You’ve got a home key on your keyboard, a place you live you call home. At the church building I attend Real Life Corpus Christi we greet new people by saying Welcome Home. It’s a place we want you to belong and to worship God with other believers. In Psalm 122:1 it says this. “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord. ‘“ I can tell you personally I look forward to going to church to being around other believers and being encouraged by music and scripture.
I’m going to tell you something very personal in hopes that someone else can relate. For 13 years I worked at a call center and if you’ve never done that kind of work it can be the most stressful job ever. There were easy parts and then there was the rest of the job. I got so much verbal abuse from coworkers and customers alike. By the end of the week I looked forward to Sunday where I could be around people in a building who actually said kind things to one another. The reason I’m referring to it as a building and not as church is because the people, you and me and those around they make up the church and the body of Christ. We don’t always get it right but we try. Sometimes I have learned as much from a sermon as I have from talking to a fellow church attender. See you don’t know who you’re impacting just by being there talking to someone. My friend Donald is a pastor and I have seen him comment a few times trying to remind people to continue to attend church and not drift away from it. What he’s saying is Biblical teaching and it’s not just the Pastor but the believers who should also do this.
Hebrews 10:19-25
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is his body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unwaveringly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful. Also let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another— all the more as you see the day approaching.”
We’re supposed to be encouraging and building up one another. You may have a day where you don’t want to be inside a church building but what if that’s the day God wanted to use you to teach you or someone else? Think about it. Granted I understand in bad weather or in sickness you shouldn’t meet together.
Psalm 84:1-4
“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself where she may have her young— a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, My King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:11
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
Just a small disclaimer lyrically all the songs I post have something to do with the blog except for two. Song of Moses and My Father's Heart were just great songs I've been listening to this week. There was an additional song I added to the portion of this that is emailed to my small group that sign up via email. There is no Youtube video for it so if you want to try Amazon or ITunes you may be able to find it. The song is called You Belong Here by Sheila Walsh off her cd I Hear Angels. I encourage you to look it up and listen to it. It's the example of how a group of believers in a church should act towards one another.
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