Why Do You Attend Church?

So something has been on my heart lately and normally I don’t share these types of things but I think it will help some people, so here goes nothing. Let me preface this by saying this blog post is for the active church attendee so if that isn't you then this may not apply to you. That being said let me get to my point. Why do you attend church? What do you expect to get out of it? I’m sure if you ask ten different people you’d get ten different answers. Here is where I’m left scratching my head a bit. Do you go to church expecting that to be your “learning time” in God’s word? Meaning that this is the time that you will learn more about God and His plans for your life?

There is a fine line in this area because I do believe that God brings revelation during the church service(s) but if this is the only time that you spend with God expecting it to be the primary time that God will speak to you; then you're selling yourself short and limiting God.  I believe church is a time to get together with the family that God has placed around you (and yes your fellow church attendees are in fact your family) and it’s in these times that God will show up in a corporate way for us. It is a time to gather together and lift up His name together with others. However, for me the true intimate and learning times in the Lord took place locked in my home office, on my face, in prayer, and in God’s word. These are the times that the Holy Spirit has spoken volumes to me and taught me things that I could never get in a church service regardless of how great the speaker or message was.

I’m reminded of Moses and the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt (Exodus 20:18-21). Moses was the one that went to meet with God but if you recall the people were afraid to go so they “stood afar off,” and allowed Moses to go meet with God. Now God still provided for them through the obedience of Moses but I wonder what God would have done had the children of Israel just fell down and cried out to God for themselves.

Now this topic will ruffle feathers I’m sure, but hear my heart. I believe church is important and I believe that as self-proclaiming followers of Christ we should be rooted in a church body somewhere. But we can’t rely on the church meeting (or a speaker) to be our primary source of being fed (spiritually). The Bible tells us that in the end times many false prophets will rise up to deceive many (Matthew 24:10) when Jesus said this He was prophetically speaking; meaning, that there will be those who are deceived. For this reason alone it is imperative that we are finding out who God is for ourselves and not relying on other people’s revelations of who God is to them.

When I hear the man of God speak at my church it is generally not brand new revelation but it is usually something that is being confirmed (or re-confirmed) that God has already been dealing with me about during my own personal time with God. Sometimes God does show me brand new things and new revelations through my Pastor and that is totally awesome but I do not rely on these times to sustain me and be my primary learning time in God’s word. If I were to do that it would lead to life of spiritual malnutrition.

So again I pose the question…Why do you attend church?

Take Care & God Bless,

-E

Are You Fooling Yourself?

Do what God’s teaching says; don’t just listen and do nothing. When you only sit and listen, you are fooling yourselves. - James 1:22 (ERV)

Came across this is my reading today and it really struck a familiar nerve within myself so I'd figure I'd share. I still struggle in this area of my own life and I think we all do from time to time. Are we really hearing God's voice? Am I just making this up? If I am hearing His voice; why am I not obeying it? These questions can plague our minds if, and only if, it our sincerest desire to walk with God and bring glory to HIS name.

I'm reminded of quote from Joyce Meyer on this topic. She says, "We are educated far beyond our level of obedience." When I first heard this it was an eye-opening thing because I knew it was true in my life as well as the eyes of others. We know we are supposed to forgive others, but we don't always do it. We know that gossiping about others is wrong, yet we still do it. Judging, yep we know that one too, yet we still continue "fooling ourselves." There are fundamental Biblical truths that we know we should be doing (or not be doing) yet we still do the opposite of we know is right. Why?

The only understanding of this I can come to is that we are all in the process of sanctification. Meaning, this is a marathon NOT a race. When you said yes to Jesus and honestly gave your life over to Him the marathon began. It's a constant and ongoing thing as long as we are breathing to be changed and conformed into the image of Christ. Meaning, we already have the characteristics of Christ we just need to learn to walk in them.

There is a fine line between outright disobedience and being "in the process" but God knows our hearts and if we are honestly doing the very best we can; His grace is more than sufficient for us. In my own life there have been times of outright disobedience as well as just being "in the process", so I know this is something we all deal with. It all comes down to heart check, what are your motives and what are your intentions? You and God are the only two that know the answer to these types of questions.


Take Care & God Bless,

-E