September 22, 2024
I’ve had a rough week this week. I haven’t felt well and to add insult to injury, I had a cancer treatment on Thursday that has left me feeling tired, nauseous, and basically wrung out. I am behind on my work this week which brings me to today, Saturday, August 21. Today is church cleanup day at our church building. I find myself in my office typing this Plank’s Ponderings and printing the church bulletin for tomorrow’s service. I usually have most of this done earlier in the week, but this week it just didn’t happen. As I type, the church building is quiet, and it is easy to get work done. Then as people begin to arrive for cleanup day, I hear laughing and talking. When I walked out to greet these folks, one of the church ladies saw I wasn’t feeling well and offered me a BOOST. Literally… the chocolate kind! While I didn’t drink the cartoon of BOOST, as I walked back to my office to finish up, it dawned on me that this is what Jesus had in mind when He told His disciples to love one another. This is what Paul meant when he exhorted us to bear one another’s burdens. THIS is fellowship. When we think of church fellowship, our minds go most often to potlucks and block parties and while these events certainly qualify, they are just the hem of the garment. For far too many Christ followers, church is someplace they go rather than someplace they belong. In our rapidly advancing technological society, something new has sprouted in our world and that something is called online church. Before I write about this new phenomenon, let me say right up front that I realize some folks are older or are sick and can’t attend church in person. I also know in our world that operates 24/7/365, many people have to work on Sunday. I’m not talking to these folks. For folks who are unable to attend church in person on Sundays, I’m thankful for those preachers and churches who are putting their sermons and or services online. For the rest of us, if we are Christ followers, we should want to assemble with our brothers and sisters in Christ. In fact, the Hebrew writer tells us to not forsake assembling ourselves together (Hebrews 10:25). By the way, that’s a command, not a suggestion. I could go on, but I won’t. I’ll end with this. If you are just “going to church”, why not try being part of the church? Get involved. Go to Sunday School, prayer meeting and yes, even Sunday night services and cleanup day. I am nearly sixty-one years old, and I can tell you there have been many times I didn’t feel like going to church, but I can honestly say there has never been a time in all those nearly sixty-one years that I wasn’t glad I came!
Be blessed and be a blessing . . . Bro Andy
Comments