Sunday, April 29, 2018

Church is not in the Bible

The word church is not in the Bible. Ok, don't pick up rocks and start stoning the blasphemer just yet. True, our English translations do have the word “church” in 115 places, but the Greek term ekklesia {ek-klay-see'-ah} rendered as "church" in the New Testament and our English word church are not related at all.

The Greek word kuriakos {koo-ree-ak-os'} from which we get our English word church is found in the New Testament only two times, once translated as "the Lord's supper" and once translated as "the Lord's day", but never translated as "church”.

The Greek word ekklesia {ek-klay-see'-ah} rendered as "church" in the New Testament is better translated as "assembly" or "congregation". According to the Blue Letter Bible Dictionary and Word Search, ekklesia is a compound term for "out of or away from" and "to call or to be called to bear a name or title". In addition to the 115 occurrences where ekklesia is rendered as "church" it appears in three more places in the New Testament where it is rendered as "assembly" to describe a public gathering.

It is interesting to note that the Septuagint (third century B.C. Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) uses ekklesia to describe the assembly of the people of Israel. To the New Testament writers, the Greek term ekklesia was common to them, it was in their Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures that they used daily and most likely understood simply as the gathered people of God.

In 1 Timothy 3:15 we find the phrase "...the house of God, which is the church of the living God..." In the original Greek it reads: "oikos theos hostis esti ekklesia zao theos", literally "the house of God, which is the assembly of the called out people of the living God". In other words, God dwells within his people individually and collectively, not in buildings called churches.

We are the assembly of the called out ones of God that make up a living house of the living God. In Acts 7:48 Saint Stephen declares “the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands…" and according to Ephesians 2:19-22 we are called God's Temple where the Spirit of God dwells. It is not a physical building of brick and mortar but "living stones" that the living God has assembled for his habitation.

Jesus proclaimed in Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them". How simple is that? An ekklesia, a gathering, a congregation, an assembly of two or more followers of Jesus wherever and whenever they meet with Jesus present every time – the true Church!

Peace, Love, and Light through Jesus the Christ!
Kevin (Cloud)

Friday, April 20, 2018

The Earth Is The Lord's - So Let's Treat It As Such!

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it (Psalms 24:1)

Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made. So those people have no excuse at all! (Romans 1:20) 

And Jehovah God taketh the man, and causeth him to rest in the garden of Eden, to serve it, and to keep it. (Genesis 2:15)

Peace, Love and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

Friday, April 13, 2018

Just Thinking...

If the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, then you will approach every problem as if it is a nail.

There has to be more than just a military response to every problem in the world.

"So man's proneness to engage in war is still a fact. But wisdom born of experience should tell us that war is obsolete..." ~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Nobel Peace Prize Lecture December 11, 1964

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” ~Jesus (Matthew 5:9)

Peace, Love, and Light!
Kevin (Cloud) 

Sunday, April 01, 2018

Rock Mass 04-01-2018

Rock Mass on the first Sunday of the month.


Rock Mass - Easter Sunday










Peace, Love and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)



The inspiration for creating "Rock Mass" came from the Rock Mass at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena California back in the early 1970’s. On the first Friday night of each month All Saints held a Rock Mass which was a mix of traditional Episcopalian Mass and rock concert. A live band would play popular rock music which couldn’t necessarily be called “Christian” but contained spiritual phrases and references to God or Jesus. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s there was an explosion of these songs coming out of the "secular" music industry way before there was “Contemporary Christian Music”, in a way, it could be called "The Gospel According To Billboard's Top 10".

(Stained glass guitar angel found at www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber)

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