From The Preacher's Desk

According to the website www.familydoctor.com, a fever is defined as a temperature 1° or more above the normal 98.6°. Minor infections may cause mild or short-term temperature elevations. Temperatures of 103° and above are considered high and can signal a potentially dangerous infection. Fever is a symptom of a body disorder. The presence of fever reveals that the infection exists. Similarly, absence from worship services is a fever-like symptom. It is an indication of a more basic heart problem. The primary problem goes much deeper and may even be hidden to the person himself. As a fever may possess a man who does not know what causes it, even so a man can neglect worship without being aware of the real problems that cause him to do so. He can easily camouflage his lack of concern for worship by involvement in his work, his family, or recreation.
Deliberately missing a worship service is significant, because it reveals an inner, heart problem. If God is first, Christians will never choose something else as more important than service to God (Matthew 22:37-39; Hebrews 10:25). If He is not first, a person will choose other things over worship with little tinge of conscience.

To turn one’s back on Christ and his assembly is highhanded rebellion against God. It is to “trod under foot the Son of God, to count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing and is to despise the Spirit of God.” (Heb. 10:29).
Those guilty of forsaking the Lord’s day assembly need to repent before it is everlastingly too late for vengeance belongs to the Lord (Heb. 10:30). “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10:31.)


Rob