We Gather Together

From Big Truths for Young Hearts by Bruce Ware:

…Christians gather together to worship God in communities of faith. While worship is sometimes private and silent, worship in the Bible also requires the regular gathering of God’s people to do what can only happen when they come together (Acts 2:42). Christians can grow much and encourage others to grow in Christ as they participate in different parts of the worship of God. Meeting together, Christians grow as they participate in singing hymns and songs of praise, as they pray for one another and for needs in many places, as they listen to the reading of God’s Word week by week, and as they hear the Scriptures faithfully taught and preached. God has chosen to use these gatherings of local churches as one of his main ways to encourage his people to be faithful and to teach them more about himself and his ways. No wonder the writer to the Hebrews is grieved that some have made a habit of “neglecting to meet together.” We need what God has planned to bring to his people only as they gather in local churches. The prayer, preaching, teaching, singing, fellowship, encouragement, accountability, and other parts of church worship provide us much that we need for resisting temptation and following Christ. Yes, much is at stake in our regular participation in a strong and faithful local church.

This is the first reason Ware gives for why meeting in a local church is important for the life and well-being of all Christians. I’ll post the second reason on Wednesday. Meanwhile, can you guess what it is?

Sunday's Hymn

One more Olney Hymn to finish out the month of September. This hymn, it says, if for “the new convert.”

The new–born child of gospel–grace,
Like some fair tree when summer’s nigh,
Beneath EMMANUEL’s shining face,
Lifts up his blooming branch on high.

No fears he feels, he sees no foes
No conflict yet his faith employs,
Nor has he learnt to whom he owes,
The strength and peace his soul enjoys.

But sin soon darts its cruel sting,
And comforts sinking day by day;
What seemed his own, a self–fed spring,
Proves but a brook that glides away.

When Gideon armed his num’rous host,
The LORD soon made his numbers less;
And said, lest Israel vainly boast, “
My arm procured me this success.”

Thus will he bring our spirits down,
And draw our ebbing comforts low;
That saved by grace, but not our own,
We may not claim the praise we owe.

—William Cowper  

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• Lord’s Day 39, 2009 at The Thirsty Theologian
• I’d Rather Have Jesus at The Happy Wonderer
• Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah at Fieldstone Cottage
• Refuge from The Valley of Vision at The Upward Call
• Jesus Loves Me at Hiraeth
• Your Weekly Dose of Spurgeon at Pyromaniacs: The Blessing of Forgiveness from an Omniscient God
• Thy Mercy, My God at Whatever Things
• O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing at Tapestry of Graces
• Praise to the Living God at Conjubilant With Song

Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.

Saturday's Old Photo

For the first two years of my life, my dad was a student  at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, and I lived with my parents on campus there. The married students attending in the 1950s lived in little trailers in what was known as Trailerville. You see one of the Trailerville trailer houses in the background of this photo.

Most of the trailers would have been the size of our travel trailers. My family had only three people—my parents and me—but some couples had four or five children. Can you imagine what it would have been like to spend a rainy day with five children in one of those little homes? Now, a mother could just pack  all the kids in the car and drive someplace for a break, but back then, no one used the car—if they had one—for trivial things like that.

And none of the trailers had bathrooms. Instead, there was a communal shower house and a communal laundry. There was no air conditioning, either, and the trailers became like ovens in the heat, so when it was hot, families spent most of the day outdoors.

I’ve made things sound miserable, but I think my mother was really happy in Trailerville. She loved having lots of people around her, so meeting a neighbour or two every time she used the bathroom or did the laundry wasn’t necessarily a drawback for her.

That’s me on the trike in the center of the group of Trailerville kids. Going by the date printed on the photo, I would have been 15 or 16 months old, so there’s no way I could actually ride that trike. Maybe that’s why I’m looking so grumpy.