Continue To Meet Together
All my life I've heard sermons on the importance of attending church. These kind of sermons are usually negative, harsh, and guilt ridden. People leave feeling like one of two things. They either feel guilty for all of the times they missed and make promises to never miss again or they leave feeling like they have done God a favor for having been there. I think both of those answers are wrong.
"Going to church" is not the point. I think that being together with my family should be high on the priority list. "Going to church" is much different from the idea of meeting with my family to honor the name and presence of God in our lives.
Using that definition of meeting together, I do not understand why people want to miss for such flimsy reasons. Headaches, back aches, out of town family visits, whatever the reason, we seem to be able to make excuses for missing an event that should be high on the "to do" list.
I liken getting together with my church family to the rechargable battery on my cordless drill. The drill works for a little while with the battery on full charge. But eventually it runs out of power and has to be connected to a power source to refuel the battery.
Family gathers are like this. It is a time to renew our relationship with one another and to strengthen our relationship with God. He loves for us to spend time with Him as a family. The book of Hebrews says it this way: (Hebrews 10:24-25 NLT) "Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. {25} And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near."
I wonder what people do on Sundays when we meet and they just choose to not be there. Do they just not understand that they need encouragement and so do we all.
"Going to church" is not the point. I think that being together with my family should be high on the priority list. "Going to church" is much different from the idea of meeting with my family to honor the name and presence of God in our lives.
Using that definition of meeting together, I do not understand why people want to miss for such flimsy reasons. Headaches, back aches, out of town family visits, whatever the reason, we seem to be able to make excuses for missing an event that should be high on the "to do" list.
I liken getting together with my church family to the rechargable battery on my cordless drill. The drill works for a little while with the battery on full charge. But eventually it runs out of power and has to be connected to a power source to refuel the battery.
Family gathers are like this. It is a time to renew our relationship with one another and to strengthen our relationship with God. He loves for us to spend time with Him as a family. The book of Hebrews says it this way: (Hebrews 10:24-25 NLT) "Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. {25} And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near."
I wonder what people do on Sundays when we meet and they just choose to not be there. Do they just not understand that they need encouragement and so do we all.
posted by Keith Davis at
11:05 PM
4 Comments:
How well I remember those sermons and parents also telling us we could not miss services. I don't remember missing many services growing up, even when we went on vacation we had to find some congregation to attend services. It wasn't until I was MUCH older that I understood the concept of WORSHIPING God. That may have been because as I was growing up we didn't truly worship we just attended. It sure makes a difference in my walk to spend time worshiping and loving God with fellow christians (and many times by myself).
By
Three C Farm, at 10:28 AM
As one of the folks this blog is directed at I'll go ahead and stick my two cents in. It's not that we don't want to be in church every time the doors open. In fact, I truly "want" to be there more than the scheduled times. But in daily life of hustle and bustle and ball games and practices and full time jobs and second/part-time jobs and homework and tests and and and and.... there comes a time when the body must rest. The "recharging" of the spirit does nothing if the body is physically dead. At some point the body will shut down if it doesn't get proper rest. After going and going and going all week and being half-sick most of the time with the wonderful sinus issues of living in Alabama, there comes a point when the body says "I'm done and you can't make me get up and go anywhere". The physical rest can sometimes recharge us as much as the spiritual recharging during worship. Just because I'm not in the congregation on a Sunday morning or on a Wednesday night, doesn't mean I am not worshipping. I may be worshipping by enjoying some much needed quiet alone time at the house or sharing a special breakfast with the kids where we talk and discover what's really going in with life over the past week. Sometimes it's studying for a test that a child knows absolutely nothing about until that afternoon and sometimes it's just plain old exhaustion. When the body is exhausted it can't be recharged spiritually or physically without rest. The ones who don't come that are in nursing homes or in poor health have a "get out of jail free" card on worship days because their bodies are physically worn out. Just because we're young and not in a medical care facility doesn't mean our bodies aren't worn out too. Last night I did something I haven't done in many many years. I actually got 12 hours of sleep. Considering I haven't gotten more than 5 in a night in well over a year, it was very much over-due. I have been sick for about 3 weeks now and I can honestly tell you that when I got up this morning I felt so much better it was unbelievable. As I left for work this morning, I was refreshed enough to be able to enjoy God's paintings on the way to work. I was able to look at the beautiful colors in the trees and the mums decorating the yards. I was able to recognize who these gifts came from and was able to say a prayer of thanksgiving. Most mornings I'm squeaking in on two wheels and didn't notice if I had my shoes on or not much less the flowers in the yards. I do miss not being with my family on worship days but there are times when I just need some sleep!
By
Anonymous, at 3:35 PM
I too have had the same thoughts concerning the subject of your post. Like most problems this one is multi-faceted. There are some folks who just plain don’t value their relationship with other church folks and they underestimate their “encouragement factor” when they do show up.
Randy’s point is well taken.
Then there are times when the pulse of life leads one to say, I need to take a break, a mental health day. These days should be the exception and not the rule.
By
cwinwc, at 12:08 PM
I appreciate the words Keith.
I have often used the term "family reunion" to speak about the worship service.
Shalom,
Bobby Valentine
By
Stoned-Campbell Disciple, at 1:13 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home