The key word from Matth. 18:20 is frequently quoted when we week by week  gather for Bible reading and spiritual fellowship to, above all, welcome the Lord in our midst.

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” The Greek word “in” is “eis” and suggests the direction,  pointing to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, in order to do that we have to leave the arm chair and set off physically. But the challenge is to do it with this simple sense of direction , our risen Lord, and that will never be just a habit-forming  routine. 

A noble friend in CA tells writes about a visit to a church with a lot of motion, rhythmic beat, a crashing drummer, hand clappers, guitars and singers stepping back and forth,  in other words a typical “contemporary” church game.  I sensed his pain in all that noisy frivolity, with all drumming and the many platform performances, feeling, as it were, “they  have taken away my Lord, and I do not where they have laid Him”.

I go to the hospital to a dying friend and with the vivid sense of being gathered to His name with her.  Just the two of us.  Plus the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  I part with her edified and refreshed, looking forward to “next time”.  What is my point?   Ah, the simplicity of our coming together with a genuine consciousness of His presence whether we are many or few.

The Alpha and Omega, the be-all and end-all, is the direction unto the Lord set before our hungry hearts for nothing else or nobody else will ever be able to feed and satisfy us.

March 1, 2013 – jn