1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian FAITHFULNESS | Page 12

Spiritual discipline #4 – CORPORATE WORSHIP: Paul, in Hebrews 10 v 25, tells us not to forsake the gathering of ourselves together. He is telling those to whom he is writing that Christians need one another and that they need to worship alongside one another. Personally, I never cease to be amazed at the fact that church attendance, for some people, is just something they do if they have nothing else to do. There is no honouring of God in this form of thinking and there is certainly nothing good for the body of Christ either. Our community is full of people who think that they can go it on their own and as a result there are many disillusioned souls out there who have found, to their spiritual peril, that this is not possible. The fact of Christians joining together to worship God brings with it a release of a supernatural dynamic and it is through the power of the supernatural body that God will impact the world and make this place what He intends it to be. Spiritual Discipline #5 – USE YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS: every church body has, by God, been given all that it needs to maintain the spiritual health of that body. If some members of the body feel that they do not need to exercise their spiritual gifts, then it leaves that church body incomplete. Every believer today needs, first of all, to find out what his or her spiritual gifts are and then use them, not for their own good, but for the good of the body of Christ. The reason there are so many unhealthy churches is because many of its members do not take this teaching very seriously. I hope that the words that we have just spoken will not be seen as condemnatory, but will be seen through the eyes of somebody who really loves the church and loves the people of the church and wants them to receive the best of what God has to give. Prayer Thought: Won’t you contemplate all of the above spiritual disciplines and evaluate yourself on the basis of each one of them. Maybe take some time this week to study these disciplines and see if what I am saying is the truth. I hope that as you pray through them today that God will inspire you and encourage you to be the best disciple that you can be by exercising the above disciplines, not because we have to (because that would be legalism), but because we want to (because that is love).