Open Heaven Daily Devotion 16 January 2022
TOPIC: Returning To The Home Church Model
Memorise: Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house. – (Colossians 4:15)
READ: Romans 16:3-5 (KJV)
3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:
4 Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my well-beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.
Open Heaven 16 January 2022 MESSAGE:
The Home Church model is the oldest form of worship centre right from the Old Testament days. It should be recalled that what is now known as Abrahamic faith in at least three notable religions of the world started as a family mode of worship. The Bible tells of how the Abrahamic faith started within the household of Abraham in Genesis 18:19. It is equally interesting to note that when the New Testament Church was born, it was within a household at the Upper Room (Acts 1:13). This was where all the earliest apostles were residing when the New Testament Church was inaugurated by the coming of the Holy Ghost.
Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: …Likewise, greet the church that is in their house… – (Romans 16:3,5). Therefore, adopting the Home Church model is going back to the basics. The Home Church model has been proven to be beneficial right from the birth of the Church and all the hostility from the world against it. The blessings accruing from this model are innumerable but we shall mention some of the spiritual ones today.
To start with, putting a Church in your house in the form of a House Fellowship Centre is like putting the Ark of the Covenant there and it brings abundant blessings like in the case of Obededom in (2 Samuel 6:10-11). Obededom became a national celebrity to the extent that even King David envied him and hurriedly took the Ark away from his household. The good news is that no one can take the Church away from you as long as you allow Jesus to remain in your house.
Corporately speaking, the Home Church model enhances, all-around growth of the Church. Spiritually, members of the House Fellowship and by extension, of the Church are well-groomed since they would be properly taken care of. This model discourages the loss of souls in the multitude of the bigger mother-Church. As we can see from the Scriptures we reviewed above, the Home Church model is a design from God and we must all return to it.
Beloved, decide to use your home as a sub-unit of the bigger Church today and you would be richly blessed by so doing in Jesus’ name.
PRAYER POINT: Father, please qualify my home as worthy to be a custodian of Your Church, in the mighty name of Jesus.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Genesis 46-48
HYMN 14 – NEARER, MY GOD TO THEE
1. Nearer, my God to Thee,
Nearer to Thee;
E’en though it be a cross
That raiseth me,
Still all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God, to Thee, (2ce)
Nearer to Thee!
2. Though, like the wanderer,
The sun gone down,
Darkness be over me,
My rest a stone,
Yet in my dreams I’d be
Nearer, my God, to Thee, (2ce)
Nearer to Thee!
3. There let the way appear
Steps unto heaven;
All that Thou send’st to me
In mercy given;
Angels to beckon me
Nearer, my God, to Thee, (2ce)
Nearer to Thee!
4. Then with my waking thoughts
Bright with Thy praise,
Out of my stony griefs
Bethel I’ll raise;
So by my woes to be
Nearer, my God, to Thee, (2ce)
Nearer to Thee!
5. Or if on joyful wing
Cleaving the sky,
Sun, moon, and stars forgot,
Upward I fly,
Still all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God, to Thee, (2ce)
Nearer to Thee!
