Author	Thread: Christians who avoid public worship/church services
agapephileros View Profile History	Christians who avoid public worship/church services Posted : 17 Jan, 2011 01:46 PM I still cannot fathom why some Christians insist that believers in Christ DO NOT HAVE TO attend church services or "enter a building" to worship. In his or her mind, it is more than sufficient to satisfy this spiritual need inside the privacy of the home. Is this the result of the so-called "Christians" who fail to read the Bible daily or do daily devotionals? Just wondering. Hebrews 10 (New International Version, �2010) Christ�s Sacrifice Once for All 1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming�not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: �Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, �Here I am�it is written about me in the scroll� I have come to do your will, my God.�� 8 First he said, �Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them��though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, �Here I am, I have come to do your will.� He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 16 �This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.� 17 Then he adds: �Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.� 18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary. A Call to Persevere in Faith 19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another�and all the more as you see the Day approaching. 26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, �It is mine to avenge; I will repay,� and again, �The Lord will judge his people.� 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34 You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For, �In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.� 38 And, �But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.� 39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved. Footnotes: Hebrews 10:7 Psalm 40:6-8 (see Septuagint) Hebrews 10:16 Jer. 31:33 Hebrews 10:17 Jer. 31:34 Hebrews 10:30 Deut. 32:35 Hebrews 10:30 Deut. 32:36; Psalm 135:14 Hebrews 10:37 Isaiah 26:20; Hab. 2:3 Hebrews 10:38 Some early manuscripts But the righteous Hebrews 10:38 Hab. 2:4 (see Septuagint) Post Reply
View Profile History	Christians who avoid public worship/church services Posted : 17 Jan, 2011 02:05 PM Topic shared: "I still cannot fathom why some Christians insist that believers in Christ DO NOT HAVE TO attend church services or "enter a building" to worship." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With all due respect, in my humble opinion : Christians "DO NOT HAVE TO"........... They JUST WILL. Post Reply
View Profile History	Christians who avoid public worship/church services Posted : 17 Jan, 2011 02:57 PM I can' t agree with that one two, assuming one love's the lord. Post Reply
View Profile History	Christians who avoid public worship/church services Posted : 17 Jan, 2011 03:10 PM PJ, I did not mean that how you took it. To explain: Christianity is not a religion of 'HAVE TO'S' Christianity is relationship out of which we act out of Love for God and man Post Reply
View Profile History	Christians who avoid public worship/church services Posted : 17 Jan, 2011 03:56 PM question are they really a christian if they do not go to church? This is a question only the indiviual has to answer. Post Reply
View Profile History	Christians who avoid public worship/church services Posted : 17 Jan, 2011 04:08 PM That is my heart about it but it is just as common on this site for some to dilute or refute that truth, and I believe it is very important to be clear on that truth, we have one I am think of that actually the true position of the church and pastor's, and many went right along with it. Thank you sir for clarifying that. Post Reply
View Profile History	Christians who avoid public worship/church services Posted : 17 Jan, 2011 04:52 PM I have known many people who profess to be Christians and for several months at a time do not attend church. Fishing season, boating season, hunting season, skiing season, football season, baseball season..... you name it. Most of the time (in my experience) it is fishing, hunting, or boating. Yet these folks attend and participate in church at other times of the year. I never understood it myself. If you don't make your living from fishing or boating or hunting..... then in my opinion for you to forsake church for those things, even for a short time, is putting an idol in your life to replace your relationship with God. I don't mean those who will sometimes not attend church to do any of those things listed above. I am talking about people who go months at a time partiipating in those things and not attending. Post Reply
View Profile History	Christians who avoid public worship/church services Posted : 17 Jan, 2011 05:38 PM Godslamb, Just to share my view: God is omnipresent....enough said on that. "Do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together" is the most used verse for the "weekend church experience". What about brothers and sisters in Christ going camping or......? When I spend time with Christians else where on a weekend we often pray, share the word or at the very least we talk of God. If I spend my time with non-believers on a weekend, I bring "church" to them! Post Reply
marikashome View Profile History	Christians who avoid public worship/church services Posted : 17 Jan, 2011 06:28 PM First, I enjoy church and go regularly. However, there is no regulation in the Bible for how often Christians need to meet in formal church gatherings. Sometimes a Christian may need a break--even Jesus went up into a mountain alone to pray, after all. Church can become just another busy-ness in our lives if we go mechanically because that's what Christians do. Post Reply
View Profile History	Christians who avoid public worship/church services Posted : 17 Jan, 2011 06:45 PM I don't believe Jesus was confused about, it was his plan that his children be under a shepherd or Pastor and more in ministry gifts. Post Reply
View Profile History	Christians who avoid public worship/church services Posted : 17 Jan, 2011 08:36 PM Where two or three are gathered, He is in the midst and that is "church." Western Christianity is too hooked on the "building" when it is really the "assembling." The book of Acts shows how the early church met, they assembled at each others houses or gathering places and God moved mightily. Post Reply

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