I have been thinking a lot lately about why I go to church and why it is important to me to do so. As I was considering this, a few things occurred to me.
First, I like having a pastor. It is important to me to have one. I have somebody I can go to when I don't know what to do. He never says I have to do anything, but I like to go to him when I am just uncertain myself. He is who married my wife and I and he is who I call when I am having a difficult time. He is the one who called every day when we lost the child that we expected to carry to term. He is the one who came when we lost our grandmother while her husband was in the hospital.
In my church, I have people that have been christian believers much longer than I have. They have been through more and have seen more than I have. I can go to them when I need to know what the bible has to say on a topic when I can't find it myself. I can talk to them about what they did when they went through something like I am going through.
In my church, I have things that I can do that are not just for me but for God's kingdom. I can serve by teaching children or by mixing the sound that will be put on tape and broadcast throughout the region I live in on television stations. I can help on a church cleaning day to keep things organized and make sure things are done in excellence. I can serve on staff. I can be a part of leading others to Christ.
I bring my tithe to my church in accordance to God's word. Malachi 3:8 would say that I am robbing God in tithes and offerings by not doing this and promises in verse 10 that by tithing, the windows of heaven are open to me to pour out a blessing I don't have room enough to contain.
In my church, I find peers to walk this journey together with. These are people that will stick closer than a brother. Friends like this will come in times of trouble even when it is not convenient for them to do so. These are friends that come in the middle of the night when my wife is in the hospital. They come to our rescue when a serpentine belt breaks in our truck. They give me a ride home after I crash my bike on the railroad tracks.
In my church, I find opportunities to help other people. I find new believers and people that are completely new to knowing God. These are people that find themselves where I once was just being hungry to know more about God and I am able to be available to help.
Mostly, I go to church because I find in his word that I am to do so. Hebrews 10:25 in the New International Version tells us to "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another..."
I have often read of Jesus who worshiped at the synagogue as his habit was. I have recently really been thinking of this and realized that if ANYBODY in all of history had the right to say that everybody in all churches that were available were messed up and misdirected, it would be Jesus. Here was a man that knew how off base the people around him were, and yet he still made a habit of going to church.
My pastor has shared about the idea of making small little adjustments in order to stay on track. If you stay on top of the adjustments that need to be made, this is easy to do, but let us take this analogy and look at driving a moment. If we are driving a vehicle and forget to correct for awhile, we will come more and more off the road that we are on. We may eventually go off the road completely. This is true in our christian lives as well. People don't just decide to turn away from God in an instant or to slack off on their commitment to him, it is something that develops over a period of time.
