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In Acts 20 we read about Paul’s travel to Troas where he stayed seven days, apparently desiring to be present on a Sunday (first day of the week) so he could worship with the local church. In Acts 20:7, Luke writes that Paul and those with him (we) assembled with the church to observe the Lord’s Supper (break bread, plural). It appears the church gathered toward the end of the day or in the evening since the text says that Paul preached until midnight when the assembly was interrupted by a young man falling out a window. Paul ate (break bread, singular) and talked until daylight. It may be that he resumed preaching, but the change of verb suggests that he and the Christians at Troas simply spent time together in less conversation (although the verb is where we get our word ‘homily’).

Today as I assemble to worship with yet another part of God’s extended spiritual family, I am thinking of this text. I have traveled and arranged my schedule for the specific purpose of spending time with this church on this Sunday. An important part of the assembly will be the opportunity to surround the Table and remember together the death and resurrection of Jesus. I will preach and report on what God has been doing through the ministry of his servants during the past year (but not until midnight).
When I travel, I miss my spiritual family at home. But I never tire of getting to know more of my brothers and sisters in places I have never visited. I never tire of returning to renew relationships and worship with brothers and sisters I see infrequently in my mission travels. I enjoy the challenge and renewal of spending time with God’s family around the world. It’s Sunday again–God’s people around the world will come together around the Table to break bread.

During my time in full-time local church ministry, I remember some members who were hesitant to assemble with the church in other places when they were on vacation or traveling. I always encouraged them to find God’s family and enjoy the freshness of the experience. Sunday is about God–some still refer to it as the Lord’s Day. Sunday is about others–sharing and encouraging and edifying. That means that worship is both vertical and horizontal. Worship includes the mutuality of admonishing one another in song, praying together, communing together in the Supper, giving and receiving blessings, and sharing God’s Word as the body of Christ. It’s Sunday again–thank you Lord for the opportunity to be with my extended spiritual family around your Table.

God is active in this world in ways we do not understand and cannot explain. God’s ways are mysterious, often invisible except in retrospect. We can see where God has been, we can see evidence of his work, but the present activity is difficult to discern with certainty.
Faith is depending on the God who will do above and beyond, abundantly, all that we can ask or imagine. This is not only a statement of God’s power, it is an affirmation that God works in and through and around us–when we cannot understand, when we have prayed too small because of dwarfed expectations, when we have planned too meagerly because of lack of vision, and when we have expected too little because we humanly cannot see the way God will fulfill our hopes.
Some dislike the word miracle–reacting to abuses and false teaching in the religious world. A frequent use of the word miracle in everyday speech is to describe something beyond understanding. In this everyday use of the word, the God who is beyond our expectations and understandings will be constantly surprising us, impressing us, reminding us. Let us depend on him more fully, and in faith pray constantly for that which we cannot see nor even hope for.
God is working in our world, doing beyond our understanding. Let us worship him today in all of his glory and splendor, majesty and sovereignty. Let us not get hung up on how we will describe this supernatural working of God.
My beloved professor, Dr. Raymond Kelcy, was fond of saying: “God has not ceased working miracles, but he has taken the initiative out of the hands of men.” Today we will worship the God who is beyond us yet among us and within us!

In the midst of all that is written or spoken about the church, often overlooked is the truth that the church must be defined to a large extent by its practice of assembling. The Greek word which is translated church over 100 times in the New Testament is also translated assembly three times when the context is a secular assembly. Think with me!

Some have observed that, literally or etymologically, the word means “called out”; these have therefore focused on a change of identity or state–Christians are called out of the world into Christ. We must be careful lest we miss the collective nature of the noun. Plato uses the same word when he writes about the jury of the residents of Athens who will try Socrates. The jurors did not cease being what they were (residents of Athens), but rather because of that identity they were called apart and called together for a special task. Christians are called out of the world, yet are in the world. Christians are called out of individualism into shared existence. Note that the “called out” nature of a Christian cannot be applied singularly. I cannot become church by myself. Being a Christian is more than the truth that I am “called out”. Assembly is a collective noun. Church is a collective noun, and is thus something I am with others, something I cannot be without others.

The New Testament has many descriptions of the church, but those are not my subject today. If the meaning of the word church is assembly, then the church demonstrates and lives out its nature when it assembles. Because church is assembly, those who are part of the church assemble. Those who do not assemble are not part of the church (assembly). If I do not assemble with the church, I am not part of the assembly (church). We have made the church an organization and institution to such an extent that we have defined participation in the church by baptism or membership on a list or other things. But the truth is that the church’s nature is best seen when it assembles. I am church when I assemble. I am part of the church when the body is not assembled because of the fact that when the church does assemble I am present. (The challenges of our world and society, illness and work conflicts and “providential hindrances” I will leave for another day.)

Think! Assembly is collective. I cannot be church in isolation. I cannot assemble by myself. I certainly can never be an assembly by myself. I cannot be part of something (assembly, church) in which I never participate. If I am not present, I am not assembled and I am not a part of the assembly. The actions of the assembly are communicative. The church admonishes itself, sings to itself, prays collectively (not individually), hears the Word together, shares (a communicative verb), and fellowships (another communicative verb). The church is united (one), not only because of its mutual acceptance of truth, but because of its mutual, reciprocal speaking and edifying and sharing.

Those who seldom or never attend are not part of the church, regardless of whether they have officially jumped through some hoop in the past. In the practice of assembling, the church demonstrates its nature, and goes forth empowered by its renewing experience of the presence of Christ in this world (seen through others). It’s Sunday Again: as the church assembles, we will know with renewed confidence who we are and what is our nature, and we will go forth from assembly recommitted as disciples of Jesus our Lord.

Today I will assemble with the spiritual family on Baxter’s campus. Perhaps as many as 1000 Christians will gather to worship, representing different countries of Latin America and various states of the United States, and representing many different congregations. Gathering together in the amphitheater, now covered with a permanent roof, we will sing and pray, in the Supper we will remember Christ’s sacrifice and promise to return, and we will share Scripture. The first Culto Unido in the covered amphitheater will be a memorable occasion.

When Jacob pillowed his head and saw clearly that God was present in the place where he was, he called it Bethel, proclaiming it the house of God and gate of heaven (Genesis 28). God does not dwell in temples made with hands, and he does not dwell in a special way in the amphitheater or any other place designated for worship. But is it not true that the presence of God in our communion and worship ushers us to the very gate of heaven?

May you today in worship know the presence of God, and may you have time to contemplate that this awe-ful encounter with the Almighty does indeed bring us to the very portal of heaven!

During my years of preaching ministry, I usually awoke early on Sunday mornings. I remember that often I wondered what God would do among his people on that day. That attitude of anticipation blessed my preaching ministry across more than four decades. As I thought about what God would do, I considered that he might do something through me his servant as I shared his Word with his people. I learned to wait patiently because not all Sundays were equal. Some Sundays, what God was doing was all but invisible. Other Sundays, God’s work was apparent and the church was blessed by his overwhelming presence and power.

The question still comes on some Sunday mornings: “What will God do today?” But as my ministry and mission efforts have expanded beyond a single local congregation, the question has been joined by more questions. What will God show me today? What does God want me to learn today? Whom can I touch and encourage today? Who will reach out to me today? To whom can I reach out? Who will I meet who is in need of Jesus? These questions have something in common. They represent God’s people waiting for God, depending on God, anticipating God’s presence and action in their lives.

It’s Sunday again: a day when we sharpen our God-awareness, attempting to see what God is doing and where he is doing it so that we might join him in his work as faithful disciples. The inactivity of waiting is not all bad. Like the runner waiting for the starting gun to sound, sometimes we wait in the blocks, poised and ready to act immediately when God’s will and way is clear.

It’s Sunday again. May your God-awareness grow today, patiently waiting for just the right moment when God breaks forth and acts in your life and in the lives of others, to work his will and way in this world. May we be alert and ready!

The first Sunday of November–time to adjust the clocks (Fall Back, Spring Forward). This is the good time change, or at least it is the easier time change for my body. For me, changing the clock marks the seasonal transition. Summer is really over, fall has arrived.

I like to look back and evaluate where God has led me. It is my first step toward looking forward to where God is leading. This has been a busy fall. Over the past twelve Sundays, I have been worshipped with 14 different congregations of God’s family in four countries. I have been blessed with multiplied opportunities to teach and preach–on Sundays and also during the week with seminars and special studies. I do not remember a time in my life when I have done more teaching and preaching on a regular basis.

This weekend, I am at home with the Iglesia de Cristo de Park Plaza. Pedro Sanchez from Chile is here; he and I are working together in the seminar to develop stronger churches with effective teachers and leaders. God is at work among his people around the world. Ours is to hear his word, understand his will, and answer his call in our own personal lives.

I hope your time with God’s family today provides for you those three things: classes and sermons focused on hearing the Word that God has for you today, a clear understanding of how the will of God can be part of our life this week, and a heart set on responding to his love and answering his call in your own life.

Another Sunday, worship with another congregation within the spiritual family. I have been asked to teach and preach. No specific instructions, but I know what is needed–a word of encouragement!
We will focus on missions–God blesses us with marvelous opportunities to make a difference in our world.
We will remember God’s love and Christ’s sacrifice as we surround the Table–how can one explain God’s gracious initiative toward us in our weaknesses and inconsistent lives?

God’s people need a word of encouragement today. Our world needs encouragement toward what is right and good. May we hear God’s Word and take it forth into the corners of our world so that the world is changed and souls are won to Christ.

Today will be a spectacular day in the Lord!
First, the opportunity to worship and praise the Lord is an incredible thing when one considers the human frailty and the divine righteousness. That God accepts our worship is unbelievable. That God wants relationship with us is beyond imagination. To worship and praise the Lord is to remember all that makes possible the saving relationship we have been granted through Jesus Christ. How can we but praise?
Second, the church will today offer a special prayer for upcoming mission trips, seeking God’s presence and power in the work to which God has called his people. The prayers of brothers and sisters concerning the trip to Peru will be especially meaningful to Jan and to me.
Finally, tonight I will preach about missions in a church in northwest Arkansas. God is at work among his people; God is at work around the world through his messengers who faithfully carry forth the gospel message of salvation. I am blessed to have multiplied opportunities to continue to spread the good news and to encourage others.

Every Lord’s day is special to me–over 3000 and counting. I anticipate what God will do on this day as his people assemble. I wonder what God has in store. “Thank you, Lord, for this day which we have never seen before. Thank you for its opportunities and challenges. May this day be a day to your glory!”

I have been thinking about and anticipating today since last Wednesday evening’s Bible class. The conversation during the class and afterward, and the sweet fellowship we enjoyed as we lingered together to laugh and love, whetted my appetite for sharing time with the spiritual family.
Today is the day we meet. Together we will come before God’s throne again, we will listen and love and share. We will eat together because eating together is a sign of fellowship–both of our vertical fellowship with Christ and God as he eats the spiritual feast with us as he promised, and also of our horizontal fellowship as we accept one another in our weaknesses, inadequacies, and failures. We will remember Jesus’ sacrifice–not morbidly but robustly–as we seek power for the week ahead.
Tonight we will sing our hearts out. God will listen, and we will be changed.
Because all of this will be a part of this day, I have been looking forward to another Lord’s Day, Sunday, first day of the week. My prayer is that my heart is ready to receive what God will do. Getting ready is a part of worship–heart preparation, hearts open, pliable, anticipating.