Church at home? - Breaking that narrative

Hey guys, I'm back with another post.

I'm about to step on necks and cause a bit of uproar with my wild statements because we don't talk 'soft' Christianity around here.

For those are new to this blog, blessings - my name is John-Paul and welcome to Words of Righteousness. I have one other post titled "In the beginning" and I would advise that you go and read that post first if you haven't already because it will give you a better idea of why I'm writing these posts.

Disclaimer - these points don't apply to those who actually cannot find a church that they feel at home in or they're in the process of finding one. If you're sitting at home on Sunday because you have not tried your best to find a church, this is for you.

Anyways, lets GO.

It's been brought to my attention that some Christians think that this whole idea of 'church at home' eg reading your Bible in the comfort of your room and praying to God in your room on Sunday is a fantastic substitution for going to church and actually hearing the Word being preached by an ordained man or woman of God. Personally, I think it's ridiculous and it MAKES ME LAUGH. I have a few reasons why and I'm going to try my best to explain them.

 Holy Spirit help me

Point 1 - Who is accountable for you? Bro,sis, when you fall into sin, who are you gonna talk to? Are you going to talk to your bed or is your lamp going to tell you to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and run this race? Nope. For some of you, when you fall into sin, you don't even feel to talk to anyone because you are so COMFORTABLE in your sin.

However, when you belong to a Church that you are really growing in, you're more than likely to make a friend or friends that will help you, pray for you and much much more.

I quoted this scripture in my last post - Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 - two is better than one. When one person falls the other can pick them up. However, if you're at home and you fornicate, (eee) is your water filter on your table gonna spit out scriptures and advise you? Is it going to tell you to fix up because sanctification is key in our walk with God? Nah man. It's most likely that you have no one to call or no one to help you so you're more likely to continue falling into sin.

Furthermore, when you have an accountability partner, (no, your water filter certainly does not cut it)

you have someone to confess to. 1 John 1:19 says "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just enough to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness". Fair enough you're going to pray to God and admit to your sins but you're just keeping that confession to yourself. However, if you tell someone else, you're actually putting away your pride and fear and God will see that you're really sorry because you've put away everything to tell someone. Also, the fact that it's out in the open and in the air means that the enemy can't use your guilty conscience against you and keep you from stepping towards God. However, if it's still hidden in your heart, the enemy can actually get through to you easily.

The person you tell is even able help you overcome that sin and pray for you etc etc but if you don't tell anyone, how is anyone supposed to know and pray for you. You're probably thinking "I can pray for myself" which is true, but if that's all it took, you would have overcome it by now. Sin is HARD to overcome. Deep it. Sin is like an innate habit. God's power comes through selflessness and being humble. If you think you can do it by yourself, you won't ask for help right? So why would God assist you? Yes he is going to bless you but God uses people to send his blessings.  So if you ask your brother or sister in Christ, it opens up an avenue for blessings and for healing.

boy that was a long point

Point 2 - You're only as good as your leader/preacher.

If you are teaching yourself, you will only be as good as your own ability or in this case, your own understanding of the Bible. It's like how Uni recommends that we go to lectures. Sometimes, you go to lectures and the lecturer says something about a topic that you feel familiar with and yet that thing blows your mind because they have a different angle of perception. Face it, there are some people who are more anointed and wiser than us in the things of God. Why would you not want to learn from them? They probably have a deeper understanding of the scripture that you were only able to scrape the surface of. If a money man was teaching how to make 100k in a day would you not go? Exactly. So when someone is teaching you about how to get closer to God, why don't you want to leave your house? Is it because that 100k is physical and your relationship with God isn't? Please, we walk by faith and not by sight ( 2 Corinthians 5:7) and as Christians, we're not supposed to focus on the physical things, we're supposed to be focusing on the things we can't see (2 Corinthians 4:18) not on the things that we can see because they aren't eternal. Is the Bible wrong? Is the 100k that you get going to last forever or are the blessings from your relationship with God going to last forever?

This walk with God is not meant to be easy. You will have questions that you will want answered and if you know someone who is more in the Spirit than yourself, you'll have someone to ask. Google doesn't have all the answers but a person of God might. 

This next point is something that I think about everyday. This is where I'm going to get real and step on necks.

grabs neck support

 Point 3 - STOP USING ONE OR TWO BAD CHURCH EXPERIENCES AS AN EXCUSE TO STAY AT HOME.

I've done been tired of people saying "yoU cHurcH pEople gIve oFf bAd vIbes " when they try to justify staying at home. Tell me, when you didn't like your phone case, did you not hustle to find a new one? When that boy or girl just wasn't cutting it, did you not DUMP THEM and move on to your back-up? When you were up at 2AM looking at some interesting indecent websites and you couldn't find the right video, did you not SCROLL for 20 mins to page 90 to find the rIghT one??

  Am I right or am I right? Stop making excuses. You just don't want to put the effort in. If a Church is giving you 'bad vibes', pray for guidance and look for another one. There are so many Churches around so you are bound to find one that you can identify with. Head Pastor David always says that when you find a Church that is the one, you will feel at home. I can second this. I've put my all into my ministry at Kharis and I have never regretted it. 

Back to the point. Whoever it was that gave you bad vibes, remember that they are human. They are not perfect. Do not let another person, an EXTERNAL factor be the reason that your intimate relationship with God doesn't go as far as it could. More time they don't even know you. If it was that Aunty at the back that was telling you that your ripped jeans were too revealing I can assure you that those thoughts were her traditional views not her Christian views. Some people give off false impressions of Christianity because they mix their own personal views with the scriptures. So when they step to you and maybe tell you off, they're talking to you in their flesh and not in their spirit. It says in John 3:6 that flesh gives birth to flesh and spirit gives birth to spirit. Whoever it was that gave off bad vibes was feeding their flesh not their spirit. For example with that ripped jean scenario, someone who has fed their spirit would be more concerned about sins and whether or not you're staying consecrated rather than the fleshly aspects like your clothing. 

God doesn't look at the outside when He is choosing His vessels, He looks at your heart. That is why clothes don't matter. HOWEVER, I'm not saying go and wear one ridiculous dress to church and look indecent because there are levels.
I hope you get this gist of what I'm trying to say here.

Point 4 - Fellowship is what God wants and as his children we should worship with others.

It's harder to drag someone down than to bring someone up. What I mean by this is that if you aren't in Church you have majority friends that aren't really on this God ting, you're more likely to fall than you are to bring them all to Christ. To be honest, this also applies with people who have found and settled down in a Church too but the only difference is that that people in Church are 100x more likely to make more Christ-like friends than someone who is not at Church.

Your company determines what will accompany you #PDAK

 Fellowship is repeated so many times throughout the Bible and it's importance is reiterated. Like I said in my last post, even Jesus the SON OF GOD asked for disciples. Jesus told them to drop everything and follow him meaning that he wanted them to be full time followers. If Jesus didn't really want fellowship, he would have given them shifts bro. He didn't though.

Most people know Matthew 18:20 - "For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them" It doesn't say one for a reason. God WANTS fellowship. As a Christian, we have to obey God. Not out of fear(being scared) but out of fear(reverence and awe).
Acts 1:14 - "They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women,and the brothers of Jesus" - The context behind this scripture is that after Judas committed suicide, the disciples needed to pick another disciple from the group of men that followed Jesus but were not actually picked by him. So they met together and prayed about it.
This is obviously a completely different scenario but just like their main goal was for God to point them towards the new disciple, as Christians, our common goal is to live righteous and fruitful lives so that when we get to judgement day, God will be pleased with us. So why don't we do it all together?! Or at least look for a group of people that you feel at home with and move towards God.

 In addition, I just want to point something out that may come to you as a shock but it's something that we need to wrap our heads around :
Jesus is coming back for his Church,NOT for individuals -  #PDAK

Ephesians 5:25 - For husbands, this means love your wives,just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her. 
In 2 Corinthians 11:2 , the Church is described as the bride of Christ. When the Second Coming arrives and it's time for Jesus to pick up his faithful, if you're not one with the Church, Jesus is gonna look at you, then at the Church, the back at you and be like

then run off with the Church because that's who He came back for.
Now here is the tricky part. When I talk about the Church, I don't mean everyone who is in church. The Church that Jesus died for is made up of people who have accepted that Jesus is their Lord and personal Saviour  AND have made it their goal to live life like Christ wanted them to. Jesus doesn't like lukewarm Christians. You can't be one foot in and one foot out. People are probably thinking "tHen I caN stIll dO tHis God tIng aT hOmE" nah bro becasue you've disobeyed God by staying at home. How can you be a strong Christian and not even consider a Church?? Look here -

 Acts 2:4 talks about how the Holy Spirit gathered on those who were PRESENT. If you're not present when the Holy Spirit comes down, you're not going to receive it. Where two or more are gathered in HIS NAME HE IS THERE in THEIR midst so we need to be with others because the Spirit is drawn towards fellowship.
Acts 4:31 "After this prayer, the meeting place shook and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.Then they preached the word of God with boldness". I just want you to zoom in on the word "meeting" - the place where multiple people were shook and they were all filled with the Spirit. We need other Christians to help us attract the Spirit.
Last scripture is Acts 10:44 - "Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening". It doesn't say all those who were at home sitting and reading, it says LISTENING which means that you have to go to a place to hear someone Preach the Word of God. In this case it was Peter who was so powerful that even his shadow was healing people.

We need to hear the word from someone who is more spiritually mature than us. I can guarantee that the scripture you've read 99x over will have a new and deeper meaning.

Now, the reason why I'm relating this to not going to church is because you're more likely to live life the way Christ wants us to if you're constantly in His Fathers house. Imagine being a Biochemist but refusing to go to lab??? How will your work grow? Same thing with Christ. You won't grow unless you go to the source of nutrition. Please brothers and sisters in Christ, find a place where you can worship freely and grow.



Point 5 - When you're in church, naturally you can do more for God.

This is my last point and I'm going to try and keep it as short as possible.
 When you're in Church there are so many things that you can do to help you stay dedicated to Christ. For example at Kharis we have departments like Choir, Praise and Worship, Media team, Ushers, Drama,Sound team, Spoken word,K Dancers and much more. All these departments, are designed to help you give back to God the talent that he has given you. Even if there no departments that suit you, you can start a new one. On top of that we have Evangelism which is one of the best ways to get involved in the work of God. If you don't look for a Church, you will never know the opportunities that are available to help you do more for God. Imagine telling God on judgement day that all you did was read your Bible at the end of the day. It's good yes, but not good enough. God gave us life, talents and so much more and we need to make use of them for his kingdom. When you're in church, you can find so many ways to do more for God and that's when DIFFERENT levels of blessings will be available to you. All these things are also a way of keeping you on the right path. If you have a commitment in ministry, then you HAVE to be present no matter what. However if you don't read your Bible one day, nobody is going to suffer apart from you but in that moment it's not as important so you'll forget again and again until you don't read your Bible for a year then come back to it when you're looking for comfort or in trouble. We should be with God in the good times and in the bad times too not just when we need help.



I hope someone is touched by this and their eyes have been opened even though I came on 0.01% violence but it's out of love.

If anyone needs help finding a church you can contact me on twitter @johnpaulk01

Have a blessed week guys and stay in blessed!!