As I have spent the past couple of days traveling for work I have missed my beautiful wife and 4 children more than I could explain in this simple blog.  I never enjoy being away from them and do nothing but long to be back with them while I am gone.  However that being said I have over the years grown accustom to this feeling and have reconciled with myself that I will never get over it so I just expect it and deal with it.  However this trip I felt a different absence that I have not felt before.  I was not able to attend our church this evening and felt a serious amount of being misplaced and not where I was supposed to be.  I to this day have not felt such an attachment to a church body.  Now let me make sure that you understand that it is not to brick and mortar that I feel this attachment but to the individuals that make up the body of Eden Community Church.  I see and experience more from this body of believers in the way that they exhibit the likeness of Christ than I ever have before.  I did miss the teaching, prayer, and worship but I also missed the fellowship and communion with the people.  I truly for once in my Christian walk have an understanding of what this means:

Hebrews 10:24-25 (New American Standard Bible)
 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,
25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

The verse is not talking about simply showing up to church when the doors are open but in a mindset of growing in Christ together as family.  Standing beside each other through the hurt and sadness of bad situations and rejoicing together in the victory of enduring through trials and the happiness of life.  I really don’t know how Christians function without this part of the walk.  If you do not have this in your life then I can only encourage you to begin to invest in a local church body.  See this is the “secret” that a lot of Christians don’t understand, it begins with them.  You can only expect to receive as much as you are willing to give.  If you will humble yourself enough to invest in other’s lives you will be blessed beyond what you can imagine.  When a church body can function as the Lord commanded there is no limit for the impact that they can have for the kingdom.  I again challenge all Christians to find a body of believers that they can grow, love, and worship the King with.  To not belong to a body of believers is to not experience the Christian walk the way that Christ intended and instructed.

God Bless ~ Tyler

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