The Church Together: Recent Episodes
Jana
For some, you may not be able to visualize what communal prayer looks and sounds like. Maybe you wish you could find out but there are no Christ followers with whom to raise your voice. Perhaps you're just curious about how others carry out this discipline. Here's your chance to just listen in. This episode is long, but we didn't think it needed to be abbreviated because the prayer time itself wasn't. Listen as long as you like, fast forward through a voice that distracts you, or pause and be the prayer warrior between two of us.
Our prayer is that as you listen, the Holy Spirit that filled our room will fill yours as well and you will come to know for yourself the greatness of joining with the Body to pray!
The early Church gives us a glimpse of the power that can be unleashed by a corporate gathering of God's people for the purpose of prayer--and it is an appealing and motivational picture indeed.
From the earliest days of God's people, He not only encouraged but mandated times of restful, rejuvenative, joyous fellowship. So often today we consider it a luxury, an escape, or a social platform. In the Kingdom, it's a pillar of the Church.
The early church prized teaching. They didn't even have the concise and complete canon and yet they knew the value of what we now hold as Scripture. One beautiful dimension of the Church both now and then is the lifelong learning to which we are called and in which we grow together daily.
The early church is the foundational basis for the church we now enjoy. Are there attributes of that founding body that we might need to reclaim? If not reclaim, perhaps we might simply need to be reminded of the greatness of what we possess. What might we learn today about the value and practice of the church in Acts?
We take a look at some additional spiritual disciplines and how we might grow in them within the community of the Body of Christ.
There are numerous tools we've been given to help us advance in holiness. Many of those tools, called spiritual disciplines, can be done in a together sort of format. We discuss those disciplines which surround the Bible and how we might pursue them together.
As a culmination of The Church Together's first communal fast, we discuss what God revealed through the experience and how that might move us as a Body to greater passion for and delight in Him.
Miss Jeanie has made the discipline of fasting a part of her every week life. She brings us her insights, talks through the benefits, and gives us guidance on how to adopt this spiritual habit for ourselves and why we might want to.
Micah gives us his perspective about his somewhat new exposure to fasting. We discuss the basic components, the spiritual ramifications, the benefits, and the connection found in this powerful discipline.
In our aim for holiness, we would do well to chart a path that leads toward that stated goal and then pursue it with discipline. There are tools of spiritual discipline that have been given us as instruments of our training. Fasting is one of those discipline tools and one we can learn to utilize collectively as we all strive toward the lofty goal of holiness.
Let's do this together.
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Hosted by: Jana Abbott
Edited and produced by: Joel Henson
Song: Closer than a Brother by Josh Garrells
Licensure: Jana Abbott // Sync ID: MB01LDHQH4BT3XL
As children of God, we are called to lives of holiness and that high aim is intended to be pursued in community, in union with the Body of Christ. Let's gather together to strive for holiness both in our individual lives and as the Church.