Please Come Back

One of the reasons it can take so long between blog posts is because I want to be sure that what I am sharing is based on scripture. I ask myself is this what God would have me share or is it what I want to say on a subject. Sometimes God is trying to speak to me on a subject and my mind starts rambling with my own opinions on the subject and, honestly, God can't get a word in edgewise.

I've decided, on this particular subject, to just open up and share some of my own thoughts and feelings. Hopefully, I won't offend anyone and, if I do offend you, know it is not my intention. Quite honestly, I'm selfish. I need you. We need you. The body of Christ needs you.

There are a lot of people through the years who have given up on the local church. Some left because they were hurt, either by a person or persons within the church. I don't know how many times I have heard someone ask, "Does so-and-so still go to church there?" Or they will say something like "I didn't know so-and-so went to your church, They were at such-and-such a place with so-and-so. I won't go to church with hypocrites."

Been there, done that. It was one of the most miserable points in my life. I still believed and loved God, but I just couldn't get past the hurt. I tried other churches but until I had resolved the issues and forgiven those who had hurt me, whether intentionally or imagined in my heart, I could not find peace with another congregation.

Jesus said, in Mark 2:17, "It is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."  If you have a man of God in the pulpit preaching the Word of God then you will have sinners in the church. If Christ is being preached, He will draw all people to himself. We don't get to decide whether they attend our church or whether they get sent down the road. We do get to praise God that they are reaching out to Him.

When I was a young Christian growing up in the church, I was privileged to sit under a pastor who encouraged us to take notes, write down scripture passages and check things out for ourselves. He would tell us, "Don't just take my word for it." One of the things I like about my current pastor is that he begins every sermon with a prayer and somewhere in that prayer, every Sunday, are the words "Hide me behind the cross." He recognizes that it is more important that we hear what God has to say than it is to hear what he has to say.

I have said all of this just to say, Please come back. The body of Christ needs you. God has a place and a purpose for you within the local church. I am not asking you to attend the same church I attend, although you will always be welcome. I am asking you to find a body of believers with a man of God who preaches God's Word and be encouraged in your walk. If you will do this God will use you to encourage others.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more so as we see the Day approaching. -Hebrews 10:25