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Fellow: from ‘To tie or connect’. A fellow is connected with you in some way.

Ship (Saxon) ‘to shape or form’. Hence the following definition of Fellowship:

Two people bound together for a common purpose with he objective of building something, either physical or spiritual. For a Christian it the body of Christ that is built up through building up one another through their common focus and obedience on Jesus and His things. For the world it is meeting with a purpose to do something. Most of what the church calls fellowship is often worldly in nature.

If Christ and His Kingdom is not central to the purpose of their meeting then it is not Christian fellowship.

Fellowship is also a result of having Stewardship of you relationships in their proper place so that you know when you are fellowshipping (in the Christian meaning of the expression) and when you are socialising.

Fellowshipping does not make you part of the body of Christ. Fellowship is the result of obedience to Jesus as Lord so that you are part of his ‘Body’ already. When you relate to Jesus correctly you are in a correct relationship to others in His ‘Body’ through Unity of the common Spirit in you all (Unity in the holy Spirit).

Only as you are one in the Spirit with other the people you are fellowshipping with can it be as Jesus desires it to be. Fellowship based on anything else is really just a form of social interaction.

Fellowship must be based on the Love of Christ in you so that there is no fear in it or it will be inhibited in some way

Worship and fellowship are different. Worship is to do with giving deference to someone you consider more worthy than yourself. The danger is that this person may become and idol and replace God. Fellowship is to do with a relationship between people whose focus is Jesus and His Will for their life. This focus is expressed in the way they relate and not necessarily in what they say.

Intimacy occurs in both worship and fellowship. The degree of intimacy determines the depth of the relationship.

Fellowship is an expression of the correct stewardship of relationships. As relationships and how we manage them are the basis of all we take to heaven then fellowship and its stewardship takes on significant importance.

Fellowship occurs when two or more like minded people gather to discuss a common interest or activity to do with Jesus and His purposes for them. The basis for Christian fellowship is Jesus and the love he places in us for each other. It is the subject or purpose of the fellowship meeting that determines the direction and the intensity of the fellowship as well as what should be done during it. The deeper the intimacy between people the deeper the fellowship.

What we call church these days is really a ‘synagogue’ type experience unlike the early church which met in homes, had no formal meeting structure as it was led by The Holy Spirit, shared a common meal and celebrated The Lord’s Supper in the process. Jesus was the focus of the meeting and not procedure or ritual.

Christian Marriage is the deepest and intimate fellowship relationship we have on earth and is second only to the relationship we individually have with Jesus.

The Holy Spirit uses fellowship meetings for the encouraging of each other and meeting the needs of each other (Heb 10:24,25). This encouragement of others and meeting their needs is usually learnt in the family and carried over to these fellowship groups.

To encourage, support and build up ourself and each other in our common faith

To encourage ourself and each other to express our faith in loving service to God and others

To help us solve problems we or others have in our Christian walk through Godly counsel and the assistance of the more mature Christians there.

To meet and demonstrate The Kingdom of God to the world

Modern church services are more like the assemblies held in the Temple with all its legalism ritual and formalism that has resulted in a two class system - clergy and laity (minister/priest and congregation).

The rise of the professional clergy class resulted in the institutional church. The Institutional church was needed to support those professional clergy whose purpose was to promote their institution and maintain it so they could use it as a basis to work from.

Previously, people who ministered worked during the day and ministered in their free time either at work or outside their work hours. This was the type of person who ministered in the early home groups. They supported themselves so did not need an institution to support them. They had no academic qualifications and there was no structure for them to be promoted in. There was no salary or payment for their services and all was done for the love of Jesus and His Kingdom. There were some wandering ministers but they were evangelists who were sent to proclaim Jesus to the world. These did not neessarily have a church supporting them but all who felt God wanted them too gave to their support and evangelists were welcomed into the homes of the early Christians who also helped support them when they were in their locality.

There was never the problem of size in these home groups. If they got to large they split and met in two houses.

Once the institutional church was formed, authority, wealth and prestige became important and large church buildings were built. These were too big for the communal meal so this was stopped and was no longer a part of the fellowship of this two tiered church system. What was left was a system for worship similar to the temple with clergy and their assistants and the people (laity) separate. Without the appropriate qualifications you could not serve God.

Satan had managed to remove the system of early worship Jesus had instituted where the family was the basis of worship and family (fellowship) meals in the church an important part of the service and has replaced it with one similar to the formalism and ritual that was in the Jewish worship service. With this, fellowship in the service, as it was instituted by Jesus, disappeared.

House churches that support a pastor or minister are still in this system and are in this sense still removed from the early church meetings where the clergy and laity classification did not exist.

In the beginning spiritually mature people were used to guide the house churches and as The Holy Spirit led them they ministered. When The Holy Spirit was removed as guide to the church by formality and the need for structure in these big churches it meant rules, regulations and accreditation was brought into the church system to ensure standards of the denomination was maintained.

The worship in the church no longer represented Jesus but a man ordered system that ignored The Holy Spirit and did what seemed best using The Bible to suit whatever purposes they wanted to bring in. So words in the Bible were redefined or interpreted to mean what they wanted them to mean. This is the basis of modern theology – what man understands or reasons theology to be and not what The Holy Spirit says it should be.

Because modern denominational church meetings are based on man’s reasonings of what they should be, the focus is on the preacher and the order of the service and not on Jesus. This is why it is difficult or even impossible for a congregation to have fellowship in a church that follows denominational guidelines for worship and ignores the guidance of The Holy Spirit. There may be fellowship between a few but not the unity that would result in fellowship of the whole congregation.

Without The Holy Spirit there can be no true fellowship as it is only in the unity of the Holy Spirit that true fellowship occurs.

The reformation brought people back to the Truths of The Bible but not back to church meetings in the way the early church use to have them so the formality continued. The reformation also ignored the role of a personal Holy Spirit in worship so new groups arose that were more true to God but were not Spirit led as the early church was. They held to The Bible faithfully but did not know the Power of God as demonstrated by Jesus and all who correctly preach, teach and demonstrate the Kingdom of God. This was because they majored on the Gospel of Salvation and not on The Gospel of the Kingdom.

Holiness revivals were spirit led but stayed in the church structure and Satan was able to subvert them by playing on the ego and pride of ministers and managing to get error into the understanding of The Holy Spirit and His role in the church.

While there are clergy and laity in a fellowship and The Holy Spirit does not lead it you will never get back to the worship style of Jesus and the early church as the division of laity and clergy puts a divide there that was not in the early church and hinders fellowship as Jesus desires it to be. Only as people of equal status in Jesus (Gal 3:28) and different maturity are in a fellowship can the Holy Spirit lead any fellowship as He should and set it up as it was in the time of the Apostles.

I am not saying we don’t have leaders but that these leaders are drawn from the fellowship itself and not from a privileged or educated class that have a certificate but not a mandate from Christ to lead where they are. These leaders that are drawn from the fellowship are there as The Holy Spirit has appointed and anointed them to for that task and not because they studied in an educational institute to learn the best man made ways of leading.

The Holy Spirit does not need denominations, churches, clergy or theologians to do the Work of God. He just needs people who are willing to be leb by The Holy Spirit and who will do what He says.

These Holy Spirit led people will serve Jesus and His Kingdom and not some denomination or church system as they are not shackled by being associated with any of these. These people will serve Jesus out of love for Him and His people and not because they will have prestige, power, more income or a bigger church. They have no promotional structure to work towards and prove they are worthy to be promoted in the spiritual as they desire only Jesus and His Will for them and His people. In this attitude is true fellowship with Jesus.

The original format of the early church fellowship meals we more like the Passover meal Jesus ate with His disciples where family and strangers gathered to remember what God had done. For the Jews it was the deliverance from Egypt. For the Christians it was the Cross and deliverance from the kingdom of Satan. Hence it was called The Lord’s Supper as it remembered His sacrifice on Calvary.

The early church met in houses overseen by a host and hostess and were addressed by mature Christians. People told of the wonderful things God had done for them and helped each other out. It was said of the early Christians "Oh how they love"! There was no clergy there as they did not exist. There was no New Testament Bible, Bible College or any of the structures of the modern church age. It was also family oriented as families were the basic unit of the meetings like it was in the Passover meal. The family was the basic unit in The Old Testament Temple worship and Jesus did not change this in the New Testament.

The basis of Christian fellowship starts in the family with the father presiding over the table leading the thanksgiving to God for His provision and each sharing the blessings of the day as well as discussing any problems they can openly discuss. Through this they encourage each other’s faith and build each other up.

Families meet in a house church and these form a congregation like in the temple The congregation is a formal occasion and for this a person is temporarily appointed by The Holy Spirit to guide it and keep order until it is over. A mature person who is elected to function for a short time like a bishop or elder for that meeting and who outside the meeting may unofficially perform a similar role.

Fellowship will occur but often it will not be the main purpose of these meetings. Thus each type of meeting will have different requirements of formality but not a rigid formality but will be ordered as led by The Holy Spirit. The coordinators will be mature Christians who lead out of Love for Jesus and His people. Any other reason for being in control of these meetings is sin and will inhibit The Holy Spirit working in that meeting.

While there were various roles in the early church (Pastor, prophet, evangelist etc.) none was in charge as The Holy Spirit led the church. The leaders advised and counselled and spent their time in prayer and fasting (Acts 6) so they could hear God and advise according to His Will. This was time spent fellowshipping with Jesus, learning of Him as well as of what He wanted them to do for Him. It was where they would also learn how He wanted them to minister to others.

Their authority was because of their maturity as a Christian and experience because of the time they spent in fellowship with Jesus and The Holy Spirit and not because people appointed them because they had studied in an institution to learn these roles.

Their main qualification was that they knew Jesus and His Ways intimately. Because of this, people respected them and listened to them as God was behind everything they said or advised to others. In all they did they reflected God so to talk to them was like talking to Jesus they were so Holy Spirit led.

Administration of the house church and the communion meals were left to people appointed to do this but who were not involved with the spiritual side of the church. (See the role of deacons in Acts 6). These men were Men of Good repute (mature Christians) and as they served they would also do some counselling and advice but not as difficult in degree as those who were set apart for this.

The father of the family was in charge of the family worship unit and if necessary he went to a more mature Christian if he had any problems he could not resolve or there were questions in regard to Christianity he could not answer. Family problems only got to the spiritual leaders if the family could not resolve them or it affected two or more families.

This is where the pastors, prophets etc., came into their own as mature Christian counsellors. The focus was on Jesus and not on home fellowships or their expansion. They told people about Jesus, obeyed Him and Jesus expanded the fellowships and the Kingdom increased as a natural result of their faith being expressed to those around them. The Kingdom was their paramount focus and God prospered them and met their needs (Mat 6:33).

When a family came to the Temple to worship their fellowship was with God and not the priests. The priests were their servants to facilitate their worship and help them with any problems they had in regard to worship. The role of the priestly order was to maintain the temple and serve those who came there to sacrifice and worship. Jesus is our high priest to intercede for us and also the sacrifice that met the requirements for our sins so it is no longer necessary for us to sacrifice anything to restore us to a relationship with God if we sin. Forgiveness was given to us at Calvary so all that is now required is repentance and obedience to be restored to fellowship with God.

The role of the priest and supporters was not changed by Jesus but made redundant because we no longer need a temple to worship as we are now The Temple of God as The Holy Spirit (God) lives in us and because He lives in us we have direct access to God and a constant relationship with Him.

Without this constant relationship with God: talking to Him, listening to Him, interceding for others, focusing and learning what He wants us to do we may not have a salvation relationship. This is because He will not be out lord. Salvation requires you to continuously try and focus on Jesus and His Will for you. We fail at times but as long as our heart attitude os to focus on Jesus and His Will for you we will never lose out salvation.

Like fellowship, Lordship is a heart attitude that permeates all we do and not a conscious decision made each time we have something to decide about.

Fellowship with Jesus occurs as we worship Him by our life, talk to Him as we go through the day and listen to The Holy Spirit as He responds to us on behalf of Jesus as well as teaches us and guides as to what Jesus wants us to do for him. This relationship is always there and it is only as we are in this type of fellowship (unified by The Holy Spirit) can we have real fellowship with others because they are in the same relationship with Jesus and The Holy Spirit as we are.

The temple and its rituals are no longer necessary neither is the format of clergy/laity so that the use of any of this type of format only serves to destroy the system of fellowship and leadership the early church set up under the guidance of The Holy Spirit and Jesus.

The five fold ministries were not instituted to lead but to serve as mature guides and counsellors, helping people live as Jesus wants them to. They guide people to Jesus and show them how to live for Him as citizens of His Kingdom. The moment they set up an organizational type structure or ministry they break away from the role Jesus has ordained for them.

Any thing that you allow to place itself between you and the fellowship you have with Jesus is an idol and breaks the fellowship relationship resulting from salvation (Jn17:3) and may even lead to the loss of your salvation.

The closer the relationship to a person, the deeper the fellowship can be. The more important the fellowship the more we pursue it. Jesus is the most important fellowship we have. As we fellowship with Him he tells us what He wants us to do for Him and the sends us off to do it and to fellowship with the people we are helping (ministering too).

The Christian life should be a life of fellowship in some degree or other with Christians we meet as it is an interaction of people who follow Jesus for the purposes of Jesus out of Love for what He has done for them.

The closest fellowship is between you and Jesus. The next closest is between husband and wife, which is why we have the parallel in Ephesians: Christ and the Church (spiritual fellowship), husband and wife (physical representation of this spiritual fellowship). The next is fellowship with Christians in the family and other Christians.

We can have no fellowship with the world as we do not share a common mindset and purpose. This is why a Christian should not marry a non-Christian as they cannot fellowship or grow in holy unity. Jesus wants a married couple to fellowship. Because love is involved in Christian fellowship there is a new dimension to it that makes it different from fellowship as the world knows it.

It is because of the different attitudes to the love requirements of marriage (as God requires it) and which cannot be met by non-Christians that a Christian should not marry a non-Christian.

There is also the problem they belong to two different kingdoms with different ideals and purposes so they can never really agree on these and they can never have unity of their spirit.

Fellowship will only be as deep as you will expose yourself spiritually to a person out of love and trust in them.

The same Greek word as for fellowship is used for both communion and fellowship. The word for Communion (common-union) is used to signify a closer bonding - more of a common unity and experience than the social group that the term ‘fellowship’ is usually used to imply. True fellowship implies a oneness in purpose and mind that a social group does not have and signifies the closeness of the relationship that may not be found in ordinary fellowship.

We are all of the family of God and should interact as a family does. We should also show God’s Love to each other as Jesus asks us too do. The fact Christians do not behave this way shows they do not understand what fellowship really is. It is the gathering of family, the Family of God, and interacting with each other in the unity of The Spirit as well as serving each other in the Love God has for us and which we should have for them also.

It is the dying to self as Jesus died and the following of his teachings that give us communion with Him and His Body (1 Cor. 10:16).

We are not to have communion (oneness of mind and purpose) with non-Christians. It is actually impossible to have this unless we turn our back on Jesus and this is the danger of communion with non-Christians.

Here the oneness with The Holy Ghost is implied (as He unites The Body). As many as are led by The Holy Ghost belong to Jesus as well as being born of God and are His adopted sons and daughters. If we do not fellowship with The Holy Ghost there is great danger of not following Jesus as we should and not getting to heaven. If we do not fellowship with The Holy Ghost we can not fellowship with other Christians as He is the ‘glue’ in Christian fellowship.

Holy Communion implies God is the other person in the relationship and there is oneness with Him through The Holy Spirit. Fellowship implies a Christian is the other person in the relationship.

The difference between fellowship and social meetings is that Jesus is the reason for the fellowship while worldly discussion is the reason for social meetings.

There is common fellowship with God as well when we gather to carry out His Will and Purposes (Mat 18:20).

Obeying Jesus,

Fellowshipping with each other,

Eating meals together including the celebration of The Lord’s Supper and

Praying for each other.

God is faithful to His Love and Purposes and has called us unto a relationship with Jesus that gives us eternal life (Jn 17:3). (1 Co 1:9)

We are not to fellowship on any level with people who are demonically possessed or controlled by Satan (especially with them in worship) or who do not call Jesus Lord and whom divide The Body of Christ. (1 Co 10:20). Ecumenicism is not an option for a Christian.

We are not to enter into marital relationship or other legally binding relationship (yoked = bound together in some way) with a non-Christian as our belief systems are different and will be compromised by the relationship in some way. (2 Co 6:14)

We are not associate with evil but to expose it and attack the spiritual element (demonic leaders) behind it. (Eph. 5:11)

There is fellowship in being involved as an accomplice in the Gospel and its presentation. (Phi 1:5)

People who experience suffering for the same purposes as Jesus did, for the purposes of The Kingdom of God enter into the fellowship of His sufferings. (Phi 3:10)

Fellowship with Jesus if it is true fellowship should have an effect on our life. (1Jo 1:6)

The result of following Jesus is fellowship with other people who are followers of Jesus. (1Jo 1:7)

In itself, fellowship meetings have no set structural meeting format. It is the reasons for that the fellowship meeting that give fellowship importance as it is guided by The Holy Spirit (who keeps order in it and sets the format for the meeting). Underlying Christian fellowship is the love of God expressed through us to others for he purposes of The Kingdom of God.

The conclusion is that a fellowship is a group of persons that are like minded, are unified by the common Holy Spirit in them, are under His direction in the meeting and have gathered for a common purpose (Jesus and His Will). Where it is used for intimate fellowship with God it is normally referred to as communion. So any group of Christians gathered together for a common purpose technically form a fellowship.

When you became a Christian you became a citizen of he Kingdom of God. Your primary allegiance is to your King, Jesus. You do not become a member of a denomination or house church or similar except for the legal purposes of man.

Meetings for denominational purposes are not fellowship as they satisfy the requirements of the denomination (man’s legal requirements) and not those of God. They are a type of fellowship but are not Christian fellowship.

The moment a minister tries to take away the authority of Jesus by interposing themself between Jesus and you they have overstepped their authority. They have taken His place. Instead of nurturing and serving as gifts from Jesus to the church they rule as masters instead of servants to one another.

This mistake usually happens because denominational authority is confused with spiritual authority so that requirements and guidelines of the denomination (man’s) are superimposed on spiritual authority and is used as a framework from which to minister spiritual authority from. This ignores the fact that The Bible says Jesus is our bishop and not man.

1 Pet 2:s5 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your soul.

If anyone had a claim to lead a church or rule others it was Peter who wrote the above pointing to Jesus as the spiritual carer of people and not man.

Ministers are guides not rulers according to Jesus. They are to give them selves to prayer and fasting according to the Book of Acts (Acts 6) and not to administrative work. This fasting is as God defines it in the Old Testament which is abstinence from the things of the world and not abstinence from food.

Jesus is King (ruler) and The Holy Spirit the guide of those in the Kingdom of God so if these are not in place in a persons life and another has usurped any of their rule in a person then at worst the person is not in the Kingdom of God and at best they are not in a correct relationship with God so they are not able to do His work as He wants us too. In extreme cases these people may even lose their salvation.

We have man made structures and this is the problem with churches. They attempt to unify through mans methods and administrative structures and not through the unity The Holy Spirit provides. Hence reason and man’s methods becomes the criteria for unity. The Holy Spirit is not considered necessary or used as a guide as the rules of man have become more important than The Holy Spirit’s guidance.

More of the world’s methods are used and The Holy Spirit becomes less and less important. The successful worldly (thus of Satan) methods of management and expansion (people and assets) are used because they work using principles of Satan’s world system. The people are no longer led by The Holy Spirit and are comfortable in the system they have created.

What is a Christian doing using the methods of the enemy to promote their own purposes. They cannot be God’s purposes or they would be using His methods and structure and not Satan’s (except where Satan has copied God’s methods in which case they are God’s and not Satan’s).

To restore the church God has to remove the systems they have created to replace The Holy Spirit and this is starting to happen. Churches are having problems balancing budgets as God removes disillusioned people from them and the money coming into them is reduced. Natural disasters are also wiping out churches and their surrounding areas removing ministers and their livelihoods.

Jesus will continue to remove the infrastructure until they have nothing left but Him. This reaches its peak in the Tribulation.

We are being trained for this time of cleansing in the church and we need to be ready to step in and guide those that will listen to Jesus.

Are you ready to survive what He is going to do and minister to those in the church who have lost all in this purging?

Only as you walk in fellowship with Jesus led and empowered by The Holy Spirit so that you are in constant fellowship with them both will you endure what ever trials Jesus allows you to pass through.

Ecumenecism is not really necessary in the body as it is unified by The Holy Spirit. The fact Ecumenecism is necessary shows how divided the Body of Christ is. Ecumenecism is an attempt to reconcile people who call themselves Christians but may have differing doctrinal beliefs, often the result of man’s (denomination’s) additions or differing interpretation to the requirements of being a Christian and may even at times, be heretical beliefs. This is more so when Ecumenicism involves worship with faiths and belief systems other than Christian.

Modern day Ecumenicism is between denominations, other religions and cults where the differing in beliefs requires common ground for agreement for worship or fellowship. Any true Christians being involved in Ecumenicism will usually need to give up some of their Biblical beliefs or compromise these badly.

Ecumenicism in this day and age is not usually based on on common beliefs but on common experience which is why non-Christian faiths and so called Christian faiths can fellowship together through Ecumenicism. They put doctrinal differences aside and share a common experience. Unfortunately when feeling replaces doctrine Satan works and the experience they have is not from God which is why they can share it.

If Christians truly obeyed Jesus, they would not fellowship with these non-Christians as they would be unequally yoked together in that fellowshipping and by actually fellowshipping with non-Christians of any kind would be showing approval to these religions and cults.

Dialogue with these non-Christians and try and bring them to Jesus but fellowship with the or worship with them? Never!

The moment you form a fellowship with those who do not follow Jesus you are yourself no longer a follower of Him. You have accepted as allowable, doctrine or beliefs that reject or demean Him in some way and have disobeyed Him by yoking yourself with those who disobey him (liberal Christians) or who do not follow Him. (If they followed Him they would be one with you in he Spirit and Ecumenicism would not be necessary).

The only way fellowship through Ecumenicism can occur is if you reject the Lordship of Jesus. The moment you do this and allow yourself to fellowship with Satan’s Kingdom you are in danger of losing your salvation.

Stewardship requires good use of ones time and the best example of this usage is spending time with Jesus in fellowship. This is the purpose behind the day of rest each week, mistakenly called the Sabbath. It is a day of fellowship with Jesus, our family and others.

The seventh day as a day of rest was instituted before The Law, at the end of the creation week. It was stated in The Law and made a commandment because God considered it so important and necessary for mankind. As the ‘day of rest’ was instituted before The Law the exclusions in Acts 15 does not apply to it. Thus the day of rest is still a practice God recommends and in fact requires from us still.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Exo 20:8-11 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

It was already a day of rest and set apart for God. The ten commandments did not institute but they explained it more fully and established a set day for it to be observed on.

Sabbath means ‘intermission, a break, a dividing time between days of labour’ so it marks a division in the normal course of daily events, in this case to rest from labours and focus on God and family and to enjoy more fully what God has given you.

From before The Law and indeed at the very beginning of time, the seventh day was set apart to the Lord and made a day of rest from regular daily activities - a day to look to God not the world. This day ideally should occur a week after the last day of rest.

Rom 14:5-6 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Rom 14:6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

It appears that any day can be a ‘Sabbath’ to a Christian as long as on one day a week you rest from your work and if possible spend time with the family focusing on Jesus.

You need to look at the context of this passage which is about your causing a weaker brother/sister to stumble and also about an even greater principle than The Law.

The first principle is that each day belongs to the Lord and that His Will should be first in all so that we are to focus in Him each day. This means that each day is Holy to Him.

The second principle is The Law of Love, that Love is greater than legalism and if you have a weaker brother/sister who legalistic holds to the Sabbath, as they do not understand every day belongs to Jesus, then in love you are to uphold and encourage them to the truth and not criticise them. At least they are observing the sabbath. God in His time will give them revelation of the truth when they are ready for it.

The Sabbath day as the assinged day of rest no longer applies to Christians as it was stated as part of The Law which no longer applies to Christians (Acts 15). Which day is the day of rest can vary according to your occupation. As every day is God’s then it is only necessary to have a seventh day rest according to your working week and not the calendar or else it would be a lack of love to criticise people who could not rest on the official seventh day of the week.

If you are a Christian you must rest one day a week from your labours (unless God gives permission not to do so). It is a day to be before God with the family where you all fellowship with God and each other (through the communal feast and Godly activity) .

In reality every day is a holy day when it is offered to Jesus and what differentiates the ‘Day of Rest‘ from other days is that it is a day of rest from the world, spending time with God away from the pressures of Satan’s world system. It is the seventh day of your working week and not Saturday as the calendar states the seventh day is.

Any recreational activity should be a family event to keep in the spirit of this ‘day of rest’ and should be carried out in a Godly way.

In Mat 6:33 God promises to provide all our needs and that includes those of the seventh day rest or He would be a hypocrite so that as you seek His Kingdom and His Righteousness He will include what you need for you to observe the seventh day as He determines what your seventh day is. One of the guiding principles will be what days you rest from work as God would not ask you to observe a day you cannot observe.

The basic unit of fellowship is the family and the seventh day of rest allows the family to fellowship and develop their common faith in Jesus and by this grow closer to Him and to each other. The family that fellowships around the evening meal table as well as on the Day of Rest will fellowship with each other at the Marriage Feast of The Lamb.