Today's Scripture Reading

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.

Today's Devotion

DisciplesNet Church is a hard concept for many people to grasp.  Our “congregation” will never be in the room with us.  We are reaching out to people whom we may never meet in person, serving those who, for one reason or another, are seldom or never inside the walls of a physical church.  Few people understand what it means to partake of communion together when you’re not in the same room, or the same time zone, or even on the same day.  As we seek out grants to help us continue our work, we often hear the words, “You don’t look enough like a church”  or “You look too much like a church” to be eligible for a grant.

I think of all the people with whom I have encountered God.  Sometimes it was in a beautiful, 1000-year-old building; sometimes under a thatched roof in a rain forest; sometimes on a mountaintop; sometimes by a river.  Most often it is in the sanctuary where I worship with other members of my church.  Many times the people I worshipped with looked like me and more or less lived as I do; sometimes they were very different.  And what about the times when I could not even understand what was said?

Most recently, with DisciplesNet, worship is available whenever (and almost wherever) I come to the table.  The singing of hymns, the reading of the word, the breaking of the bread and pouring of the wine, are no less real as far as God is concerned.  THIS IS THE CHURCH!  For how can we doubt Jesus, who assured us, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”  Perhaps we are not in the same physical location, but we have certainly gathered in His name, and His promise is true.

Holy God,

We praise You together, wherever we may be.  We give You thanks for finding new ways to be Your church.  Watch over us and bless us, we pray, in the name of Him who promised to be with us.  Amen.