by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
In China, Christians have to find secret ways to meet, and some travel two hours to get to a private home to meet with other Christians. One female disciple asked, “Why doesn’t everybody in America go to church?” She thought everyone who has such freedom to assemble, mostly conveniently, would take advantage of such a tremendous opportunity. What she didn’t realize is that Christians in America do not have the same hunger as those who hunger for the privilege in China.<\/p>\n
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness<\/em>” (Matthew 5:6). You have to first “taste that the Lord is good<\/em>” (I Peter 2:1-3). They want to continue nourishing their souls with the word of God and fellowship with others. The girl in China hungers for fellowship with other disciples. Here, it is often taken for granted to the point that the hunger is gone. If you are not first driven by your own hunger, you will find other things to replace the void left in your heart. If Jesus fills that void, you find ways to do what you want to do, and that is by life or by death to magnify the name of Jesus (Philippians 1:20).<\/p>\n The freedom to assemble in fellowship with the Lord’s church does not create the hunger. The hunger must first be in the heart so that you long to find ways to assemble, not find excuses not to. We are thankful for those who have the hunger here and all over the world. May their tribe increase!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton In China, Christians have to find secret ways to meet, and some travel two hours to get to a private home to meet with other Christians. One female disciple asked, “Why doesn’t everybody in America go to church?” She thought everyone who has such freedom to assemble, mostly conveniently, would take…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[913,482],"class_list":["post-86760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-bible-study","tag-learning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42777,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/minimum-duty-or-maximum-opportunity\/","url_meta":{"origin":86760,"position":0},"title":"Minimum Duty or Maximum Opportunity?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The question comes up from time to time about whether to meet with the saints only one time on Sunday, or whether to meet every time we can, like for week-long meetings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights? I look at the example of the early church\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61320,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/notes-on-buildings-assembly-halls-and-fellowship-halls\/","url_meta":{"origin":86760,"position":1},"title":"Notes on Buildings, Assembly Halls, and Fellowship Halls","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 10, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Assemblies The church is commanded to come together for the purpose of worship and encouragement - I Corinthians 11:18, 20, 33; Hebrews 10:25 The purpose of coming together as a church is specifically separated from eating meals - I Corinthians 11:22, 34 Fellowship Fellowship is a state of being. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Notes","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15700,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/biblical-fellowship\/","url_meta":{"origin":86760,"position":2},"title":"Biblical Fellowship","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: I John 1:5-2:6 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fellowship has often been the center of controversy \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Part because the word has been misused by both denominationalists and Christians. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But it also has been area of trouble because we don\u2019t always know where to draw the line. II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What is fellowship \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Definitions \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sun\u0113theia - A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36244,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/cant-christians-meet-on-other-days-of-the-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":86760,"position":3},"title":"Can’t Christians meet on other days of the week?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In regards to \"Can I attend an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship instead of a church while at college?\" My first question is on \"One departure from the Lord's church that you mention is that they have services on Tuesdays, but the church meets on the first day of the week\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1156,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-fellowship-be-denied\/","url_meta":{"origin":86760,"position":4},"title":"Can fellowship be denied?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where is the Bible passage that authorizes you to deny me fellowship as a member of the church when I acknowledge Christ and have been baptized? is there an ugly little secret that only those whose baptismal outlook is baptismal regenerationist are recognized? Apparently, my belief that my sins\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87727,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-should-take-priority-fellowship-or-evangelism\/","url_meta":{"origin":86760,"position":5},"title":"Which should take priority – fellowship or evangelism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 12, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Acts 2:46 states that they would meet every day. Today, with modern schedules, jobs, and family demands, daily gatherings seem unrealistic, but is this wrong thinking? To what extent is the daily fellowship model in Acts 2:46 an expectation for Christians, and how should believers today practically live out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}