Have you ever wondered why we gather together as the church? The Bible gives us five prominent reasons:

First – We come to hear the Lord, to be touched and healed by Him.

Luke 6:17-19 - And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, 18 as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed. 19 And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.

Second – We come to worship Him.

Psalm 45:10-11 – Listen, O daughter, Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and your father’s house; 11 So the King will greatly desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord, worship Him.

Third – We come to be equipped for the work of the ministry.

Ephesians 4:11-13 – 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;

Fourth – We come to bring gifts for others so that the body may be built up.

1 Corinthians 14:26 - 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.

Fifth – We come together so that we can encourage one another by stirring up love and good works.

Hebrews 10:24-25 – And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Here are some suggestions of things to do to in preparation for gathering together:

1)      Ask God for a gift to give to another so that they can be built up in their faith and in their walk with the Lord.

2)      Pray that God will speak to you and that you will hear Him and be healed by Him.

3)      Ask God to prepare your heart so that you can worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

4)      Ask Him to equip you so that you may be prepared for the work of the ministry.

5)      Ask God to give you a word of encouragement so that you can stir up another to love and to good works.

We are truly blessed by the plan of God to be participants together in this new life that He has given us. And He hasn’t called us to walk it out alone, but has placed us in His body to share in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. He blesses us by that same Spirit for us to draw closer to Him and to each other every time we meet.

Lathan asked a really good question about a reference in the blog, “The Truth in Love.” He asked about my comment that Jesus’ exhortation to judge not, lest you be judged refers to “judging by our own standards” and asked for a further explanation of that conclusion.

First, let’s look at the Matthew 7 passage in its entirety.

Matthew 7:1-5 – “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other person’s eye.”

Some take Matthew 7:1 out of context to mean that if we somehow live our lives without judging that we will not ourselves be judged. However, scripture makes it plain that we will in fact all be judged. God judges our actions as well as the thoughts and intents of our hearts, and we will all one day stand before Him to be judged. No one will escape judgment.

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What is truth? Pilate asked this question of Jesus. “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. (John 18:37-38) Jesus here distinctly separates the world in two camps, those who are of the truth and those who are not. Those who are of the truth listen to Him and those who are not, don’t.

But what is truth? This is a very difficult definition to present succinctly. My favorite definition of truth is one of the last ones listed in the Webster’s dictionary. It reads, “Truth is that which has fidelity to an original.” In other words truth is that which bears accurate resemblance to and has agreement with an original or a standard. In terms of the created order there is one standard, one original. That standard is Jesus, through whom all things were made. The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. (Col 1:15-16)

Man, as a created being, can never define truth. We can only accept it as revealed to us by the Creator. Whenever we set our own standards for what is truth, we deny the revelation of the Creator and begin to worship and serve the things that we create. When assessing then what is true and what is not, we have one and only one standard, Jesus. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) So to determine what is true and what is false we must compare it to God’s standard, Jesus. If that which we are comparing adheres accurately to Him, then it is true.

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Question from Jackie: “I know that it was God’s plan from the beginning to use Jacob but it seems to me that Jacob was blessed as a result of him being deceptive. I know that God uses us in spite of ourselves (thank You Father!), but there didn’t seem to be even any repentance from Jacob. Can you help me understand this?”

It’s hard to read the story of Jacob and Esau without questioning whether it was fair for Jacob to receive his father’s blessing considering the way that he went about getting it. Why would God bless a blatant deceiver? Why would God choose such a person to fulfill so important a role?

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Genesis is basically a book of biographies. It gives us the story of the lives of six men: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. God, of course, is the ultimate protagonist behind Genesis and the entire Biblical narrative. But the fact that the Bible begins by telling us the life stories of people in relationship with God gives us instant insight into the heart of the Father. God loves people! He created us so that we could enjoy fellowship with Him and so that He could enjoy fellowship with us. In fact fellowship is God’s ultimate purpose in creating. Think on that – the Creator of the universe made all this so that we could enjoy each other’s company.

We may think that the fall destroyed mankind’s relationship with God and banished mankind from God’s presence. But God’s purpose would not be thwarted by our failure. Even after the fall, outside of the garden, God was still present with and related to man. (See Genesis 4:13-16) There would be no story if that were not the case. Our God loves people! He loves to speak with us. He loves to relate to us. As we read Genesis watch how he relates. He’s always the proactive one, always the initiator. That’s how love is. It never lets others’ faults or failures inhibit its purpose. And our God is love!

We know that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law (Mt 5:17). He fulfilled its requirements, and having done so He replaced it as the authority for God’s people on the earth. The law was a partial revelation of God’s heart given to guide His people until the full revelation embodied in His Son came. Now we, as new covenant people, look to Him, for He is the author and finisher of our salvation.

So how then do we consider the law when reading the old covenant? First we view it in its historical context in relation to Israel. It was given to them for their benefit and to prepare them for and point them to Jesus. When reading about the law in the poetry literature such as the psalms, I find it inspirational to replace references to the law with the name of the one who fulfilled it. For instance in today’s reading, Psalm 1, consider this:

Psalm 1:1-3 - Blessed are those who do not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but who delight in (Jesus) and meditate on (Jesus) day and night. 3 They are like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.

Why meditate on the partial revelation when we can focus on and delight in the fulfillment?

Hey Everyone,

This Sunday, January 2, Jody and Katherine will be sharing briefly about how valuable it’s been to read the whole Bible through the last several years. We are exhorted as the people of Jesus to be of one mind. So there is certainly merit to us “being on the same page” in our scripture readings. We’ve made reading plans available in the past. This year though, we’d like to take it a step further. Below we’ve attached a plan for reading through the Bible in 2011. There will also be reading plans printed out for pick up in the church. During the course of the year we will be blogging information, insight, and tips for understanding in keeping with the reading plan. Hopefully the information will be helpful and make the reading more enjoyable. We’d also like to encourage questions and discussions via Facebook on the current readings. Maybe someone will even be able to explain the Melchizedek priesthood!

We believe that 2011 is going to be a great year. Let’s enter it with both the desire and the commitment to be of one heart and one mind.

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.” (Phil 2:1-2)

Download the reading plan:
DaySpring Fellowship – 2011 Bible Reading Plan

It was sometime in early summer, I think, when Trisha and I had a conversation about small groups. We agreed that DaySpring folks needed a way to stay connected during the week and to get to know one another as a family. The only problem is it couldn’t be like what we had suffered before – the open-ended, social minefield of a closed group. Just the thought of that made us sigh with exhaustion. It turns out Grae had been thinking about it as well, and he had a plan.

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I just thought I’d mention what has been swimming in my head since Grae’s message this past Sunday.  Grae was talking about inheritance, and in my heart I had this flutter. You know the feeling. It’s one of those times when what is being said connects with your spirit and you know it’s for you right now. It’s something that all you have to do is agree with it and it plants deep and even feels like it takes a root system immediately. Anyways…I digress. My point is, Grae mentioned our inheritance and how we live with that knowledge. He talked about how Henry Ford’s children must live or have lived with the knowledge of the current provision and their future inheritance.

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Suzy and Paulette

I’m excited to tell you guys about an event we’re having on September 25th! Suzy Yaraei and her friend and co-writer Paulette Wooten will be here to instruct and encourage in the areas of songwriting, vocal techniques, and flowing in the Spirit.

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