Mark Twain in chapter five of his book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, wrote of Tom at a church service: The service began with a list of announcements which he thought would go on “to the crack of doom.” He talked about the prayer which was generous in its detail and he resented it whenever anything new was added in. The preacher’s sermon “droned along [so] monotonously… and was so prosy that many a head began to nod.
This reminds us of what happens when we come together to worship. The announcements are a little long, the songs aren’t to our liking, the preacher is a little boring. Some of us even do things to keep ourselves awake. We are at a different time. Forty years ago people didn’t ask, why do I have to go to church (worship)? Things have changed, culturally and intellectually so that we look at life a little differently. Sunday morning is now seen as a time to relax. If we don’t like the way things are where we presently worship, we will look for a place where things are the way we want them to be. Most people when they think about worship do not think about it as essential or the most critical thing they will do during the week.
We come together every Lord’s Day to be in the presence of God. Even though it may not look like much, and even when we don’t leave with a feeling of excitement, what happens during worship is of great importance because this is where we approach Mount Zion and we offer our praise to the One who is worthy of all praise. May we never as Christians take this opportunity in a light manner!
Over the last few days leading up to yesterday, Christmas Day, and perhaps even in the days to come, many of us have received or will receive gifts. They come…
Are you a person who is sick and tired of sin in your life — the lies, the despair, the guilt and hurt? Do you want to live a transformed life with a renewed mind and true purpose? Perhaps you are a Christian, but you have been living a lie, and you are tired of it. You want to be real. You want to live a zealous, productive and blessed life as someone who has been saved from his or her sins. What should you do?
Each of us makes a choice to either to fulfill God’s purpose in our lives or to completely abandon that purpose and plot our own course.
Heaven will surely be worth all the affliction and hardship you experience here while serving our Lord. If you haven’t submitted your life to Him in obedient faith, why not do so today?
You and I as God’s people do not need a proclamation or a special day in the year in which to express our gratitude to the One who is sovereign over all creation. It is something which we can and should do every day of the year.
In these difficult times, if you haven’t already done so, I want to encourage each of you to pick up God’s Word. Read it. Meditate upon it. Let God speak to your heart and your soul. I promise you, it will make a difference in your life. Time spent in His Word on a regular basis will bring more benefit to your life than we can possibly fathom.
Ignorance and inexperience with grief, especially that which accompanies the loss of a mate, makes it difficult (if not impossible) to minister effectively to those trying to live after loss.…
But, who are we? Paul says we are “earthen vessels”(NKJV, NASB95), “jars of clay” (ESV, NIV84). Long ago, Job asked God, “Remember now, that You have made me as clay” (Job 10:9). You and I carry about in our frail mortal bodies a light derived from the central source of light, Jesus Christ. Paul said that it is in order “to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7b, ESV)
People are hurting. In John 13:34-35 we are called to love one another. Love is the reason we are here. Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that…
God has given us the opportunity to make a difference in our community. That difference starts with who we are — how do we treat one another. In 1 Thessalonians…
