Deuteronomy 4:29 – But if from there you will seek (inquire for and require as necessity) the Lord your God, you will find Him if you [truly] seek Him with all your heart [and mind] and soul and life.
Do you remember choosing your church for the very first time? Not the church your parents picked for you, but the church that YOU decided to attend!
For me, I went to church thinking all was well. I picked this particular church because I knew someone who attended there; it was close to where I lived; and it wasn’t the boring old church I grew up in. I heard great things about the pastor and the youth program. I was excited to be a part of such a loving family of believers. I ate up everything they offered. I went to all of the Sunday school classes, volunteered my time with the youth, went to every Bible study they have and sat in church chewing my gum while the pastor gave his sermon and I felt as though I was on top of the world. I felt good when I left church. Everyone always was polite, telling me to have a nice day and they would see me next week.
Sounds kind of familiar doesn’t it? It’s probably because it reminds you of yourself. The only problem here is, after a while you have this sense of not being fulfilled any longer. Something here is missing. You don’t feel any different than you did before you came to church. You hear Scripture being read. You hear great stories that “really relate to your life”…
You go home that day from church and you can completely remember every joke the pastor said during his sermon. But what was that sermon about? What was the Scripture that was read that morning? We have become too comfortable in church. We have a “Let’s put down some pillows and snacks and let’s listen to what the pastor has to say today. When the sermon is over, let’s pack everything up and go home and watch TV” attitude. The moment when you realize that this is the type of church you are in, it’s time for a change.
Before I keep going, let me say this: There may not be a problem with the church in itself. I truly believe that every ministry has their own purpose. It’s possible that God led you to that church for a specific time period and you have outgrown their reach. When you get to that point, look at is as a good thing. Most people at this point start to feel depressed because they don’t feel God the way they once did. I know I did, and it caused me to not attend church as much as I wanted because of that distant feeling from God.
But thats usually when something happens. You come across something that totally changes your life. For me, it was my first visit to a church in Suitland, MD about 6 months ago. It changed my life. No longer do I just “go” to church, but I truly want to hear God’s Word being taught. I found myself not wanting to just say WWJD? But instead now I find myself wanting to know what DID Jesus do?? The first one “WWJD?”, has to do with trying to interpret what you think Jesus would do in any given situation. The second one, “WDJD?” is something you can validate by reading God’s Word. You can open the bible up and see exactly what Jesus did do! It’s a much better way of doing things; it takes all error out of the equation.
I visited this church again today, and it blew my mind away. I went expecting a word from God and never received it. As a matter of fact, not one word was preached. However, in the midst of Praise and Worship (which turned out to be the ENTIRE service this particular Sunday) I found God Himself speaking to me INSIDE of a church building for the first time in MONTHS. It was amazing. At the end of the service the pastor came forward and gave a scripture that was SUPPOSED to be the topic of today’s sermon and proceeded to tell the church that they would pick up on it next week. She started to dismiss the church when SOMEONE IN THE CONGREGATION started waving their envelope with their tithes enclosed. As I sat back and thought about it, when was the last time you saw a church ALMOST FORGET to collect tithes? It’s usually in the first order of business. They put EVERYTHING on hold to worship God and heal the congregation. It was simply amazing.
Long story short. If the beginning of this sounds like you, as much as it may hurt, it may be time to visit other churches. As the song above this post says: “I will go from faith to faith, From glory to glory. And I’ll forever be chasing after You.”
Seek Him until you find Him.
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