Day 6 - Week 49 - Hebrews 10:25 "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."

Robert J. Morgan writes, "The local church is the only institution Jesus established on earth.  He didn't found hospitals, civic clubs, mission agencies, Bible colleges, or crisis centers.  Many of these organizations come out of the local church and are sponsored by it.  But the local church is Ground Zero for God's work on this earth.  The church is God's agenda for this world."

Jesus told Peter, "Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."  We are also told that the church is Christ's bride, awaiting the return of her bridegroom, and we know that Christ's bride will be in existence when He does return.  So, we have confidence that the church has never disappeared, and remains today, as "God's agenda for this world." 

The church has certainly gone through change throughout the centuries since Christ ascended.  There are those who say we are to replicate the 1st century church, but it seems to me that we are called to be the 21st century church.  We have been placed in 2012 to ensure that God's message is conveyed to the people of our time. The church is where the message must be proclaimed that this world does not provide the truth that we seek.  As Robert J. Morgan puts it, "We need a weekly counter cultural experience to counter the culture we're in.  We must counteract the popular culture in our lives.  When we go to church, we're participating in a global weekly network of people doing the same thing at the same time; we're participating in an ancient practice that goes back to the origins of the church and to the very beginning of the creation and involves all God's people of every epoch and age; and we're involved in a habit that the Bible says is increasingly vital as time draws to a close." 

We cannot abandon the agenda.  We cannot change the message.  The methods of conveying the message may change, but the message remains the same...go back to our first four verses of the Bible's cornerstones and then our five verses of the Romans Road and refresh yourself in the message of the truth of God's Word and the way of salvation that is so imperative for a dying world to hear.

We need the church...we are the church.  We cannot forsake coming together as a body, or the body will be weakened and will become ineffective.  We need to continue to show the world the good works that the church has historically provided in times of need...orphanages, hospitals, medical care, disaster relief. 

Never fear, the church will always survive...it is God's agenda.  We must never forsake it.