Christianity suffers from unbelief. There are many who profess a relationship with God outwardly but in their hearts they have not surrendered. Have you ever heard phrases like, “I’m just trusting in the Lord”; “God knows my heart”; “I’m not religious, I’m spiritual!”? These used to be the words of the religious, but have now become as empty in meaning as the hearts of the sayer is from God.
Strong words. I know, but it just seems like a person who loved the Lord in their heart would want to be pleasing to him. God expects that his people will practice loving each other, help people in need and worship him with their lives. Now you don’t have to go to a church to do those things, but going to church has its purpose.
Allow me to be religious for a moment — in the book of Acts, chapter 2:42-47 Luke, the physician, writes that after baptism the new believers continued in the apostles teaching and fellowshipped together daily. He spoke of them being glad together and having singleness of heart. And it was in this backdrop that the Lord added to the church daily. You see, God expects for his people to form a community of believers that would then go into various other communities and consume them. The church is designed to function like a kingdom. And that kingdom would fulfill the prophecy from Daniel 2:44.
It’s hard to build the relationship that would glorify God when the system he established is not being utilized. Now I am fully aware that some institutions of religion are so blended with tradition that it doesn’t look like anything God created but none the less, there is a mandate to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
The problem here is much like funerals these days — everyone goes to heaven. I’ve never seen a funeral where the expectation was that the dead would be tormented. No matter what lifestyle was lived, we ignore bible mandates and decide that death for everyone means we are all heaven bound.
Not only is that not true but it is a pretty good reason why as a society we are so callus about God. Let us live lives that serve a creator who is worthy of our worship. Let’s honor him in our comings and goings because it is because of him that we move and live and have our very being!
ClydeStyle 