Last week I wrote about why we should go to church and some of what the Bible mentions in regards to fellowship with believers.
This week I would like to touch on how the church has gone wrong. After all, humans run the churches and because we are human we will fall and fail. While growing up I always felt the desire to show up at church looking my best and making sure that others saw this as well. I wanted to appear like I had it all together and was doing well. I still find myself doing this. I have come to learn that this is not authentic, this is legalistic and deceiving. Who am I kidding anyways? I do not have it all together. I may have even cried on my way to church a couple of weeks back because I felt so overwhelmed and broken.
I do not go to church because I have to (that is another story: when I was growing up and I had to basically be dragged to church some weeks). I go to church because I need it. I need Jesus. I need you. I do not go to church because I have it all together and find a desperate need to show off my goodness. No!
I do not go to church to hear the Pastor tell me that if I put my faith in Christ I will be happy and good will come - like I will somehow be rewarded for accepting a selfless and sacrificial gift like death on a cross to cover my sin. Putting my faith in Christ has allowed me to experience blessings from God every day, but I know that my true reward is in Heaven. I do not have to spend eternity apart from Him!
I go to church because I have put my faith in Him and I am a work in progress and always will be. I am weak. I know I cannot do this life alone. I know that God created you and me to do this together, alongside one another! Will you join me? Let’s go to church!
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another …”
(Hebrews 10:24 ESV)
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
(Philippians 1:6 ESV)
“But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
(2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV)
In Him,
Katie Karlson
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