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Why Do I Go to Church?

Over the past year or so I have felt my concept of what church attendance is go through subtle but significant transformation. Because of the prominence that the sermon has on Sunday morning I have long felt that my chief aim in attending church was to be taught. While I still hold this to be true I feel that it has taken a place of secondary importance, and it is becoming clear to me that when the body of Christ gathers together once a week it should be for the ultimate purpose of worshiping God. In this way the focus is shifted from me onto God. Instead of thinking about how good the teaching will be, how dynamic the speaker will be, or how I will like the sermon, I am now thinking about what I am offering to God with my presence and participation in the Sunday morning worship service. I am still focused on learning on Sundays, but I learn because it is an act of worship to hear God's word explained, and whether it is done well or it is explained poorly, as long as the preaching is still true to the word of God, it is also my act of worship to take what I've learned and to use it to conform my life to Christ.

Worship, then, is the key, and the ways that I see the people of God worshiping in scripture have great value in informing my own worship. Too often I give too little attention to the preparation of my heart to enter the presence of God to worship. The high priest of Israel was the only person allowed to enter into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, and he was only allowed to do that once a year. Before he could go past the thick curtain that hung at the entrance he first had to make a sacrifice for his own sins. This demonstrates the fact that sin is what will prevent us from truly entering into God's presence. It becomes even more serious when we find that the high priest hung bells on himself and also had a rope tied to him that lead out of the Holy of Holies so that in the event that his sin had not been completely atoned for, and God struck him down, and the bells went silent, then his colleagues at the temple could pull his body out without danger to themselves. If this is how people in the Old Testament approached God, what makes me think that I can arrive at church on Sunday morning with little or no preparation? Consequently, this is why Jesus said in Matthew 5:23, 24 that we must first be reconciled to our brother before coming to to worship. Sin disconnects us from God and makes it impossible for us to worship him.

With that in mind I would like to end with the main purposes of church outlined in three w's. This is not an exhaustive list but I think it highlights the points that are highlighted in scripture about what the church is and what it is to be doing.

1) Worshiping - Ultimately when we gather together it should be to worship the almighty God, the creator and sustainer of all that is, the only one worthy to receive glory and honor and praise. In fact our very lives are to be in pursuit of this end. This is the upward focus of the church.

2) Working - Because the church is the body of Christ it has to function symbiotically with its various parts. We are given commands in scripture to love, serve, edify, encourage, teach, and even rebuke one another. This is the inward focus of the church.

3) Witnessing - The life of a follower of Christ should testify to his greatness and mercy, and should be striving to fulfill the commands of Christ to make disciples of all the nations. The church is the agent to which God has given the task of expanding his kingdom. This is the outward focus of the church.

How Big Is Your God?

What do you envision when you read these words?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth... And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. (Gen 1:1,3)

Here is a small piece of what happened when God spoke. This tower of gas and dust measures 9.5 light years from top to bottom, twice the distance between our sun and the nearest star. To put it in more familiar terms, that is 57 trillion miles.

These incredible distances are difficult for us to wrap our minds around but it represents a single speck in the overall scope of God's universe; the universe that he brought into existence by his Word.

Few men have made significant progress in the understanding of God's creation. Albert Einstein was one of them. Charles Misner, a specialist in relativity theory, had this to say about Einstein's skepticism of the church:

The design of the universe... is very magnificent and shouldn't be taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why Einstein had so little use for organized religion, although he strikes me as a basically very religious man. He must have looked at what the preachers said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty than they had ever imagined, and they were just not talking about the real thing. My guess is that he simply felt that religions he'd run across did not have proper respect... for the author of the universe. (as cited in Piper, 2010, p. 36)

Is the God that you have in mind big enough to explain the incredible majesty of the universe we live it? Here is what the prophet Isiah said:

To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these [stars]?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not one is missing. (Isa 40:25-26)

Piper, J. (2010). Let the nations be glad!: The supremacy of God in missions. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House.

But Why do Christians Suffer?

So if a person turns from sin and follows Christ and has all of his transgressions fully paid for why does he still suffer? Doesn't God care about his children? If he is a loving Father why doesn't he protect his followers from harm?

Paul writes about this subject in Romans 8:25-39. Verses 38 and 39, the last two verses of this passage, say this:

I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But the really encouraging verse is verse 28 which says, "we know that for those who love God all things work together for good." The good that Paul refers to is not the absence of tough situations or hardships in life because we know from reading the Bible and from looking at the world around us that Christians are not immune to suffering. Instead, the good that God brings out in us through these things that we suffer is revealed in verse 29; it is, "to be conformed to the image of his Son." God allows suffering in our lives in order to make us more like Jesus Christ! This world is our training ground where we learn and grow and have our character shaped to bring God glory.

Why does suffering exist?

The question of suffering has often been considered to be the bane of those defending a Christian viewpoint. The problem is that we are asking the wrong question. Instead of asking, "Why would a good God allow people to suffer?" We should be asking, "Why would a fair and just God allow any of us to live?" The fact is that every person has sinned--failed to measure up to God's perfect standard (Rom3:23)--and deserves to be punished (Rom 6:23). We perceive suffering to be unjust when we deem those who suffer to be innocent. No one is innocent before God, therefore everyone deserves to suffer. It is God's patience and love that cause him to allow the world to continue to exist. When an instance of undeserved suffering was brought to the attention of Jesus he replied that those who died were not worse sinners than everyone else but that this event should serve as a warning that unless we turn away from our sin we will perish as well (Luk 13.1-5). The idea that this is a good world in which suffering is an unfortunate occurrence is a false one. God's word tells us that this is a world in rebellion to him who is loving and good, and that it will pay the penalty of eternal death. But Jesus Christ offered a way to cancel all of our shortcomings and be perfect before God (Rom 4:24-25). We need only to turn from our sin and believe in him (Rom 10:9).

Hmmm, posting pictures directly to blogger wasn't working. That's OK, you can click on this link to see some new pictures I've posted.

The following is rated US for un-squeamish audiences

I was settling down on the toilet with a good book today and all was going well. I had some stomach issues in the morning before church, maybe because I had gone fishing in a muddy pond the day before and I had to get in the water to catch the fish. Also I don't think I washed my hands too well before having lunch that day. But I was feeling much better since my system was purged in the morning. However I did feel like a blood vessel was being pinched right at the top of my left hamstring, probably due to the way I was sitting. It felt kind of like a tickle, and maybe you have had a similar experience, when the pressure builds up in your blood vessel and you can start to feel your heartbeat right where the pinch is. So I adjusted myself and went back to reading. After about a minute the tickle feeling came back at first I thought, man this is a difficult toilet seat to get comfortable on. Then I noticed that the tickle didn't feel like my heartbeat. Suddenly I thought maybe something is touching me! Horrified, I jumped up to see what kind of brightly colored insect or giant spider it might be. Luckily it was neither of those. Instead, a small gecko poked its head out of the inside rim of the toilet seat. It probably didn't know why it had gotten so dark all of the sudden and it must have been terrified to see me. After a half second pause it scrambled up onto the toilet seat and literally jumped off in a flying leap with its tiny legs sprawled out to the sides. It landed in the corner behind the toilet and ran up the wall as fast as its little legs could take it. I laughed to myself and then sat back down to continue reading.

Moral of the story. Always check under the toilet seat for geckos.