I recently told someone that I don’t attend church on Sundays but I instead watch the Power of Prophecy by Prophet Elvis Mbonye on NTV Kenya as from 9-10am. Immediately, the person started telling me to beware of such gatherings that don’t have church on Sundays. I told him that we meet for fellowship on Fridays as from 5:30pm at KICC.
They continued to ask, “Yes, that’s fellowship but don’t you have a church? Are you sure that that fellowship is true and not of the devil. I am starting to fear your religion.”
They already placed me as a religious chap who has to faithfully go to church every Sunday to cry out to the Lord asking Him why some things aren’t working as they should. I asked them, “What is church? Isn’t it a congregation of believers?” I then went to ask, “So then what is fellowship. When you and I are in fellowship aren’t we in one accord in His name? Aren’t we a church?”
I went on to give them this verse:
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.
Matthew 18:20 NKJV
Most Christians think that church is an institution, a physical building where they go to call out the name of the Lord and cry out to Him to solve their problems. Well, this explains why so many are still the same despite going to church every single day for the rest of their lives.
We go to Church to meet Him not to merely call upon His name. We go to church to love on Him fully convinced that all our problems are solved. We go to church to fellowship with Him and to be one with Him knowing that it is not us who live but Him who lives in us.
If you and I hang out, even for coffee for the agenda of God, we are already a church. The building comes in where more like minded people want to hang out and we need a place whose builder and maker is God so that each time we hang out, He is there with us.
The physical building is not that which is holy, holiness resides within you because God lives within you. Am I saying people shouldn’t go to church? Absolutely not! All I am saying is that you cannot confine God in one day.
Most children of God today think that Sunday is holier therefore that day they should wear long dresses, they should not cuss, they should have a certain decorum, they should only listen to Gospel music and they should not hang out with the irreligious. Ironically, they think that is it permissible to do the contrary from Monday through Saturday as the Bible said we remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
Jesus comes and defies that rule;
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?
I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Matthew 12:3-8 NKJV
Even while the Pharisees were still under the law Jesus tells them that the priests on Sabbath duty desecrated the day yet they are innocent. He doesn’t say they ‘were’ innocent, He says ‘are‘ to show that they are currently, to date, still innocent despite anything. So what is the meaning of desecration?
Desecrate – treat (a sacred place or thing) with violent disrespect.
The priests on Sabbath duty did not just disrespect the Sabbath but they violently disrespected it and yet they are still innocent. God had mercy on them. So what is mercy? Mercy is when someone has done something outrageous and are due for a harsh judgement but they get pardoned. This is why Jesus says, He desires that you obtain mercy even for your most indecent acts but not the sacrifice of you trying so much to please Him in your flesh.
Am I saying that you violently disrespect Sunday? Absolutely not! I am actually saying that you violently honor each day knowing that
This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalms 118:24 KJV
Religion has taught children of God that one day is holier and more important than others and they miss God even on a day like Friday because some are taught that Friday is for the degenerates who love partying and disrespecting God. They also miss the visitation of God on Monday which they term as, a hectic and a busy day with hangovers from the weekend.
On the very same day Jesus’s disciples picked some head of grains to eat them, He went on to ‘profane’ the Sabbath and heal a man on the ‘holy day’.
Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him. Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.
Matthew 12:9-14
Religion is the darkest spirit this world has ever seen. This is because it presents a fake God. This is because it is the devil himself who masquerades himself as an angel of light. Religious men can be so outrageous that a man rather dies rather than he gets his healing because it is unlawful to heal on the Sabbath. The Bible notes that the Pharisees plotted on how to kill a man who did a righteous thing.
The problem with religion is that it has a lot of double standards, it masquerades itself as authoritative and legalistic following pin point rules failure to which you will face the consequences. On the other hand, they preach of the grace and mercies of God. They judge, scorn, smite and rebuke based on human intellect and laws but rub off only a tiny fingerful of God’s love.
Let me give an example. If a church elder’s prospective business partner is unwell and they need to show up to their house on a Sunday to check up on them for them to be in good books with them so that they can seal some good deal, they will. After all God will understand.
If I am working in a heathens office on a Sunday, God will understand. If my nanny just left and the kids are left with me and I cannot go to church on a Sunday, God will understand. If I worked till morning and I slept late and couldn’t make it to church, God will understand. This is what Jesus says, “If your sheep fell into a pit on Sabbath, will you not pick it up?”
Again, I am not advocating that you shouldn’t go to Church. I am advocating that you need to realize that God doesn’t just meet you on a Sunday, He meets you everywhere, he stands and knocks and it is up to you to allow Him in. You need to cultivate an environment to host him.
Finally, Paul says this so powerfully!
One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it.
He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Romans 14:5-10 NKJV
When Paul says that ‘one person esteems one day above another’ – that’s one level of faith. When he says ‘another esteems every day alike’ – that another level of faith higher than the former. If both of these people observe each day, they are doing it for the Lord, therefore the one who observe one day as superior shouldn’t judge that who esteems every day as equal.
The one who also esteems every day alike shouldn’t judge those that esteem one day above another. They should instead try and awaken those that esteem one day above another to the higher revelation they are in, the revelation that God had on each creation day when He said ‘and it was good.’ After God created, He saw everything as good, that should be your stand. Every day is good.
Welcome to Fellowship, we meet every Friday. Details are on the poster on this page.
