Church & Christians

 The Bible tells us that Christ Jesus instituted the church in Matthew 16:18, "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."  It was Christ Jesus, not man who built the church.

And in Acts we read, They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42). In the verse before this we read that 3,000 were added to Christ Jesus' church and what did they do they devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings and to fellowship, ...and to prayer. They went to church. And look at Acts 2:46, Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 

Is the church important, well look at Ephesians 5:25-27, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."

You need to know that when I am talking about the church I am not talking about any certain denomination. Also I am speaking of those who meet in established buildings, in homes, in schools, where ever Christ followers meet. It is important to know that I am writing this to Christians, to Christ followers, followers of Christ Jesus and His teachings, to those who makes up the church.

Okay, now with that clarification I think you can see the church is important. It is important for the growth of the Christian spiritually. It is important for the support Christians receive from other Christians who meet regularly. If it wasn't to play an important part in the lives of us who follow Christ Jesus why would He even have created it?

So now the meat of this blog. Why is it here in the United States and I think I can safely say in the western hemisphere that a lot of those who call themselves Christians find it easy to be anywhere but in church on Sundays or Saturdays depending on the denominations. Why is it that with a lot of those who call themselves Christians that anything and everything trumps being in church. The picture I opened with speaks directly to this. 

There is a song titled "Excuses, Excuses" and it is a sadly funny song. Like the song it seems that people come up with all kinds of excuses to keep from attending church, "Sunday is my only day off and to sleep in," "I have to check and water my cattle at the same time church is going on," "Church is full of hypocrites," and the list goes on. But if these people really are Christ followers why do they do everything they can to avoid church. I mean if it's important enough for Christ to die for shouldn't it be important enough for us to attend? 

For these folks who call themselves Christians and yet have no qualms about blowing off church I have a question for you. Do you not know that there are Christians in the Middle East and the Far East that literally risk imprisonment and even their lives to meet together with other Christians in underground churches. 

And your willing to miss because of a sporting event or because a pastor at one of a dozen churches you could attend (freely) stepped on your toes, hmm.

Just a thought.

A Panhandle pastor