Tag Archives: assembly

December 16, 2022 · 2:08 pm

Worship defined

This word has a plethora of misunderstandings.

I believe it needs to have more discussion within the assembly of believers.

There are some discrepancies in the the usage of the action. What are the issues of it are, I believe are the use of tradition and stealing of usage from the gentile gods. We will start with the ‘tradition’ issue first.

All throughout the old testament, the ‘worship’ was thought of as ‘where God was’, This concept was instituted only because of mankind’s banishment of the Garden of Eden where the heavenly reign of God was with man, walking and talking together. It was to be a ever expanding realm of God thru the multiplying of mankind. It was then that things changed to be one of a ‘pinpoint’ of a location for man to start again from a central location with God there also. This was the Temple. God was there. It also was the location where God’s chosen people to begin again to become the ‘image’ of God and to then ‘multiply’ to the whole world. It was a plan of re-commitment from God’s people to be who they were meant to be.

This ‘place’ where God was, was also the place of ‘sacrificing’ for the being of God’s people. It was a daily chore, a seasonal chore, and a yearly chore for being with God to ‘right the ship’ sorta way. This was an full blown production of the people’s lives with living for the sacrificing of an individual’s livestock,produce and time. It was also an investment for the people as a whole to sacrifice to the ‘temple’ as a nation of Israel. This ceremonial process was a never ending ritual. It was always to be giving God the first of everything that the person,family, or nation had, whether it be livestock,produce or themselves, to institute the meaning of God’s desire for himself to be first in their minds.

Another form of ‘Worshiping’ was by the pagan worshipers of the plethora of gods that they had in other nations. These rituals were similar to the forms of some sects of the jewish people. It was this that God chastised them for the ways of the world for being wrong.

It is then that the ‘Christianity’ movement was instituted at Pentecost and the formulation of ‘laws’,beliefs, everything to this ‘new’ religion was being made on the fly to keep it going. With the beginning of this movement coming from the perspective of the jewish religion, it was as a way to keep things rolling, would use those things of the jewish rituals. There was some alterations on what laws to keep from the Jewish sect tho. What is perceived as a would be normal transition to use the same things of the Jewish ‘worship’ of going to the temple, after all, that’s where ‘God’ was for the Jews, right. But I will take the hint from the scriptures, that this was not an option for the most part. It is said that ‘they’ christians would ‘meet’ in one another’s homes for the partaking of food and fellowship. This also was at times a struggle in the meeting at all with still the beginning of persecution of the ‘Jews’ and also from the Romans. It would eventually be able to use as a meeting place at ‘halls’ of publicly held meetings, thru the instituting of ‘christianity’ as an ‘association’.

The quote ‘practice of Worship’ was to be redefined by the ‘new sect’ of religion by it’s not ‘going to where God was’ to something else. This is where it gets tricky and messy, there are various convictions or beliefs that surrounded different camps of the newly formed people. First, there was different understandings of this subject, but the two main ones were from Paul and Peter. Let me just say that the one that we are using today is from Peter. The Hierarchical institutional one, with either a layered institution of Priests and the proclaimed ‘Universal’ church, with the much smaller hierarchy of just one leader with followers under him or her.

Let me quote scripture here to throw into the mix to see if maybe we are not seeing things right.

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

The Revised Standard Version (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1971), Ac 2:1–4.

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day; 16 but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days
I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

The Revised Standard Version (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1971), Ac 2:14–18.

As I read this I notice that there is a ‘hand off’ of authority from Jesus to the ‘Holy Spirit’. What I don’t see is the need for any other form of leadership or institution made by man. There was one such group in this time frame that was doing such as this, being led by the Holy Spirit in their individual lives and their life as a group. This in my opinion is the misstep that christianity has taken, in furthering God’s calling of his people.

It is the following of the ‘institutional’ paradigm that has gotten us into alot of trouble in both of the beliefs. I believe that Paul was not as direct in saying a ‘meeting place’ was necessary for the continuance of the faith. It was the understanding that Jesus’s Spirit would be the guiding light of his people. God’s people would be of a ‘New Being’ that would not be left alone in the world to fight the evil, but the Holy Spirit was a ‘light upon our feet’.

This action would be our ‘Worship’ of being in Christ, and Christ in Us. This is the ‘action’ of ‘Worshiping’ our God.

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December 15, 2022 · 12:03 pm

Digging deeper always pays off

The Bible is a plethora of information.

Starting with a bible study of a topic of interest of yours can lead to some interesting new and unannounced findings but with welcoming arms. I seem to do this quite alot with my endeavors of bible searching. I have multiple unanswered questions in my mind, and it is a treat to come across the answer on a daily searching for truth.

I have had such an experience lately on searching the “Origins of Christianity”. I will do a small plug for a recent book that I read, that covers this topic. It is “Christian origins” by Christopher Rowland this book covered a very detail of a plethora of things leading up to the ‘Christian’ tag being used in the bible. It was when the ‘leaders’ of the said group pronounced that the ‘assembly’ should be ‘organized’ and dispel any ‘non-truth’ in the Christian faith.

It was then that the writer pointed out there were ‘various’ views on how to do this. (Let me also point out that this was a pivotal moment in the faith, on how it was to proceed) This is where one of my questions comes into view. I have always wondered how and why the separation of Paul and Peter began. I know the one area where in Galatians that Paul and Peter had a confrontation of the gospel. Paul’s ministry was based on the uniting of the Jews and the gentiles as one, in so doing it imperative that it begin with the sitting down together to commune with each other in food. It was when friends of Peter(Jews) from Jerusalem came into their midst and Peter abruptly go up from the table with the gentiles to not be seen with them.

Paul seeing this, told Peter that he was not of the new gospel identity. It was then that there was seen a separation of ‘thinking’ between the two. Most people read over this exchange of different views as a small thing. But I have always seen this as a ‘kink’ in Peter and the true gospel. I have since then found another kink in Peter and his thought process.

It was a little latter in the ministry of both men that their were hints of unification of thoughts and faith of all things ‘christian’ that needed to be said or wrote down for all to see or hear. There were various groups(assemblies) that had differing views on everything concerned. Now, if we could just stop and understand what I just explained what these groups wanted to do. They wanted to ‘cement’ the ‘ideal’ Christianity so that it will not be confusing, different in speech and word.

Now fast forward to the ‘church'(assembly)’called out ones’ of today. This is the ‘mess’ we are in today in christianity. We have to have this belief, this inclusion, that exclusion, added to the faith statement of our separate groups. Is this good or bad?

I know we read in the new testament of Jesus and Paul both instruct believers to hold close the ‘gospel’ that they had preached and to not swerve off the road to other understandings. But also Jesus tells us to ‘check’ all things according to the spirit of the Lord to keep us on the straight and given road.

Let me put a wrinkle in your seeing things, in my reading of the ‘christian origins’ book I came across some annotated pieces of information that caught my eye, It was one of the groups in the midst of the ‘assemblies’ that were brought together to come into agreement of the ‘faith statement’ for ‘christians’. It was one group from ‘Thyatira’ ,the assembly of believers whose belief that it was the ‘Understanding, or belief’ that the ‘Holy Spirit’ had come for this very reason, to guide and direct the believers. WOW!

I have often stated the numbers of denominations in the U.S. to many people in our discussions of christianity to point out the disunity of it all. But maybe I wasn’t, or we haven’t understood this plethora of belief’s in the U.S.’s christianity issue. Two things, you don’t see this in any other country. Second, Can we not see or hear the problem of when and where we went wrong? The people of Thyatira were on to something when they said that it was to be the leadership of the “Holy Spirit” that is to be our compass in this world, and not our organizations and buildings of mass confusion.

Just a side note, one of my ‘little’ nuances that I have always said to myself, is that ‘Everything in the scriptures was portrayed as the ‘right’ way to do things, the old testament stories were full of things like this. The New Testament I believe that everyone assumes that ‘everything’ was done right in God’s eyes, I don’t think it was, IMO. We are not in the right, if we are not lead by the Holy Spirit!!

Last side note, If the Thyatira group sounds familiar to you, it probably is, but you don’t know from where? It, ironically, is one of the Seven Churches of Revelation! In Thyatira’s chastisement’s from John thru God was their involvement of other idols of the land, it was not of their belief in the Holy Spirit’s Leadership!

Let’s let the Holy Spirit lead us all, and to all Let the King of Kings be our King!!

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November 18, 2022 · 3:40 pm

Tread lightly, my son…

I am a ‘abyie-normal'(reference to a statement in ‘Young Frankenstein’ kind of person. I am always swimming upstream in alot of arena’s. Religion is one of them. I will go up against the norm to challenge it to let it stand up to ‘not persecution’ but to ‘pillars of truth’.

I find it funny and at the same time, sad, that it would come to this but it always what happens when something ‘different’ or ‘new’ to someone when it is challenged to someone’s theology or institution.The ‘log’ that impedes our eyesight is that we not ‘see’ but that we haven’t ‘seen’, because we have been “soundbit’n” for over 500+ years thru the channels of the ‘church’.

Let me expound on this, a Pastor is person that is trying to speak to one small snippet of scripture of a theme,human righteousness, a story, or even a exegesis of a few verses. This paradigm is flawed. It is not using a Corporate Narrative to the Word of God. It(church) cannot ever work this way. The ‘Message’ or ‘Narrative’ cannot be told in a million soundbites over countless Sundays.

I am not sure if it possible to do this with any “Message” to the whole world at a level of this enormous level at a time. But what I do believe that as ‘hearers’ of the Word, or the ‘readers’ of the Word, that we(all) can finally ‘see’ the narrative of God’s story. I believe by starting from the beginning of the story and methodically seeing what God is moving the story along to get to his final scene, that Rest will come to Him.

It is the sincerity of the believers that will bring this mission of uniting all of us to the true Gospel to the World. Reading God’s word with the intent of ‘seeing’ Genesis 1-2 as God’s defining moment of His Kingdom. Realizing that God’s plan for all to be indwelt in the Holy Spirit as is His Son, thus given the title “Sons of God” a reality for all.

My skepticism of the current model is with alot of evidence to this reality of the ‘church'(assembly), one aspect of this would be the fact that the ‘disciples’ have no knowledge of the scriptures after 40+ yrs in the building that was supposed to do this exact thing, learn the word! There seems to be no rhyme or reason of the ‘teaching’ of the word, skipping from here to there in the bible, without any obvious relation to each other. Not realizing that the ‘sole’ issue of the bible starts at the beginning of the narrative, Genesis 1-2, has just been a blind spot from the very beginning of the reformation to now. Although, there seems to be some light shining from this corner, that is gaining some steam to see that this is where the story begins and that it is the Catalyst for the rest of the narrative til the final two chapters in the bible.

It is because we have been down the wrong road from the ‘Y’ intersection that we have missed the wrong message of christianity. It wasn’t about ‘trying’ to get to ‘Heaven’, but it was about having a ‘people’ holy enough to have ‘Heaven’ be on earth as the ‘New Creation’ or the New Kingdom of God.

This concept is now being realized in many of the roads outside the corner church’s, and even in some, it is realized inside the church’s. This is the beginning of what I believe to be the light that will have to be seen not only to the christians inside the building, but also outside in the road’s and highways of the world.

What has really surprised me in all this transfiguration of events is that it was not ‘seen’ sooner. When I have read the bible thru my own studies, I, one, have had problems ‘seeing’ the message that I always was given on sunday morning, there was no evidence of it to be seen. Secondly, I was seeing in plain site the real eternal purpose of God in front of me in the scriptures. Which leads me to another interesting observance of God.

Thru my studying and my involvement with other bible enthusiasts, I have had many ‘words’ used to describe things in the bible. One, being ‘hardened’, which was used in another topical discussion. But it got to me in thinking about it and the usage in the bible, especially in the Old Testament, it was used quite frequently for different times that God was having to deal with individual people or an entity of a group. I believe that God ‘hardened’ Israel to not ‘see’ their Messiah(Jesus) during a prolonged time until it was to be a ‘eye opening’ moment for the Whole World to observe in an Act of God to Showcase His Son, the Savior of the World!!

It is at this time, that the World will come to Him(thru Israel) the servant King to unite all(Israel,Gentile) to come and bow down to the God of All!!

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June 5, 2021 · 10:15 am

Grass Roots

This term has been used in another field of study, but We won’t go there today.

My sense of a way of life in the new testament for the new christians of the world, were always very small in size and very unique in their living. They began by either ‘seeing’ Jesus and ‘knowing’ that He was the ‘Messiah’ that was promised by the Jews and their religion. This was known by the Jews but also by the gentiles that were coming to the tabernacle square to hear the latest word from the religious leaders and of the issues of the Roman Kingdom.

The individuals coming to the square for the news were either from the city or from the outside of the city because of the business of the person to come to Jerusalem for the day. The individuals coming from within the city walls were being curious of this Man who was claiming to be the ‘Messiah’, Son of God. It was a curiosity at first, but later it was intriguing thought to be a more thought out fact. This curiosity was then bantered about with friends who have also heard this claim to ‘Messiahship’. It is this encounter with this claim by ‘Jesus’, that sparked the discussion between friends of acquaintance or from your neighbor, or from the tabernacle square discussions that have led you to the small group of disciples.

The individuals that were coming from outside the city of Jerusalem, businessman or just travelers going thru the city on their way to somewhere else. Their stopovers would always lead them to where the latest scoop of religious and city news and notes would be discussed for the good and the bad. It is then that the traveler would hear about the news about the man that they were calling the ‘Son of God’,doing miracles of healing and of raising from the dead, and being a teacher wiser that all the teachers that they knew. This was the beginning of ‘gossip’ or things that we have heard that we must tell someone else, so that they might be also interested too. This was the beginning of another pocket of discussion back at the traveler’s home town to his friends,family and to the religious leaders of that town. It would soon become to be known as an assembly of the discussion of ‘Son of Man’.

Now if you can imagine this scenario played over and over again, with people coming and going inside and outside the city, discussing the matter of ‘Messiah’, and asking yourself if Jesus was this one, t,hat it created alot of discussion in and around the temple of the Jews, which was a threat to their authority, but also the new claim that God had sent his Son to save them from all of humanity. From the gentile perspective, this was a very confusing time with their philosophy of having a plethora of gods to take care of your needs, covering them all individually in your life, but now to be told that there was a God that was a God of all, was to much to handle.

It is these little pockets of believers that were dotting the landscape of the roman world that was changing the romans but also the Jewish leaders of Israel. They were different. They were believers in this ‘man of God’ that was going to free them from the slavery of roman hierarchy of rule and also the rule of law of the priests and of their institution.

It is this ‘Grass roots’ formation that will keep the belief alive in the coming Kingdom. It will not be the formation of the ‘Jewish’ separation of authority of ‘knowing’ God but the oneness of all, the kingdom of Priests. It will not be formation of a kingdom of mankind to rule over us as to whatever he chooses to be for us, for this too is slavery.

God will reward us for diligence of becoming that light on the hill that shines Christ to all that are around our little hill! That little hill combined with all those other ‘little’ hills will eventually be the brightest light for God! Which is exactly what He said would happen.

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October 25, 2019 · 6:55 pm

It’s right there!

 Mat 12:6“But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here.

Unchecked Copy Box

 Mat 12:7“But if you had known what this [fn]means, ‘I DESIRE [fn]COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

I sometimes feel that as christians we either are oblivious to the things that scriptures say or we just don’t see it fit in the theology of what we believe so we don’t use it.

Matthew 12. 6 mainly is telling us in a rather bold way that God is not going to live in a ‘temple’ built by man in any shape or form. David, Solomon both were the designer and builder of the last ‘Temple'(where God’s presence was, where sacrifice’s to God were to be given), something bigger and grander than man could ever dream of!

This is just a tidbit of a much larger picture that God was painting in his world, It was going to be even all encompassing that the original one. The larger picture could be as one has said that it began when a baby was born by a miracle. But this is another story for a later time.

What needs to ‘seen and heard’ is meaning and storyline that was being played out right in front of the jewish nation of Israel.

Mat 12:8“For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus had become the King of all, for He had been placed in authority of his ‘Creation’ again. With the following verses Jesus goes into the synagogue and does miracle’s and healings to show that His power is greater than the ‘sabbath’ that they knew was now lesser than Jesus. God’s power was now ‘in’ the world with Jesus and his believers growing day by day.

With this knowledge of God’s new and different way of being ‘with’ and ‘in'(now) this was greater than before with the Temple or the synagogue, this is now the new norm. The ‘assembly’ was not to be a continuance of their living in a building for just on a given day but a ‘life’ of eternal living with God.

One of the misnomer’s that have been tagged in this previous thought was that it was to be a way of the ‘believers’ to be united in ‘their’ fellowship of being the godly ones, but this has neither worked for the past 600 years, let alone has not being backed by sound exegesis of this format. It is not that we are supposed to have fellowship with our fellow believers, but to ‘again’ to have fellowship with God! We will have that fellowship with our other believers with our fellowship with God!!

Just think if we were to do this today and going forward, this would be our ultimate Heaven on earth! Oh, Wait, that’s what God wants, the Garden of Eden story!

Why is this understanding not used? The only answer that I can ascertain is that God does not want it to start yet, for I believe that is when we will see and hear great things in the world of God’s kingdom coming to fruition in God’s time. I will have to admit that I believe that it has started in some degree in various ways in the US, and other places around the world. It is as the scriptures say, it will not be something that will be a ‘sign’ but will be the spirit hovering over the ‘sea’ as in the beginning of earth.

Our re-looking at the scriptures will lead us to some new and amazing insights of God’s ways if we will only ‘see and hear’ them as we read the bible. Read it again- Genesis thru Revelation.

Ask yourself, What was God’s intention in the beginning, it went wrong, man was king, but God will reign again, how was he going to do it?

God is all in all!!

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