I stated earlier on this Connection..I MISS RADIO,even more do I miss CHURCH!
I told the lady,I don't attend church very often. She informed me that I need to be fed. She had a sharp reflex when I told her I don't like being fed baloney.
1. Church is not about "feeling good about yourself"...first it is feeling awful about your self,confessing your sins,forsaking your old ways and taking up your cross and following Jesus,not following the pastor of a "mega" church,TV evangelist or author of a "Fuzzy feeling in Church" book.
The warm feeling for a Christian comes from the fact that your name is written in glory and you jump for joy when a lost soul has been redeemed..not when some Junior CollegE drop-out wrote a chorus that is projected on the wall of the church during a Sunday morning "Praise". I have yet to be inspired by attending a church that "sings off the wall".
2.Church should not be about how many members of your church helped " Habitat for Humanity"..but, rather, about how many folks you helped prepare to claim a "Place prepared in Heaven".
3.Churches must major on "changed lives", not,"World,look at us..we're just like you". "We don't expect anything from you other than financial support." We have MEGA churches and yet we have MEGA grief in our country today. WHY?
4.The ultimate formula for a great church is: "If I be lifted up..I will draw all men unto Me."
5. WHERE IS THAT CHURCH? Give it a name and location,please!
If you have read this far,thanks!!
BTW: At times there are as many as 14 churches around the Square in Talladega,in store front buildings!!
Oh Don...thanks for being on the same page as I am.
Love you and what you stand for!!! Wish there were more of the persuasion we have read, studied and claimed what the Bible says to us.
I sure miss church, too, Don, but once you've been "raised" in a church like Mignon Methodist, by people who treated you as if you were one of their own children, it's a tough row to hoe to find a church "home." I won't go into all the disappointments we've run into over the years, both back home and here in Texas, but I will relate one "true, true story" that sums things up:
Several years ago, realizing that my wife REALLY wanted to attend church but wouldn't go without me, I made her a deal. I said that I would attend the local Baptist church with her, and, provided the preacher did not mention money within the first five minutes, I would KEEP going with her. We went. After exactly twenty-three seconds, the preacher launched into what amounted to a DIATRIBE about how stingy the congregation was and how people needed to "look to your eternal SOULS!" When this started, Winnie turned to me and whispered, "Are you ready to go?"
We haven't been back. Like Emily Dickinson, we now have church at home, "with a bobolink for a chorister," and "God preaches."
Incidentally, that Baptist preacher? He was run out of town a few weeks later for making out with a choir member.
I agree with you guys on almost everything you said. but I can not agree with not going to worship with fellow Christians and the ones who need Christ. Somewhere out there is a group of Christians meeting, praising the Lord, singing worship songs, praying together frequently, sharing close fellowship with each other, sending members out into the "world" to serve others who are in need of the knowledge of Christ and perhaps, food, clothing, homes, etc. Last night at prayer meeting, I felt the presence of the Lord in such a way there was no doubt that 'real prayers' were being lifted up. I pray you will be able to find a church that will reach you in the same way.
