Yes God Wants You In Church

I see a lot of people point out reasons they don’t go to church and criticize the problems at churches. They say things like, “The Church isn’t a building, I am the church.”

While there is truth to that the Bible is clear God wants us to go to an actual church building. Because He wants us to have fellowship for the benefit of ourselves and those around us.

Churches also provide services to the community, they feed the hungry, clothe those who are without, provide financial support to people in need, not to mention many, many other things.

There is a huge benefit to churches in the world.

Satan is the accuser, he is the one putting these thoughts of the negative sides of some churches in your heads.

He wants you weakened, he wants the church weakened because he knows he has no power over a church truly filled with the Holy Spirit.

God wants you strong and one way to be strong in the faith is by fellowship in church.

Recently I finished a Bible study program and the last day the book asked me to read the famous, “Love is” verses from 1 Corinthians 13. I was then told to fill out two sections an “I am” and an “I am not.”

I was shocked to see that half of what Paul says “Love is” I had to put in the “I am not” category.

Maybe it’s time for those who criticize churches to look to oneself and address their own issues and soon you may realize you have a lot of common problems with the church you criticize.

If you don’t like something about church and you point you are the church then go to a church and be a part of making things better while also correcting problems in your own and life.

Who knows maybe some of the planks you see in the church’s collective eyes are also in your own and your brothers and sisters can help remove them.

I was an anti-church person for a long time but soon I realized I have the same flaws and many worse flaws than the people I was criticizing.

Personally I cannot begin to tell you the benefits church has had on my life and walk with Christ. To have people to rely on, to be a part of helping God’s Kingdom, I am sinning less, reading scripture more. It has been a massive help to my wife and I. God changed my heart and the church is one of the tools He used.

So yes, God does want you in church and yes the church is not just a building but the building is a place the church gathers, it is the place where the family of God come together.

Don’t deprive yourself from your brothers and sisters, don’t deprive your brothers and sisters of yourself.

God loves you and He wants what is best for you.

So go to church, open your heart and humble yourself.

Have a Blessed Week,
Chris

Heritage Baptist Church Service 1/24/21:

Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2021

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was an amazing man. Every time I have heard him speak in videos he gives me goosebumps. I have to admit I do not know enough about this man. But he was a true a hero and treasure to America and to the Kingdom of God.

Here are a few quotes from the great Dr. King I saw on an article (I will post the link to the full list of quotes below)…

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

“Always be sure that you struggle with Christian methods and Christian weapons. Never succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter. As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love.”

“It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, “Wait on time.”

“In your struggle for justice, let your oppressor know that you are not attempting to defeat or humiliate him, or even to pay him back for injustices that he has heaped upon you. Let him know that you are merely seeking justice for him as well as yourself.”

“In the midst of outer dangers I have felt an inner calm and known resources of strength that only God could give. In many instances I have felt the power of God transforming the fatigue of despair into the buoyancy of hope.”

Have a Blessed Week,
Christopher

Links:
The Article I found the above quotes from
https://www.faithgateway.com/15-powerful-quotes-from-martin-luther-king-jr/#.YAR-a3ZKh1t

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Sermon

Heritage Baptist Church Online Service Which Reflects On the Life of Dr. King

Prayer For The Nation

I think it is important this week to offer a prayer for our nation.

Lord I want to first pray for all those affected by the violence at the Capitol, it was horrible, horrific and avoidable.

I also want to pray for those affected by the violence that has occurred throughout the year in this country.

This nation has faced tragedy after tragedy this year. I pray that we overcome, that people’s hearts are healed and their needs are met.

I want to offer prayer as we go through a transition of power in this nation. Many are hurt and angry, some are excited, others relieved.

I think it is an important reminder we must not trust in man but God.

You God, sit on a throne that is greater than any throne made by the hands of man.

I also want to call for repentance of this nation. This is not about one party or group this is about the nation as a whole. Everyone in this country should go to the Lord humbly.

The truth is we have lived very comfortably so long Lord, help us Lord to be humble and remember our brothers and sisters throughout the world who have suffered so much.

We must turn back to you and live our lives by Your will not ours and by Your Word not ours.

Thank you Lord for your continued blessings, have mercy on us God and help us return to you.
.
Amen.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (English Standard Version)

14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Links:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Chronicles+7%3A14&version=ESV

How To Love Someone That Is Hard To Love (According To Scripture)

As Christians we are called to love people even if that person is emerged in their sins, even if that person is your enemy or an enemy of God and even if they hate you.

That being said love isn’t condoning bad behavior.

Love also isn’t shouting and pointing out how horrible someone is.

Look at it this way, if someone is an addict, shouting at them and telling them how horrible they’re and the wreckage they have left behind doesn’t seem like a sound strategy. Could it work? Possibly. But more than likely it will lead to them pushing you away and immersing themselves more in their addiction.

On the reverse of that if someone tells the addict, “Hey I love you the way that you are and everyone has their vices.” That is condoning their destructive behavior. In some ways that can be worse than the previous method.

Truth is both of those methods are no good and dangerous.

Instead we must correct in love, don’t condone but don’t condemn. We have to teach and show the way through our love. But how do we do that? Let’s go to scripture with two examples.

First let’s see how we show a person Biblical love by looking at what the Bible say love is… 

1 Corinthians 13:
“13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Next let’s look at the example of how Jesus responds in love to the woman caught in Adultery…

John 8:1-11 (ESV)
8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]]

Jesus in a simple sentence explained how to handle a situation such as this. He addresses her sin directly in order to correct her, He chose not to condemn her and told her to “sin no more”. He did not condone her actions and tell her, “Well you’re all sinners”. He also did not call her bad names, shout at her and tell her she was an awful person.

Remember to try and have patience as God has patience with us.

Of course there is a time when you will have to walk away from that type of person, you should always pray for them but eventually there has to be some consequences.

Often people skip right to walking away or bringing severe consequences and in some cases that is the correct method but in many circumstances that is done because it is easier than having to deal with the issue directly.

But even more so the easiest thing to do would be to ignore the issue entirely so you don’t have to deal with it at all.

Think of someone you love, if they were in need of something or struggling in sin would you allow them to suffer or would you help them? Of course you would help them.

But Jesus calls us do something more radical, to love those who hate us.

So help those who hate you and be the light to battle the dark.

Bring love to hate.

Because love, true love is the greatest of all.

Have a Blessed and Loving Week,
Chris

Links…
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%208%3A1-11&version=ESV

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2013&version=ESV