Why Congregate

In every free government from the beginning of man's history until now the people congregated together to help maintain their freedom.

It has been said that there is strength in numbers but the manner society establishes those bands that connect them with another are many fold.

The method and manner used to bind society determines the fruit of society.

Man is gregarious by nature.

There is a natural emotional need in mankind to gather with others like themselves. Gathering together in fellowships offers an emotional and even psychological support to the purposes and satisfaction of the individual. The emotional dependence upon the group can become a form of bondage.

While what would qualify as a cult might cultivate that emotional dependence it also may go so far as to completely remove a member's other support systems of friends and family and even a means of making income, causing a person to be physically and financially dependent upon the group and therefore its leaders. There are other more subtle ways of creating an emotional dependency.

Modern Churches will try to fill a natural emotional need for community and fellowship. They will often attempt to feed or satisfy an emotional dependency in the congregant to cultivate a mental and emotional dependency which will press or impress a loyalty upon attending congregants. They may use feelings of guilt or even fear of condemnation if a congregant stop going to church.

This is of course maybe catering to an emotional weakness present in an individual. But it also will open a door to a controlling spirit in the leaders of the congregation who will try different methods of securing his position of loaned power like banning members from meeting or communing with others outside the Church. This would include an over shadowing denominational loyalty.

We see the opposite with Jesus who met with both sinners and saints, Jew and Samaritan and even Romans. In fact he clearly states that he came that the whole world might be saved.

Of course loyalty is a virtue and therefore is a good thing but it is the intent and motivation behind that loyalty which will lend to the production of good fruit. Thieves and robbers have loyalty.

People who need

"People who need people" may not be the luckiest people in the world. Society needs people because there is no society of one. Again it is the motivating intent or spirit behind that need that will make the difference as to the fruit that comes from the presence of need.

The People song by Merrill and Styne goes onto say that "Lovers are very special people, They're the luckiest people In the world."

But there are at least two kinds of love. There is the love that consumes the life of others and the love that gives life to others. Lovers in a consuming relationship are not lucky but are doomed.

If there is "A feeling deep in your soul Says you were half, Now you're whole." what has given you a feeling of fulfillment?

Christ spoke of "No more hunger and thirst".

The water he spoke of was a spiritual water which included something called worship and truth.

Over a hundred years ago Easton said worship is homage which is "Ceremonial acknowledgment by a vassal of allegiance to his lord under feudal law."

The truth is we need an unselfish guiding force or light in our life in order to truly bless others in our relationships. According to the scriptures that guidance is to be supplied by the Holy Spirit who should be our comforter. If the Holy Spirit is our comforter the reason we need people should not be to be comforted.

Need to give and forgive

Christ came to give and forgive, to serve and to sacrifice himself for others. We to must gather with people not because we need them to sacrifice for us but because we need someone else to sacrifice and serve so that we may also come in the name of Christ and for His purposes.

Christ makes it clear that if we want to be forgiven we must forgive. If we need people it should be because we need them to forgive. So in that need to forgive others our enemy becomes our ally. it does not say we are condemned to repeat the same sins done to us. Forgiveness works.

The need to criticize others and even ourselves is judging, not forgiving. Also forgiveness is not absolution it is only forgiving from our personal position as a victim or perpetrator of unrighteousness and letting God judge. Any judgment or condemnation of ourselves or others is simply us playing the roll of God which takes us all back to the original sin.

Fear is a symptom of a lack of faith and faith is gift. Faith, probity and allegiance are similar terms. Seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness is about doing something to return to your Fathers house where your first allegiance should lie. If you want to live in your Father's house you must seek to serve your Father.

We often realize our lack of faith and forgiveness and our selfish nature and rather than repenting, changing our thinking and ways we play the roll of the devout martyr, wearing our proverbial sackcloth, dawning the garb of the ascetic, fasting and denying, natural relationships and joy, even sabotaging the very relationships we claim to seek.

We are continuously pulled back to commune and fellowship as if we need that connection to recharge our batteries. That is sure evidence we are not connecting with God because we are constantly needing others to renew our comfort level. If we are not connecting with God it is us that is blocking that connection. That is usually because we will not repent.

Backwards thinking

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Repenting seems like thinking backwards like riding a backwards bike

We are told to accumulate and become wealthy and secure in this life. But what did Christ say and think?

"Hereby perceive we the love [of God], because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down [our] lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him." 1 John 3:16

We are told today that it is okay to desire benefits at the expense of our neighbor but many also imagine that they do not have to daily give up our life for others because Christ did it all for us. The truth is if Christ is with in us we will be like Christ.

Repenting is about thinking another way.

Repenting and seeking the kingdom is like riding a backwards bike.

We are actually trained to think counter kingdom and repenting is not only learning to think kingdom but unlearning what we have already accepted as true.

That is why Humility is so important in Kingdom thinking.

We generally do not know what we are to repent of but it is simple. We are still trying to play a god, seeking to control others, rather than serve god by seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

The kingdom of God is where God rules us so that we seek to come together not to get something from someone else but to serve like Christ did. We gather to give and forgive not to get recharged or a sense of fellowship and comradery. That is one reason long distant congregations are a place to start.

In long distant congregations we are not as easily tempted by the emotional dependence. Like a field of grain or garden the seeds are scattered to give each plant room to grow in the light of day.

Financial Dependence

While in many cults, members may live with other members in a group living environment and become financially dependent upon the group, kingdom living encourages financial independence. Should a cult member decide to leave the group, it becomes physically difficult or even impossible to sustain oneself outside of the dependency that has been cultivate in the individual.

Winston Churchill wrote that: “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” but isolated independence is the road to poverty.

Society, free or bond, will the product of the virtue or vice of the people for the power an precepts will be born first in their hearts and in their minds.

Reasons to congregate.

There are many reasons to congregate together and those reasons are an expression of intent. Intent is seed of all action in your life and determines the fruit of your life.

Your reasons for congregating should be the purposes of Christ. You should gather:

• To save others
• To serve others
• To love God and one another
• To bear witness to the truth.
• To bring sight to the blind

Intent is a child of the heart and action is the offspring of the soul. According to Paulo Coelho “There is always a gap between intention and action..” and the distance between the two is the inverse measure of your sincerity.

Reasons you should not come together:

• Save your self
• Make life easier for you
• Feel good or even just feel better
• Look good or better
• Lord it over others

Without love there can be no liberty.

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