Gate City Family Worship Center Study Room:

Planted!

Remember The Sabbath Day to keep it Holy – Exodus 20:8

Being Planted in the House of the Lord brings great benefits and joy of heart. Most people today would rather miss out on fellowship due to obvious excuses. You can be a born again, Sprit-filled Christian and not attend church regularly. Going to the house of the Lord does not make you saved any more than going to a shuttle launch make you an astronaut, but as born again Saints we should long to be around believers.

It is selfish for any believer to live only for themselves and not consider others. You don’t have to attend church to be saved although saved people attend church. If we are too busy to attend church then we are too busy. Going to church is important to the Lord, so we must make it important. Most times we experience our breakthroughs and change of hearts, not to mention prophetic words for our lives while attending church services on a regular basis.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, and let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching. - Heb 10:24, 25

We need to understand that by ourselves we are a member of the body of Christ, but when we come together we become the church. The Apostle Paul tells us not to forsake the assembling together. The word assembly literally means “a complete collection”. You can make all the excuses in the world not to come to church; the enemy will supply you with a few also. The Greek word that is translated “assembling” is episunagoge. It is where we get our word synagogue; the gathering place of the people of God. It was on the Sabbath day in the synagogue that Jesus took the book of Isaiah and read. Jesus was a faithful attendee; He did not sporadically go to the synagogue.

So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up and read – Luke 4:16

There may be at times that church does not fit your spiritual taste. However, if Jesus could go to church and tolerate the teachers of the law and their powerless preaching, you can certainly overlook some weaknesses of the church in which He wants to plant you. Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered. I am sure there were times He was suffering on the inside hearing some of the teachers of the law. You have to remember, He was the Word. He had to listen to religious teaching that was infused with the traditions of men. I am sure He had to “bite His tongue” at times. Jesus held His peace until it was His time. He kept silent until the Father released Him into His ministry. He honored the authority that was in the synagogue until it was time for His authority to be revealed. Even though Jesus did not agree with everything the religious leaders were doing and saying, He was still there. I am sure He learned also what not to do; even Apostle Paul attended church regularly.

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures – Acts 17:1, 2.

The people of the day received their healings, deliverance, and breakthroughs when they were attending services. Many Christians prefer to sit at home to receive their word forgetting that their relationship and companionship is sorely being missed by other believers who can receive a comforting word from you. We sometimes forget that we have more to offer than we allow. Father God loves to have us in His home whenever we get a chance, just as we enjoy having guest come to our homes. Many Christians will attend their jobs on a daily basis even if they do not feel like it, all the while when Sunday rolls around there is a feeling of resentment. God desires to see our wonderful smiling faces in the mist of His body. Today we must desire earnestly to be in the house of praise, joy, healing, etc. Love will help extend your arms of joy to others, our children if brought up in the house of the Lord will begin to build a refuge in the Lords home and for His presence as long as we as people enjoy and show to them that the House of the Lord is beautifully filled with promise and a new life of excitement. May God prosper you in all that you do and open your eyes to the beauty of his creation that we find in each other.

God Bless and See you Sunday!!!
Jerrell K. Smith