I do have some additional thoughts about comparing and contrasting traditional church services and the practice of going to synagogue on the sabbath, but as I started to write about it I realized it was an entire other post, so it will have to wait until I have time to write it .

Thanks again for stopping by, and sharing your perspective!

Regarding being a “follower of Christ” I think one area we’ve lost is “taking up our cross daily”. We have been so prosperous in the U.S. that we have forgotten that following Christ often means sacrifice and suffering. My hope is that the present economic difficulties may work in our hearts to remind us that Christianity isn’t a “bless me” club, but instead a “lose my life for His sake” club.

Thanks again for your thoughts and perspective.

I feel that our church traditions have strayed from the teaching of scriptures in many areas and we do not fully understand what is means to be a “follower of Christ”. As Jesus Himself said when addressing the teachers of His day: “You make the Word of God void for the sake of your traditions.” I believe regular church attendance is essential to our growth as believers, but is crucial that we act upon what we hear, and not just go there for religious duty. In John 3, Jesus told the most religious leader and teacher in Israel that he needed to be born again.

We have to be doers of the Word.

http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Hebrews/hebrews_052.htm

To briefly summarize what this site says:

1. The word forsake here is very strong in the original Greek language. It’s the word that Jesus said on the cross: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” The word forsaken here means a complete abandonment; in this case, an abandonment of one’s faith in Christ. Therefore, it’s not laziness or forgetfulness to attend church meetings that is warned against here. Rather, it is the possible abandoning one’s faith, apostasy (“falling away”), that is addressed here. (This meaning also clearly fits the context of the rest of the chapter, BTW.) Such a falling away was a very real possibility in a time and place of persecution, as was the case to the original readers of Hebrews.

2. When it says “as is the manner of some” the word manner probably should be translated to us as “custom”, which is an ingrained habit in a culture. This would indicate that what is spoken of here is not an occasional forgetting to attend a meeting, but, rather, it’s a clear habit of no longer aligning oneself with other followers of Christ.

3. The assembling together here is referring to the assembling of the body of Christ under the head, Christ himself. (This interpretation fits closely with 1 Cor. 12, BTW.)

One insight into this verse a friend of mine told me about leads to some similar conclusions you draw from the verse here. The insight is that the “assembling of ourselves together” is not coming together in an assembly, per se. It’s doing our part to see Eph. 4:16 accomplished: “from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” (NAS) It’s like the assembling of a body, like the dry bones in Ezekiel.

Of course, assemblies (meetings, as in “freedom of assembly”) are part of that, but the idea that I may work on being fitted with others to be the full expression of Christ’s body inspires me more than just going to a meeting. Communities do what you describe better than “assemblies,” of course!

Just another riff that leads to the same conclusions you draw, I think.