There is nothing quite like a good church family.\u00a0 I took my family to church tonight like we usually do.\u00a0 We have a Wednesday night prayer meeting, where everybody shares the things that have been going on in their lives, and we pray for the people in our church and families and loved ones and our neighbors and coworkers and government leaders and whoever else God might lay on our hearts.\u00a0 And pretty much every time, there is a group praying at church, somebody mentions me (and my family too).\u00a0 It happens on Wednesday’s and Sundays and other days that we happen to get together.\u00a0 And it just reminds me that I am so blessed to have a church family that cares about me and prays for me.\u00a0 Of course it’s not about me, because they pray for everybody else in the church too.\u00a0 They pray for people who might be sick or having family issues or looking for a job or any other need.\u00a0 And they pray for people who are sharing their faith and reaching out to the world with the Gospel.\u00a0 They give thanks to God for everything he does in our lives.\u00a0 They show so much care for one another through their fellowship and their prayer and helping one another and taking care of each other.\u00a0 And it’s just so good.<\/p>\n
Of course that’s what church is all about.\u00a0 It’s not about a preacher or a Sunday morning program or a youth ministry or a building or any of the things we so often define our churches by these days.\u00a0 The Bible describes the church as a living body, made of many different parts.\u00a0 And we come together through the direction and power of Jesus, and we support and encourage one another in our mission to make disciples.\u00a0 We spur one another on to good works.\u00a0 And we counsel and lend aid and take care of one an other.\u00a0 That’s what biblical church is.<\/p>\n
I’ve heard so many people say that you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.\u00a0 And technically that’s true.\u00a0 Repenting of sin and choosing to trust and obey Jesus is a personal choice that only you can make for yourself.\u00a0 But living as a Christian apart from the church is like a part of the body living apart from the body.\u00a0 If you could get a hand or a foot or an eyeball or an ear to survive apart from the body, that would be an impressive medical feat.\u00a0 But what would be the point of a hand or foot or eyeball or ear without the rest of the body?\u00a0 We were meant to come together and work as one to make the world a better place.\u00a0 So the people who think that church is just a thing you do once or twice a week, totally miss the point.\u00a0 We aren’t meant to only GO to church.\u00a0 We are meant to BE the church!\u00a0 And any Christian who doesn’t know that and live that, is missing out on a lot.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I was just feeling thankful because of my church family and felt like sharing.\u00a0 Of course the real thanks goes to God.\u00a0 He’s the one that has helped to transform the lives of people who are a living part of our church body.\u00a0 He’s the one who helped every one of us become a part of him and be filled with his spirit to work and pray and live as a real church family.\u00a0 And I am so grateful to God and to my brothers and sisters of the\u00a0 church for the prayers and support and encouragement that they continue to give me and my family.\u00a0 And I pray that you know that kind of love and connection too.<\/p>\n
If you’re missing that–if you’re a Christian “orphan”–you definitely need to get connected to a godly church where you can experience this blessing.\u00a0 And if you can’t find one, let me know…you can come be a part of my church family. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is nothing quite like a good church family.\u00a0 I took my family to church tonight like we usually do.\u00a0 We have a Wednesday night prayer meeting, where everybody shares the things that have been going on in their lives, and we pray for the people in our church and families and loved ones and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[29,12,142],"class_list":["post-2011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-day-in-the-life","tag-body-of-christ","tag-church","tag-prayer"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2011"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2013,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011\/revisions\/2013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}