Wednesday, August 28, 2002
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Wednesday, August 28, 2002 |
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How faithful are you? By JOHN HATCHER Twenty-five years elapsed from the promise of a child to the birth of Isaac. What did Abraham do those 25 years? Well, during some of that time, he made bad decisions, like going down to Egypt during a famine; like conspiring with his wife to identify her as his sister if they were attacked; like a conjugal visit from his wife's handmaid to produce an heir. But mostly, during those 25 years, Abraham was faithful. He faithfully clung to a routine of life while waiting for God to do his thing. He faithfully built altars of worship wherever he pitched camp. He faithfully and routinely has conversations with God we call it prayer. But look at us today! It seems we have a difficult time remaining faithful to attending church. The altar is already built for us to worship, but we seem to be unfaithfully living out our relationship with God. Someone said once, "Your loyalty to the church represents your loyalty to Jesus Christ." Think on that awhile. Far too often we disassociate our attending church with our relationship with Jesus Christ. Extremists even declare, "I can worship God just as effectively at a fishing hole on Sunday morning as I can in church." My response to that is, "Bullfeathers." I suppose this column today is a venting. Because, as a pastor, I grow weary of folks whose attendance is off and on. They can't seem to attend church three Sundays in a row. We members of the cloth should and do allow for vacation, sickness, and death. But, this thing of staying up late and just couldn't get up Sunday morning. Give me a break. Or this thing about company coming in for a visit and had to stay home with company. Please! When Sunday night church was still an item, and my oldest sister would come over for late Sunday afternoon visit, my mother would say, "You are welcome to stay, but we are getting ready to go to church." Before I married and while living at home, my mother and I would visit another sister in Atlanta (we lived in Columbus, Georgia). We would always get up early Sunday morning in time to arrive at church at the Sunday School hour. Where is that kind of loyalty and commitment? But loyalty to the bride of Christ the church, that is is in decline. Many view the church simply as an organization or an event for which we decide on a weekly basis whether or not we will embrace. If every member of our respective churches attended church on any given one Sunday, our church houses would be overflowing. We would not be able to seat them all. Pastors would preach with more power and authority than ever before. Choirs would sing the hearts out as never before. So, if you are one those "on and off" attendees, let me plead for your week by week faithfulness. Somebody up there wants to know just how faithful we are. The Rev.
Dr. John Hatcher is pastor of |
