Daily devotion – Christ’s Church
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
When the local Church gathers together, the opportunity to encourage each other to a life of worship is made possible. To daily present ourselves as burnt offerings to be consumed in God’s service.
When the writer of Hebrews gave His charge to Christians to join for corporate worship, he prefaced it by saying, Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
This is because the Church was on the eve of Caesar Nero’s brutal persecution of the followers of Christ. When holding on to hope would be crucial!
Then the write added, Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. How would the Church do this?
By not neglecting to meet together, as the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and the more as you see the Day approaching. Heb 10:25
The Bible contains no small thoughts about the local Church. Indeed, the Church is the only thing that the gates of hell shall not prevail against. Those who neglect the Church do so to their own soul’s detriment. In these last days there is a growing consumer, church hopping, church drive through approach , church ‘my way’ tendency and this will not end well for those seeking the broad way, the self-serving gathering where a pick and choose religion is carried out to suit one’s own selfish whims.
Today, we are to resist the consumerist, hitchhiking mentality of our day and instead commit ourselves to a local Churches expression of Christ’s body with the structure clearly defined in many of Paul’s epistles.
In addition, we are to give ourselves to building the body of Christ with our prayers, time, service, and stewardship.
Let us plan our lives and if married, our family’s live around the life of the Church instead of individual pursuits.
Love the Church in a way that pleases Christ, who loved it and gave Himself for it.
There is a refining of the Church occurring. It began in earnest during the Covid pandemic and it continues on to this day.
Peter warned us of this time when he wrote, 1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?