Where Did the Family Go?

Today, there are so many families that are broken up. Sometimes it is over political views. Sometimes it is over parenting styles. Sadly, sometimes it is even over spiritual matters. Often people head off for higher education and come back a different people. The different person may have walked away from their faith. They may have adopted a different world view that changes their spiritual outlook as well. We hear, and I often believe, the closest family is not a blood relative, but a brother or sister in Christ. Let us look at the early church. In Acts 2:46-47 we read. "And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved." Notice, gathering for worship wasn’t just one hour a week. It wasn’t even going to a midweek Bible study. They gathered daily around the word of God. They gathered together in homes, eating and praising God. They found favor with God, not because of their lineage or their status, but because they humbled themselves before the Lord in all that they did. What was the result? The Lord added to their number daily. I love our church, and it really does feel like a wonderful family, but we spend too little time together, especially around God’s word. I love our Tuesday study. It has become a family. That isn’t a way of saying we don’t want anyone else to join. I know someone who was separated from his family at a young age. About 60+ years later, they find each other. It wasn’t a burden for the family to grow. As a matter of fact, family has become of greater importance, I think. That’s what I want to see. They don’t even have to be members of our church. God tells us that where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there in their midst. He doesn’t specify Jew or Gentile. He specifies gathering in His name. We say we want to grow in numbers but are we ready? How can we spend more time together and in the word of God? Our worship should not be about an hour on one day but gathering together before God often. If there is an interest, I’d love to meet with others around God’s word. Lord, give us desire, not just to read the word on our own and pray on our own, but to also hunger for Christian fellowship daily. Amen