Fred Thompson's remarks yesterday about him being OK with the Lord and the Lord is OK with him, shows either disrespect to God or ignorance about the Christian faith.
Matthew 26:40 Then Jesus returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter.
Our congregation, like any other in existence, has more church members than weekly worship attenders. Over any given 13 week period, I think we have at least sixty percent of our members and their families attend at least one Sunday. It’s really sad, but it is a trend that is happening around the nation. People are turning worship into an extra-curriculum exercise or leisure pursuit. They won’t dare miss an episode of one of their favorite TV shows, but worshiping God is something that they can give and take as they please.
I’ve tried hard to impress upon people how important worshiping God actually is, but to no avail. In our free-spirited society, even church members take God for granted and only use Him in emergencies. They don’t believe that they’re harming themselves or that God cares about something as unimportant as going to church on Sunday. I don’t know where they’ve gotten that idea; it’s certainly not in the Bible. Jesus and his disciples gathered at the synagogue every Sabbath, and even after His glorious Resurrection and Ascension, Christ’s apostles gathered at the temple for weekly worship. Anyone who thinks that we can glibly turn up when we feel like it and expect God to be pleased, is being careless with their faith. Even Fred Thompson, one of the Republican candidates for President, stated yesterday that he was the religious conservative’s choice…and then went on to say that he didn’t go to church! Who’s he kidding?
To truly worship God means to turn up when we don’t feel like it. When we treat worship as a respectful obligation to God, just as Jesus did, then we can truly begin to call ourselves Christians. Otherwise, we’re just dabbling in the faith and have no real relationship with God at all.
To highly independent people, this will read like religiosity, forcing them to submit their lives to God’s rules instead of their own. And they’re absolutely right, because the word “worship” in the Bible means to bow down painfully before God in a position that is totally uncomfortable. In other words, it’s a humiliating experience when we realize that we are made for God’s commands, and are not creatures of our own comfort.
It’s time that the Church stopped softening the message to appease the feelings of those who take God for granted. Jesus wouldn’t have put up with any of that empty spiritual nonsense, so why should we?
In the midst of all our busy weekly lives, can’t we at least keep watch with Christ for just one hour?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, shake us and move us, challenge us and change us. We falsely think that You fully accept our ideas and opinions about worship. We fool ourselves into believing that we’re OK with You and You’re OK with us. Keep us from deluding our hearts and deceiving our minds. Get us back into church on a regular basis to worship and glorify You, especially on those Sundays when we’re too busy or don’t feel like it. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.
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