The Lord gave me a picture of Himself standing in the midst of a circular fence. This fence was made up of wooden slats full of gaps and knotholes. We who believed were all around on the outside trying to get a peek at what our master was doing inside. Each person around this fence had a different angle or perspective to his view, yet all were seeing Jesus. Those who were wise recognized this and later gathered with others to share what was seen that day.
Everyone who shared went away with a fuller vision of what the Lord was doing amongst them.

The foolish somehow believed that their view through the little knothole was the complete and accurate view of the Lord. They were certain that the others must have been seeing in error, especially if their vision did not match that of the others.

Corporate Expression Of Community
The Lord clearly established His church to be a corporate expression of Himself to the world around us. Paul gives the example of how we are as parts of the human body functioning in harmony together. How one part cannot say that it has no need for another part. In the first century church, (please read Acts) all who met daily from home to home were expected to contribute spiritually to the meeting. Everyone was encouraged to be functional in a real and meaningful way at that meeting. If anyone had a word or prophesy from the Lord, the others having the Holy Spirit were to judge it after its delivery. This is seldom done today.

The pattern which Yeshua established for His bride, started with the twelve disciples (or students). They left their normal lives and lived on a 24 / 7 basis for about 3 1/2 years with Jesus as their Master and Teacher. Jesus taught them by Word and by example. He did nothing that He did not see His Father in Heaven do first. Eventually, these twelve disciples were called Apostles or sent ones and commissioned to go forth and to make disciples in all the world.

The church met daily from home to home. The apostles taught under a porch behind the temple building. In the entire city of Jerusalem there was only one Christian church in unity, meeting daily in small groups in individual homes and corporately in larger groups behind the Jewish temple.

The early church was called " The Way " before Rome called it Christianity (which meant little Christ’s,) and Jesus was called Yeshua before Rome renamed Him Jesus. The early church functioned as a family model before Rome institutionalized it as a business/corporate model.

Radical Faith
 When Jesus established His church and new covenant as being His family, bride or His body, He established a radical new way for man to come into relationship with God. Never before in human history had God invited and then provided a way for man to have an intimate and personal one - on - one relationship with Him. In the old covenant under Moses, men lived under the yolk of the Law and related to God through a class of priests called Levites.
   
In the new covenant, Yeshua fulfilled all of the requirements of God's laws. Through a believing relationship with the Lord we, ourselves, become priests, saints, sons and daughters to the God who created the entire universe!!! We are to function together as a community of believers, and as a corporate expression of Christ to a lost and dying world.

The quality of our relationship with the Lord is reflected in the way that we treat one another. The Lord said, " what you do for the least of mine, you do for me." The Apostle John says that the one who claims to love the Lord, yet hates his brother is a liar and does not even know the Lord. VERY serious stuff!

Again, this is more cold-water-in-the-face radical! Jesus has stated that anyone who would not choose Him over our natural blood family, was not worthy of Him. This was demonstrated when a young man wanted to follow Jesus but desired to wait until his parents passed away so he could properly bury them.  He also demonstrated this when he was told that His mother and brothers were outside of a meeting that He was teaching, and wanted to see Him…. Jesus. He then stated that, "My mother and brothers are those who hear my words and then obey them." Jesus also only referred to His mother, Mary, as "woman" in the written record of scripture.