Concerning Going to Church

A lot of Christians struggle over the idea of missing church services. For instance, one Christian forum I visit had a question from a participate who asked, "Does missing church on Sunday make me a bad Christian?" I asked the Father during one of our prayer times together what He thought about this, and here is some of what I believe He put on my heart about that subject:

Concerning this topic, I hate to answer a question with a question, but I think the answer to the original question is "What is the Father telling you to do?" I recall in the Gospels that Jesus said that He did what the Father told Him to do and He said what the Father told Him to say. That same Father, and for that matter, that same Christ, lives in us as born again Believers. In the 14th chapter of John it says "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."(vs 25-26)

When I first started to ask the Father about this question of going to church a while back, here is some of what He showed me through listening to His thoughts and studying His Word:

- One of the best sayings I've heard about this subject is this: Sitting in a church doesn't make you any more of a Christian than sitting in a garage makes you a car. Taking the analogy a little bit farther, a car sitting in a garage is warm and dry and protected from the elements, but sitting in a garage is not what cars were designed to do. If left there too long, it will eventually rust and seize up and become unusable for its original purpose.

- I believe that our understanding of "Church - The Body of Believers with Christ as its Head" has gotten crossed up with "church - the local congregation and/or the place people go to worship and praise God as a group."

- Under the Old Covenant, people could not have the Spirit of God come live in them because they were spiritually dead in the eyes of God as a result of Adam and Eve's disobedience. (There were times that the Spirit of God came "on" some of them, but until Jesus came to reconcile things, He could not live in them.) Therefore, God set aside a sacred day, called the Sabbath, and a sacred place, called the Temple, so that His chosen people, the Jews, could assemble together as families and tribes to assuage their yearning to get back close to Him through acts of sacrifice, repentance and praise. From the laws and customs of the Old Testament was born the tradition of going to church on Sunday.

- Under the New Covenant (Testament), God comes to live in and through each one of us who asks Jesus Christ into our heart as Lord and Saviour; this is as Jesus prayed would happen in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John. With Christ living in us, through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, we become the temple (church) (1 Cor 3:16 and 6:19) instead of some building. Now, every day is a sacred day, not just Saturday, Sunday or whatever is considered to be the Sabbath, because every where we go, we carry the Spirit of God in us! Anytime we need or want to communicate or pray or fellowship with Him, He's right there - all the time! That's how Christ walks this Earth today, as we allow Him to live His life through us to share the Good News of the message of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:19) and to minister to those who need and want Him in their lives. The church building is a great place for us as believers, the Body of Christ, to build and be built up in the knowledge of the "Son of God" (Eph 4:1-16); but it's the tool, not the project - the means, not the end.

- One of the things Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew really struck home to me, because I came from a religion that is steeped in tradition and ceremony, especially during its church services: He told the Pharisees and teachers of the law "You nullify the word of God with your traditions." I believe when church becomes a habit or a "have to do" thing, we set the nullifying process in motion.

- The really exciting thing is that when I'm doing what I think He's telling me to do, whether it be go to church or stay at home to fellowship with Him in the quiet of my prayer closet, He's always got something special for me: A word of knowledge or a special message, an opportunity to minister to someone or be ministered to in difficult times, the chance to sing a favorite praise song...the list goes on.

- Whatever I do, I am reminded of what Paul said in chapter 14 of His epistle to the Romans. The whole chapter speaks to this issue, but specifically in verse 5 he says, "One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind."

- Finally, I believe that the Christian life is not about me and what I am doing: It's about Him and what He's doing! In the Kingdom of God, it's who I am that's important (Rom 8:14-17), not what I do.

MarkMc
www.thepdl.com