I was once working  in Zürich, where I knew nobody.  As I was strolling around after office hours I saw a big bookstore called “Das Bibelhaus”.  So I walked in and boldly asked, “Where are the Christians?” The sales clerk smiled, “You´re most welcome to come to our place.”  I did and found warm fellowship.  The name of that particular place I have forgotten.

Why do I say that?  To simply say,  God´s people “in every place” (1 Cor. 1:2) are my people.  I´ve been travelling all over in Germany.  I always inquired for God´s people.  From I was a babe in Christ this has been of overriding importance, and I asked the Lord, “Where do you want me to go?”  His answer was, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go…”  Psa. 32:8.

Now at my life´s “evening time” that word is still full of light.  “At evening time it shall be light”  (Zech. 14:7).  My church is  not a particular building, denomination, movement, mission, so despite the fact I was baptized in a Baptist Church, I´ve never called myself a “Baptist”.  I´ve also, in my age, become conscious of the blessing of being gathered to the name of Christ, and I couldn´t think of a better way of using our modest home.  We often quote Matth. 18:20, not as a ritual, but as a blessed reality full of the fragrance of Christ.

In Norway and in the U.S. I learned the truth of the statement,  “The first Christians met in the homes, and they will probably also end up there!”  I sense a longing for that among God´s people – a longing for the reality in the simplicity of Christ (2 Cor.11:3).  At “evening time”.

April 27, 2013 – jn