Thursday, July 23, 2009

Don't EVER Go To Church Again!


I have been going to church ever since I was 2 weeks old…which means that all told, I have gone to a church service somewhere around 10,000 times! It seems like a lot more. I meet so many people who tell me they don’t like going to church and my typical attitude is I don’t blame you. Going to church is not my idea of fun either, but I have to, I work there. What horror stories I could tell of what I have seen go on at church. No one should be subjected to what I have seen. Anyway, I have decided never to go to church again, ever. I know, I will get forced into it sometimes, but I really don’t ever want to go to church again…ever…and I hope you don’t either. We are in pretty good company here because Jesus never went to church either, not even once. Actually, it should not be that hard anyway seeing how I can’t actually go to church anyway, at least not the one Jesus spoke of, the one I really want to be a part of. Jesus called HIS church, His bride. I can’t see him married to a building, not even the ancient temple, can you? He made it clear that I am the only church He is even remotely interested in visiting. He put it this way: Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? Andrew Boheme said in 1622: “A true Christian brings his holy Church with him into the Congregation. For the Heart is the true Church, where a Man must practise the Service of God. If I should go a thousand Times to Church, and to the Sacrament every Week, and hear Absolution declared to me every Day, and have not Christ in me, all would be false, an unprofitable Fiction and graven Image in Babel, and no forgiving of Sins.” Apparently Jacob didn’t think much of going to church either, but he LOVED to go. He loved to be with others who knew that the church was not gathered until they got there, THEN the real celebrations and praise could begin. Not only that, wherever he went, the church went with him, in him and a praise service could break out at the song of a bird or the sight of a falling star. I don’t think I will ever want to go to church again ,but then, I don’t ever want to leave home without it either.