Our Church

This is a hard devotion for me to write. There are emotions here that I want to accurately convey, this is not an easy task. You see, I went to a meeting this morning for a church that had some problems. The members that were there this morning, arrived at church one Sunday morning to find the doors locked, and the pastor nowhere to be found. Now they were faced with the decision of whether to disband, or put in some hard work to get the church back up where it should be. When the members began to talk about that morning, and they began to talk about their beloved church and all that they were doing, even when they were just talking about the building and the condition it is in now, they began to weep. All of them, began to weep. I saw something then that I think many of us tend to forget and take for granted. Turn to Eph. 5:25 "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it". Christ loved the church, should we do any less? Vs27 "The He might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" I believe that from what I saw this morning that this church will be a glorious church. I believe that these people love their church, because it is where they worship their LORD.
The church is just a building, but it is a building where we worship God, or should be. The church is not supposed to be a social gathering, nor is it supposed to be a place to have worldly things going on. It is the house of God, it is to be a place of worship. Heb. 10:25 tells us not to "forsake the assembling of ourselves together", I believe this verse is so much more than just about skipping church. Let's look at why someone would forsake the assembling of the church, of course there are times when someone is sick, or has to work, or some other commitment that can not be helped, that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about those people who just decide they don't want to go today. Why would someone decide to forsake church? It is because they don't love their church. If they loved the church they would be there every time the doors were open. I know a man, that is a huge football fan, I don't remember what team he likes. But, anyway he got tickets to see his team play, so he drove from Mississippi to Minnesota in January, with a cold. That cold turned into the flu, and yet he still went to the game, sat in the stadium with a fever of 102, and the outside temperature was below zero, wind chill something like 30 below, in the snow. Yet when he was at home, he would skip church for just a small headache. He loved football, but he did not love his church.
In Mt. 16:18 Jesus tells Peter "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it". These people I saw this morning, were also the rock that the church is built on. 1 Peter 2:5 "Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ". I am here to tell you this morning I saw lively stones, I saw the Spirit of God in these people, I saw Christ love for the church this morning.
I've got one more verse, in Ezra ch. 3, we see where the foundations of the Temple were being relaid, the nation of Israel was just coming out of captivity in Babylon. So in Ch 3 vs 12 the foundation was finished, and the Bible says, "But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy". These are people that loved their place of worship, they remembered how God had blessed them in the old Temple, and when they saw that it would not be long before they had a new Temple, a new place of worship, they were overcome with joy. They could not contain their emotions. This is how it should be for all of us we should weep when we miss church. We should weep when anything bad happens at our church. If a water line breaks, we should run to the church to clean up the mess before any damage is done. When vandals, desecrate the building, we should weep over it.
Do you love your church this much?
I know the building is just a building, a place to meet, but it is also where we meet, it is where we receive the blessing of the Word of God, it is where we spend time with our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is where we are feed spiritually. But, it is more than that, it is the other members, it is the pastor, we should love these things more than the building, the building is just where we are surrounded by church family, our pastor, the Spirit of God dwells there. We should love our church, every part of it. I know I need to pray that God will give me this kind of love for my church, what about you?