DON'T NEGLECT CHURCH

DON’T NEGLECT CHURCH

Heb. 10:25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back is drawing near.  NLT

       I cringe when I hear of people who profess faith in Christ and seek to justify staying away from the fellowship of God’s people in worship.  I know how bad churches can be.  I know the hurts that are inflicted by church people on each other.  I know that church life can be detrimental to one’s mental and emotional health.  I understand how avoiding the church can seem like a good idea at times.  The church is made up of sinners and sometimes it really shows.

      However, I believe it is very damaging to the soul to totally dismiss church life because of the actions of people.  There is an ample supply of churches available to us so that we can find a church where we can worship the Lord without strife.  And if the only church available to us is full of problems, we can still worship amongst God’s people without participating in the strife.

      Neglecting the church because of the actions of some of her people is not a good solution to the problem.  We need the fellowship of the church.  We need to know that we are not alone in our walk with the Lord.  We need to know that other people are hearing the Gospel message and identify with it just like we do, even if they don’t live it.  We need to come underneath the spoken Word.  We need to be in an environment where we will hold ourselves accountable for how we live out our faith.  We need to be around people who encourage us in our faith and spur us on to greater faith.  We need to be where we are warned about what happens when we get careless and even neglect our faith.  We need to be challenged by others to stay connected to the Lord through prayer and the reading of the Word.

      The Lord is coming soon.  No one knows how soon it will be, but He is coming for His church.  It is imperative that we stay connected to the church through faithfully being a part of it so that when the Lord does come, we will be ready.  It is very dangerous and damaging to the soul to let other people or things interfere with our need to be involved in the life of the church.  We participate in church life because we love He who is the head of the Church and because we need it for the sake of our souls.