Containers and Contents

For the avoidance of doubt, friends, 

I believe in the fellowship of the saints. 

I believe in the gathering of believers. 

I believe in local assemblies of God's people. 

The local assemblies of the saints provide 

perfect opportunity for the expression of 

various spiritual gifts to edify one another.

 It is a place where sons of God minister 

to one another the manifold grace of God 

with their various giftings. 

There is impartation of gifts, encouragement, 

instructions in righteousness and 

"iron sharpens iron".

I also know, for sure, that despite the proliferation 

of worship centres all around us, genuine 

local assemblies of the saints are hard to come 

by in our days. Many of the places that we know, 

including celebrated ones, are nothing but 

business centres and personality cults which 

use the name of Christ to gain credibility. 

God cannot be mocked. 

Until God opens your eyes to see, you will keep 

fighting this reality.

In spite of the foregoing, the yearning in the 

heart of God's children to associate and 

fellowship is a natural one. 

If you have such a longing, nothing is wrong 

with you. 

It is a healthy desire. 

You are perfectly normal. 

Let no one make you feel there is a dent in 

your sound mind. 

If you can find a place where people 

genuinely gather unto God and not unto man, 

do not hesitate to fellowship with them. 

Please read me carefully. 

I surely don't need a lesson on what the 

church is. 

I don't need a tutorial on how a building is 

not a church. Here and now, I am talking 

about the fellowship of the saints. 

The Bible encourages fellowship with one 

another. 

The church is a family and families that are 

aversed to meeting together are not healthy.

However, if you cannot immediately find a 

group of people of like minds and purpose 

with whom to share fellowship around you, 

do not hesitate to stay on your own. 

Let no one blackmail you into attending 

meetings where there's no true fellowship,

 simply because you think you have to attend 

fellowship. 

Let no one railroad you to attend shrines 

dedicated to mammon all in the name of 

"not forsaking the assembling of ourselves". 

Let no man guilt trip you into being unequally 

yoked in rebranded synagogues of the jews 

that masquerade as church of Christ. 

Let no one drag you back to places that come 

across as assemblies of God's people from a 

distance but on a closer look, they have all 

the trappings of a den of robbers. 

Let no one lead you back into slavery disguised 

as worship centres.

You are not under any obligation to belong 

in a denomination. 

None whatsoever. 

At the moment, there are nations of the world 

where believers are not allowed to gather, 

yet it takes nothing away from the fact that 

they are members of the church of Christ. 

Membership of a denomination is not the 

same as membership of the body of Christ. 

Being in a denomination does not define 

who you are. Being in Christ does. 

"If any man be in Christ Jesus......"

If push comes to shove, gather your family 

and friends together and have fellowship 

under your roof. Sing songs and hymns 

and admonish one another. 

Jesus said: "where two or three are gathered 

in my name, in their midst I am....."

It is a new day!

NINYO.

I'm here sipping a can of cold Malt drink, 

and my soul started receiving spiritual 

information via an illustration...

Imagine...

This is just a Container that has a label 

on it, "Malt"... And because of that label 

I trusted that the content in the container 

will be nourishing and healthy, so I spent 

money, bought it and drank it.

Meanwhile, looking at that container I 

addressed it as "Malt".

This means that I judged the container by 

it's content...the Identity I gave to it was 

from the content not the container.

I didn't reject the Malt drink just because 

the container doesn't have the same 

ingredients the content is made of...

the container is not even edible but 

the content is.

The container is useless to me but the 

content is very useful, and that is why 

I could spend money on it... 

So what I paid for was the content, 

which is why I can easily throw away 

the container after consuming the content 

- Malt drink.

God used this illustration to point to me 

what He means by, "Know no man after 

the flesh..."

My flesh is just like that container, while 

my spirit is the content, and as a believer 

my Spirit is Christ.

The value of my personality is Christ and 

not my flesh.

This is why you don't know a believer 

through his flesh but spirit, else you will 

misjudge him. If you use the value of the 

container to judge the content, you'll miss 

it big-time.

If we know what Christ actually is, we will 

recognise who a believer is, and once we 

know this, the believers fleshy acts won't 

confuse us as to his identity.

Even if the malt container is thrown inside 

a gutter, as long as it is sealed, the content 

is safe!

Remember the believer is sealed with the 

holy spirit of promise, and even if his flesh 

is "gutterly", his spirit is eternally holy.

Look,

There is something we became at new birth, 

something the flesh can't comprehend!

My identity is my content, not my container 

which will someday melt away.

My content is eternal.

My content needs no improvement because 

it's value is not subject to the condition of 

the container.

My content is Christ.

I am my content!

But note...

Knowing the value of our content, helps us 

to handle the container responsibly.

When the container is neat, it draws attention...

and people can come to partake of our content.

That's how we shine the light...

#Jesusfocus

Kingson Ahaneku