This post is from the Ransomed Heart Daily Email.
Where will you find the Four Streams? The Four Streams are something we learn, and grow into, and offer one another, within a small fellowship. We hear each other’s stories. We discover each other’s glories. We learn to walk with God together. We pray for each other’s healing. We cover each other’s back. This small core fellowship is the essential ingredient for the Christian life. Jesus modeled it for us for a reason. Sure, he spoke to the masses. But he lived in a little platoon, a small fellowship of friends and allies. His followers took his example and lived this way too. “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts” (Acts 2:46); “Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house” (1 Cor. 16:19); “Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house” (Col. 4:15).
Church is not a building. Church is not an event that takes place on Sundays. I know, it’s how we’ve come to think of it. “I go to First Baptist.” “We are members of St. Luke’s.” “Is it time to go to church?” Much to our surprise, that is not how the Bible uses the term. Not at all. When the Scripture talks about church, it means community. The little fellowships of the heart that are outposts of the kingdom. A shared life. They worship together, eat together, pray for one another, go on quests together. They hang out together, in each other’s homes. When Peter was sprung from prison, “he went to the house of Mary the mother of John” where the church had gathered to pray for his release (Acts 12:12).
(Waking the Dead, John Eldredge 191–92)