomes our Father, Jesus becomes our big brother and we are introduced to a multitude of sisters and brothers. The early church ate and met together, shared everything so no one was in need and provided for the widows and orphans. No wonder the early church had such an impact on society.

If we think in context of family, the scriptures become a guide book on how to treat others, how to love each other, how to deal with conflict and how to do life together. We regard others more important than ourselves, we learn how to treat our spouses and we learn how to best reach others outside our family.

I believe doing life together with a spiritual family connects us to God and each other in a more significant way than what a conventional church can offer. Sitting down, sharing a meal, having conversations with one another and praying for each other seems like such a simple thing but it is in this environment that the Lord can speak to us, shape us and mold us to become more like Him.

1700 years is a long time. When you think about this length of time, it’s really hard to grasp. In comparison, our country is only 244 years old. It’s been roughly 1700 years since the Roman emperor Constantine in 312 supposedly converted to Christianity. It is reported that the night before a big battle Constantine prayed for success and either in a vision or a dream saw an image with the script “In Hoc Signo Vinces” (“In this sign, conquer”). Others reported he saw the first two letters of ‘Christ’ in Greek. Whatever he saw, he was victorious in battle and credited his victory to the Christian God.

After his victory, Christians/Christianity went from being persecuted to tolerated, then legalized, favored and even funded by the government. Emperor Constantine became the supreme patron of the church, the Head of the church. Christians went from meeting in homes under threat of persecution to gathering in former pagan temples in complete freedom.

To learn more about this transition you can download Biblical Church free.

I firmly believe that Satan tried to wipe out Christians for 300 years, killing and persecuting them, but to no avail. Eventually, Satan changed his tactics to infiltration, impregnation and then ultimately corruption of the faith. Spiritually for 1700 years Christians in the Western world have lived in bondage, not freedom, worshiping under a pagan ordained structure. Religion replaced relationship.

In Genesis 15:13 it says that Abram’s offspring would be afflicted for 400 years. According to scholars, the amount of time they were actually enslaved varies. Whether or not the actually enslavement was 350 or 400 years, it was still multi-generational. The generation that was set free by Moses was born and lived as slaves, as did their parents and grandparents. Although free in body, when trouble came, they wanted to return back to Egypt. We are all familiar with the journey to the promised land and the wandering in the desert.

It’s hard to reverse 1700 years of slavery. It doesn’t even feel like slavery anymore, it’s just the way it is. No need to question or even think there is a different way to do church. But bondage is bondage and religion will always bring bondage. It’s a hard statement, but I believe it to be true with all my heart. I know that I am free now, only because I am aware of how it feels to live in bondage. Spiritual freedom is liberating! Returning to relational worship, what I call house church or organic church, breaks the power over that religious spirit. I long for my brothers and sisters to be freed from religious bondage.