We Miss You!
The Prayer Group meets each Monday evening to pray for our members and friends who are sick, bereaved, or those who are needing strength. The group also prays for the church here and the outreach programs we offer. We keep a list of our members and their attendance, so that we can pray for and visit those who are not attending regularly.
We have a number of our members who have not attended at all in 2008. The year is already passing by quickly. They have missed many opportunities to be spiritually strengthened—in addition to missing 26 sermons, they have missed 26 Bible classes; they have not met our youth minister, who was hired January 1. Their children have missed numerous youth events. The list goes on and on…
Why is it sinful to forsake the assembly of the church for which the Lord shed His blood and died? The Bible says that by forsaking the assembly one “…has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace" (Hebrews 10:29). By forsaking the assembly one is saying that he no longer cares to be a part of the church for which Christ shed His blood and died. What will happen to one who continues to forsake the assembly? God says "…vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord…it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:30-31).
By forsaking the assembly one is likened to, "a dog returns to his own vomit, and a sow, having been washed, to her wallowing in the mire" (2 Peter 2:23). It is sickening to the Lord to see one, for whom He died, reject His salvation and go back into sin. On the matter of missing the assembly... if a person has begun missing the assembly, if it is not corrected soon, it will snowball into that person eventually forsaking the Truth and falling back into the sinful world. Christianity is something that must be worked at daily. Luke 9:23 says, "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me."
It's so very easy for Satan to whisper in our ear that we need to do such and such rather than study or maybe he convinces us that we need to work on Sundays, or maybe he entices us to stay up late on Saturday night so that we sleep late on Sunday morning or we aren't awake enough to truly worship even if we are there. It's very easy to fall into these traps. Satan tries to keep us so wrapped up in everyday things that we forget the real reason we're here. Eccl.12:13 tells us why we're here; "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."
Rob Combs, Minister
2 comments:
Excellent article. You give us much to think about
It is so easy to make up our own gods to worship and serve. Sadly, those who need to think about their relationship with God will likely not take the opportunity to ponder this great article.
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