{"id":4362,"date":"2015-11-02T00:01:23","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T23:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/?p=4362"},"modified":"2015-11-01T14:32:12","modified_gmt":"2015-11-01T13:32:12","slug":"community-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/2015\/11\/02\/community-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201c<\/em><em>Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function,<\/em><strong><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><em>so it is with Christ\u2019s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other<\/em><em>\u201d<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/bible.com\/en-GB\/116\/rom.12.4-5.nlt\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Rom.12:4-5<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The earliest expression of the church is found in the Book of Acts of Apostles in Bible. It is important to know that God\u2019s idea of the church is not a building but rather an Assembly of God\u2019s people. The church is God\u2019s family. So the church is not a building you go but rather it is family you belong to. Looking at the church through God\u2019s lens transforms the concept of \u2018I am going to church &#8211; I am going to a building\u2019 to \u2018I am going to church &#8211; I am going home <!--more-->to God\u2019s family\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201c<\/em><em>Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function,<\/em><strong><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><em>so it is with Christ\u2019s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other<\/em><em>\u201d<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/bible.com\/en-GB\/116\/rom.12.4-5.nlt\" target=\"_blank\">Rom.12:4-5<\/a>. The church is a body and every part of the body is important. Just like every part of your body is important. You are different from others around you. And because we are different from one another, we have different functions. The hand is not the eye, and the tongue is not the toe. It is for this reason that the hand cannot say to the eyes \u201cI have no need of you\u201d or the toe say to the tongue, \u201cI am not a part of the body\u201d. As soon as you give your life to Jesus and make Him the Lord of your life, you become a member of God\u2019s family. And God expects you to become a member of the local church. God does not want you to just be floating around. God wants you to be a member of the local church. Why is that important? \u201c<em>We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other\u201d.<\/em> It is important because you need to be planted to grow. Just like the hand cannot survive outside the body, you are not designed to be by yourself. We are created for community; God wants us to do life together. Just imagine a footballer today that says he wants to play in the world cup series but does not want to belong to any nation, he just wants to be a floating soccer player.\u00a0 He will never be allowed to play, no matter how talented he may be. He would have to decide quickly which nation to belong to by the time he is eighteen years old, so that he can be groomed to maximize his soccer playing talents. And this is very similar to the function and the benefits of being in a local church. The local church teaches, trains, and guides you as a Child of God. God expects you and I to belong to local church. God has chosen to be with His people like a father that always stays with his children. Please join a Bible believing and teaching church.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Prayer<\/strong>: Father, I thank You that I am a member of Your family, and I thank You for the Church, in Jesus Name.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cJust as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function,\u00a0so it is with Christ\u2019s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other\u201d Rom.12:4-5 &nbsp; The earliest expression of the church is found in the Book of Acts of Apostles in Bible. It is important [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-fellowship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4363,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4362\/revisions\/4363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}