The Lamb's Bride Project
Imagine
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church You've heard of the "one anothers," thanks to Gene Getz. And you've heard of "body life" thanks to Ray Stedman. Well, we would like to introduce you to THE TOGETHERS OF SCRIPTURE The Togethers of Scripture can be viewed as an expanded list of the "one anothers." You see, there are plenty of instructions for Christian community that do not have the words "one another" or "each other" in them. An example is the command "hold to the truth together" which has a minimum of 13 supporting Bible passages (and the real number is probably well over 300). The Lamb's Bride Project has storeued 65 of God's commands in Scripture for the church. But, do you know what? They could also be seen as God's 65 helpful hints on how to behave together. God wants to help us. His commands are full of wisdom for us to use. We have storeed 65 Togethers, and there could be more, but we stopped there. We further placed them in 10 categories for ease of discussion. THE TOGETHERS OF RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD THE ATTITUDINAL TOGETHERS THE TOGETHERS THAT HOLD TOGETHER THE TOGETHERS THAT STRENGTHEN THE TOGETHERS THAT HEAL THE TOGETHERS OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH THE TOGETHERS OF INVOLVEMENT IN THE WORLD THE TOGETHERS OF EVANGELISM THE TOGETHERS OF BATTLE THE TOGETHERS OF PERSEVERANCE A copy of the 65 Togethers in these 10 categories, complete with brief descriptions and verse references, is available here. More complete descriptions and applications to church fellowship and small group Christian community are found in our tape sets titled Biblical Relationships in Christian Small Groups and Christian Community as Worship Through the Togethers of Scripture. It goes without saying that a church that knew of and worked toward obedience in these 65 commands of our Lord for His church would be a powerful society of the Kingdom. God would be glorified by more than mere words. That church would be a loving fellowship with all the right attitudes. It would be a cohesive church that could hold together during many storms of controversy, financial woes, and attacks from the evil one. Such a church would be strong, heal its members of much hurt and pain, and see tremendous spiritual growth. It would reach out to help the world in which we are aliens, as well as bring others to Christ. This church would not just fight Satan, but it would march against the very gates of hell and win! These 65 things are not just "good ideas from God"; they are commands. The Togethers all flow from Jesus' command in John 13:34 to love one another And they are the power behind the promise in verse 35 that all the world would know we are Jesus' disciples by the love we have for one another. This love is far more than the simplified expression found in most churches. The distinguishing character of this "witnessing love" is what the society of God's people, those in the kingdom of heaven, believe about sin and how they handle sin in their own ranks with love, grace and many of the 65 Togethers. Of course, not all of these 65 commands can be done at once. But that is no excuse not to know them and apply them in larger fellowship gatherings and in small group meetings. For example, take the Together to "Carry One Another's Burdens." Such a command is a wonderful invitation to be as much like Christ as possible. This command of Galatians 6:2 comes in the middle of a paragraph about sin. So we define it this way: "Help pay the consequences of one another's sins. Lift the burden of past sin from one another's shoulders. Fully make right each other's mistakes. In this way, be very much like Jesus Christ. He paid the penalty; we can pay the consequences. What a privilege!" We are developing a Small Group Leader Manual and also a Small Group Member Handbook to outline how to keep these 65 Togethers in mind right during a small group meeting. Used in the meeting itself, the Small Group Leader Manual will help the leader lead the group without taking away the opportunities for group members to powerfully serve and interact with one another. The Small Group Member Handbook is also used in the meeting. Group members use it to guide them in their contribution to the group process and to other group members.
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