If you pay attention to Acts 8, you'll notice something that's missing. In this chapter, Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch who is returning home from Jerusalem and Philip preaches Jesus to him (29-35). Pay close attention to this part:
"Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” (35-37)
The obvious part is that preaching to a person who is not Christian includes Jesus, and the response is belief and a desire for immediate baptism. But the less-obvious part is the missing bit. IMMEDIATELY after this takes place, Philip vanishes and the Ethiopian goes back to Ethiopia rejoicing (39). Do you know what is missing? Philip never told him how to have a worship service!
And oddly enough, the concept of the "worship service" is missing from the entirety of the New Testament writings. It exists 0 times. Whatcha think?
"For the entire Law is fulfilled in in this one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."—Gal 5:14
Filtering by Category: Service
Full-time Christians or part-timers?
"He was a faithful member who attended church every Sunday?" Would you like that to be you? What if we fleshed it out (pun 100% intended) a little more, since it doesn't tell us that much and had it say, "He was a faithful member who attended church every Sunday, watched porn every night, got wasted at least twice per week, and never made a new Christian?"
Hmmm. That sounds just so much more wretchedly worse! Honestly, we're probably all glad at times that God doesn't play the lowlight reel of our last week at assembly on Sunday, but does He want part-time workers? 1-2 hours per week out of 168 isn't many, after all.
In Romans 12:1, we are urged "by the mercies of God, to present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] rational service." As it turns out, God's looking for full-timers. Are you interested? He offers the best retirement package.
