2 Chronicles 29:1–3: “Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them.”

October 16th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

King Hezekiah was a breath of fresh air to the nation of Judah because his priorities lined up with God’s priorities. His first official act recorded here was repairing the broken temple doors his father King Ahaz had locked closed. By opening and repairing the temple, Hezekiah was bringing back public worship.

We see throughout Scripture that God desires His children to gather together in a public place and meet with Him. The place of public worship isn’t important to God because He needs such a place, but because we do. In the New Testament, we as believers are entreated “Not [to forsake] the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some” (Heb. 10:25). We also find that Jesus made it His common practice to go weekly to the synagogue, gathering with other believers in public worship of God (Luke 4). Coming together as an assembly of believers is a command, and nowhere in the New Testament is there a believer who doesn’t belong to a local assembly. Our heavenly Father knows that to keep our fire for the Lord hot, we all need the positive, spiritual peer pressure that comes from being a part of a community of believers.

A pastor went to visit a man who had been absent from church for some time. He arrived at the house of his wayward parishioner and found him sitting by a fire of glowing coals. The man fully expected his pastor to rebuke him for his tardy attendance at services. But the pastor, not saying a word, drew a chair up alongside the fireplace where the man was sitting, peering into the fire. With tongs, the pastor reached into the fire and took one of the red-hot glowing coals and placed it by itself on the hearth. The coal quickly began to lose its glow; a few minutes longer and it was black. The man smiled and looked into the face of his pastor, who hadn’t uttered a word, and said, “I’ll see you at church next week.”

“LORD, help us to remember the importance of fellowshipping with other believers this day.”