Sunday, February 5, 2012

What's So Important About Church Anyway: Part 1

     A person can get saved without going to church? Since that is true why would a person subject themselves to the problems associated with those who call themselves the church?

     It is true that you do not have to go to church to get saved. God indeed will save anyone anywhere if they place their faith in him and ask him into their lives. God will and does love us just like we are. But he also loves us too much to leave us that way. God intends on working from the inside out. Paul, in writing to the church called Philippians said, in chapter two that we were to “…work out your (our) own salvation with fear and trembling…” because God was in us “…to help you (us) want to do and be able to do what pleases God.”(NCV) What God expects is that we learn to govern our behaviour so that we display a lifestyle and demeanour that is pleasing to him. And that is developed in and through our relationship with others in the local church. If we put our faith in Jesus Christ and that is all then all we have done is give mental assent and nothing more.          

     We know from scripture that it pleases God for those of us who have surrendered  our lives to him to go to church. God said in Hebrews chapter ten that we were not to “…stay away from the church meetings” but to “… help each other to show love and do good deeds”(NCV). And according to second Corinthians chapter five “Our only goal is to please God…”(NCV). Hebrews chapter eleven tells us that “…without faith it is impossible to please Him…”(NKJV). So if I am to please God it will take faith. And that faith requires works that can only be found in relationship with others in a church of the same faith.    

     The truth is that Jesus is coming for his church one day and when he comes he will be looking for that faith to be displayed from those who call themselves believers (Luke 18:8). The faith he is looking for is a Christ centered life from those who profess to be saved. Our life is to become an extension of what God is working in us and should influence both, the world around us and the church we serve.

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