“Some amazing and wonderful things can happen when you walk through the doors of a church: you can hear the Gospel, and God can call you to saving faith. In addition, through the proclamation of His Word, you can be further instructed in the ways of the Lord—what it means to follow Him. What a blessing that is!”
“Typically speaking, neither of those things will happen to you if you don’t come to church, so you have positioned yourself well. But the converse is also true. When you walk through the doors of a church, you are also responsible for what you hear. You can play the game that you have received Jesus, and you certainly can fool us, if you want. But God knows, and His harshest judgment is reserved for those who hear, yet who do not respond. The heights of heaven or the depths of hell are for those who enter through the church door!”
“How many through the ages have perished in the church? People come for various reasons. ‘It is good for me to attend,’ ‘it is good for my kids,’ and so on. ‘I like the people I meet there’ and ‘I feel connected in some sort of way to God when I go.’ Okay, fine, but if that is all, you are in trouble. The church is the family of God. God is our Father; we are His adopted children. We gather to worship the One who saved our soul. We want to know more of Him. We want our lives to be lived for Him. He is our highest concern.”
“Like Peter, we say, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life…’ And so, we come, gathering each Lord’s Day in reverence and awe of the One who would save such a sinner as me. But too many people are ‘in’ the church but are not ‘of’ the church—and there is a big difference between those two prepositions! ‘In’ is just sitting here; ‘of’ is rejoicing in the fact that God has rescued you, and you get to worship Him as His son or daughter….”
“So many wondrous things can happen when we walk through the church door. If you are an unbeliever, God could save you today, grant you a pardon, the forgiveness of sins, and life eternal with Him. If you are a believer, God could encourage you and meet you at your point of need and increase your faith—showing Himself more and more to you. What a great day for the new believer and the old believer!”
“But something very awful can happen to others who walk through the church doors. You enter them as a fake (as a fraud), and you leave them just the same….God forbid you be one of the cursed who sit here week after week in the church”
Pastor Rich Hamlin
May 29, 2014
[excerpts from Prepare to Meet Your God, pp. 48-49, 51-52, available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.]
Came across your blog looking for Steve Camp’s 107 Theses. I thought I had them stashed somewhere but couldn’t find them. Am enjoying your blog! I’m a retired from the Army type working as a government contractor in Colorado Springs. I’ll be stopping by often.