“Stay in Church” seems so simple that its importance may not register as an actual Life Lesson. But recently, God has highlighted in my heart many reasons why church is not just a place of worship but a place of necessity in the Christian life. So let us take a few moments and look at church in our everyday life.

TOO BUSY FOR CHURCH?

Busy! If there is one thing we moms feel it is busy. That is probably one of the reasons you see so many blogs about “the unplugged mom” or going back to the simple life. We are worn out. In our country we are very blessed with more than just survival. We no longer spend an entire day scrubbing our laundry and putting it out on the line to dry. We don’t spend an entire day baking for the week’s meals, nor are we rising early to warm the fire for the morning’s portion of cooked oats or lunch time’s boiled chicken and beans. Instead we are uploading our calendar to the family so that we can keep track of whose practice it at what time and what games we will be attending. Or maybe you are just trying to find a time to get to the grocery store before your diaper supply is completely empty. Whichever stage of life is yours, busy is probably a good definition for it.

Personally, on Wednesday nights I feel like high-fiving every single person who walks into the church building. Not only are they alive, they dragged their exhausted body out of their home and into church and in some cases they prepared multiple children for kid’s club; including costumes, memory verses, bibles, badges and combed hair. Church can become as much a part of the “To-do List” as making sure you scheduled time to smile at your husband.

When days like this are becoming the norm and you start resenting “Just another thing to do” it’s good to remember the verse “Commit your works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established.” Your feelings will pass. Don’t follow your heart. Now is a good time to remember that one of Satan’s tactics is wearying the saints. (Daniel 7:25) and that God reminds us that especially in the last days we ought to spend MORE time in church, not less. (Hebrews 10:25)

What pushed me to write the Life Lesson “Stay in Church” was that in the past several months I have written down titles to several “Life Lessons” that I wanted to cover and without exaggerating; every single blog that I was outlining got preached about in messages at church recently. It has been a little bit eery. Let me tell you a few of the Life Lessons that got mentioned at church.

DON’T BE A REACTIONARY

I actually started intensively researching a Life Lesson called “Don’t be a Reactionary” and started listing things which baptists tend to shy away from teaching due to a reaction against other denominations. A few were “love, grace, a critical spirit, unity and doing good works.”

Honestly, we tend to get sick of hearing those words lashed at us accusingly and out-of-context. In the 90’s I would have to hold back an eye roll when I would hear someone talking about how “love never fails.” Can you see how Satan would enjoy taking away true balanced preaching about God’s love? Charity truly never faileth, but if we are reactionary against the word “love” we go to the other extreme and sometimes stop being charitable.

Moving back to the topic of church; I was telling some friends on a Sunday night that I had been working on a blog about being reactionary and you won’t believe what the pastor hit on that evening? Being reactionary. You find biblical balance when you stay in church.

IT’S OK TO NOT BE PERFECT

Another post I started forming was about teaching your children that it is okay to not be perfect.

I was expressing to my mom how I struggle with anxiety in social situations because I feel like an outcast. You see, when you stand separated from the world, you feel like a giant target. Not only do I stand out as a separated Christian, I am also of the fundamentalist crowd and by-George; we are everything the world (and neo-evangelicals) find offensive. Just read through this list of characteristics listed in the definition of fundamentalism as listed by the World Congress of Fundamentals in 1976.

* Maintains an immovable allegiance to the inerrant, infallible, and verbally inspired Bible.
* Believes that whatever the Bible says is so.
* Judges all things by the Bible and is judged only by the Bible.
* Affirms the foundational truths of the historic Christian Faith: The doctrine of the Trinity; the incarnation, virgin birth, substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection and glorious ascension, and Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ; the new birth through regeneration by the Holy Spirit; the resurrection of the saints to life eternal; the resurrection of the ungodly to final judgment and eternal death; the fellowship of the saints, who are the body of Christ.
* Practices fidelity to that Faith and endeavors to preach it to every creature.
* Exposes and separates from all ecclesiastical denial of that Faith, compromise with error, and apostasy from the Truth.
* Earnestly contends for the Faith once delivered.

Well #3 is super popular these days. Also, did you notice #6? Everyone loves a finger pointer. I am just destined to be miss-congeniality, aren’t I.

Someone once said that you can always tell an IFBer because they are the one alone in the corner with a group of people sneering at them. Yes. We stand alone, but it doesn’t mean we like being lonely.

But my point is that I know that in my enthusiasm for what is right, not only do I feel like an outcast, but I am an outcast who knows they haven’t always handled things appropriately.

I have been reactionary. I know that I have lacked charity. I know that I have actually taken part in contentious conversation that were caused by part flesh and part spirit. I know that I have been guilty of a critical spirit. I know that when I should have walked away, I didn’t. I know that I am not perfect, and that has to be okay.

But I can’t hide because people may or may not think less of me. I can’t be afraid that someone may not like me because I am not perfect. I just have to Keep on Keepin’ On.

And wouldn’t you know it, not two days after I talked to my mom about this my pastor preached on fear and anxiety? His message was way better than anything I was thinking about writing. Good preaching is heard when you stay in church.

GOD ACCEPTS YOU AS YOU ARE AND THEN CHANGES YOU TO BE LIKE HIM …

Another good truth I wanted to write about was that truth.

Isn’t it very popular these days to say, “Jesus accepts us just like we are” and then leave it at that? But that is like Jesus saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life” and leaving out “no man cometh unto the father but by me.” People have no problem with the first part, but that pesky second half of that truth makes all the difference in the world. Jesus is the ONLY way to the father, not just one way to the father. The same is true about Jesus accepting us as we are and then conforming us to be like Him.

It is pre-determined that once we are saved, we are to be conformed to the image of Christ. Conformity takes submission. Conformity takes humility. Conformity requires a surrender to self. Surrendering self requires a crucifixion of the flesh; and that is why people don’t emphasize the other half of the popular phrase, “Jesus accepts me just as I am.”

For some reason it came about in conversation that God actually hates some people (Psalm 11:5), and my daughter rightly questioned, “But how can he love the world and hate someone? Would He save someone He hates?” I replied, “God would have saved Hitler if Hitler wanted to be saved. Because when someone comes to Christ, they are seeking mercy for their wrong-doing. If a man is seeking mercy for what he did wrong, he does not love it.”

You see, God would have accepted Hitler as he was, but Hitler would not have been the same man after he accepted Christ.

I was mulling on writing these thoughts and then this morning in church, the special speaker spoke on how Jesus is God and Jesus is Holy and Jesus is more than just the friend that sticketh closer than a brother. The preacher actually said, “Jesus accepts you as you are, but doesn’t leave you that way.” You hear the whole truth when you stay in church.

STAY IN CHURCH – LIFE LESSON 14

I honestly can give you more examples of this type of thing, but I think you understand the point. The internet and blogs are just a cherry on top in regards to learning the Bible. Moms are not pastors. Women speakers are not pastors. Spiritual books are not pastors. Pastors with web-sites and apps like Sermon Audio are not a replacement for church.

My calling is to love my husband, love my children, to be a keeper at home, practice hospitality and to teach the younger women to do the same. But it kind of has to go in that order. I can not forsake laundry, dinner and homeschooling to write on a blog (no matter how tempting that may be). But there is no need to worry, because God called a pastor to study and preach the word to our hungry souls, and we are commanded to go to church where we can fellowship, be fed and worship our holy God … especially the more as the end times are more evident.

I tell my husband over and over that I am Eve. I am easily deceived and that these seducing spirits are actively turning away the hearts of women around the world. I can see 2 Tim. 3:6 coming to pass before my eyes. I understand why God said to go to church “even so much the more, as you see the day approaching.” (Heb. 10:25)

And yet, how many churches no longer have Wednesday or Sunday night services?

How many people find reason after reason why not to belong to any church at all?

How many women spend more time reading blogs than reading the Bible?

How many men spend more time looking at a screen than going to prayer meeting?

How much more hope and discernment would we have if we just obeyed God and sat under biblical preaching?

And that is why we need to be an example to our children of what is right? It is not getting any easier out there?

Do you think your children are going to want to fight the fight if they see us picking and choosing which Scriptures to obey? Do you think WE will finish our course if we aren’t following God’s plan for growth? Do you think we will not be deceived if we stop listening to doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness through the “foolishness” of preaching?

Teach your kids to stay in church by being faithful to church and Keep on Keepin’ On, folks.

Happy Sunday.