The two main Greek words translated “church” or “fellowship” in the New Testament: ecclesia which speaks of the government and structure of the church, and koinonia which is the deep bonding of believers into the family of God. This biblical model for the church is to first become a family, then...

I have been blessed to experience some of the greatest worship there has been in our lifetime, but we have lost that by letting our devotion to worship eclipse our devotion to the Lord. Several times I have been distracted from the River of Life by the great tributaries that feed it. Consequently,...

The Scriptures make it clear that walking in new covenant church life is required to walk in the new covenant, as we see in texts like I John 1:7: “If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship [ koinonia ] with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us...

We can be assured when we seek God, He is not boring and where we find Him will not be boring. If our church life is boring, we can be sure we got off track somewhere, and our focus is not on the right place. The encounters God had with His people in Scripture are the most exciting and interesting...

What I proposed in last week’s Word for the Week is contrary to the way most churches are being built today, but are any of those ways working? Granted, there are some outstanding churches in our day, but are any of them even remotely like the one we read about in the New Testament? Are any so full...

As we continue considering what the perfect church might look like, we should expect a vision for the perfect church to be as varied as the people who are in it—that’s how it should be. We may wonder how anything could be built with everyone having different ideas about what it should be, yet this...

As we see at the end of Revelation, His city is His bride, His people, the church. Because of the church’s present state, it is easy to see why many would think this is not something to look forward to. However, that is looking through our present, fallen, human vision. True vision takes faith, and...

In Hebrews 12:26-29, we are given a poignant picture of what is happening in the world today: “And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven.’ “This expression, ‘Yet once more,’ denotes the removing of those...

I have had several prophetic experiences where I was caught up in the heavenly realm. Each was unique. From this I have concluded that the geography of heaven is far more diverse than the geography of earth, and it is seemingly endless in its marvels. I have no trouble believing that we can spend...

In a previous study, we considered that only a small fraction of what many consider to be the church is actually the true church. This has been verified with studies which have found that only a small fraction of evangelical church members are even born again. Believing and living a doctrine are...