I Came To Your Church Today

It was another stormy day. I decided I would go to church anyway, because I wanted to be amongst those I loved.

When I got to the building, the service had just started. There was no usher to greet me, but I figured they were busy seating someone else, so I would wait my turn. 

I could see through the window, happy faces, and some who were frowning, but most everyone had found a place to sit. Surely, someone would come and let me in. After a little bit, I knocked on the door. I waited patiently, but no one came.

I could faintly hear the music playing, and see the leader of the service waving his arms and singing a lively tune and much of the crowd joined in. A couple people toward the back kept talking and shaking their heads, but I figured perhaps they were new, and didn’t understand what was going on.

I had been to this church before in the past and was warmly embraced and made to feel at home. But it wasn’t that way today. Instead I stood out in the cold, with the wind howling around me. Shivering a bit I pulled my clothes tighter around me and knocked a bit harder. Surely, someone would hear me.

I saw a few people raising their hands, and the music stopped for a bit. I knocked again hurriedly. I assumed that maybe they hadn’t heard me over the music before. The leader at the front was nodding, and speaking and pointing at different ones near the front. Then everyone stood up, and a bit of murmuring could be heard. Ahh, they were praying. Okay, maybe I will wait just a little bit longer. I don’t want to interrupt them praying for their needs.

Then everyone sat down, and three ladies in bright colored dresses came to the pulpit. One talked a bit, and then they began to sing. I could hear the organ playing over the sound of the words, but I knew they were singing a special song. A few people raised their hands, a couple clapped, and I saw one lady in the back pull out her nail clippers and begin to work on her left hand.

One small face peered at me over the pew, smiled a bit and turned to the man beside him and said something, and looked back at me again. The man didn’t turn his head. The ladies finished their song, and the leader was back at the front.

Hey, there go the ushers, up to the front. Surely one of them will see me this time.  They bowed their heads briefly, and then walked down the aisles, right toward me, but they stopped at the pews, took up the offering and then went back to their seats.

Then a lady got up, I guess she must have been the leader’s wife. She was pointing to a place on a map, and talking and talking, and then she had everyone stand and they prayed again for a moment and sat back down and continued their program.

I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I knocked again once more.  No one seemed to hear me. The leader went back to the pulpit, opened up his Bible and read a few scriptures, and began to speak. I couldn’t really make out what he was saying, it was sort of muffled, but he must have been very direct in what he was saying because his face was red, and with his right hand he was pointing at the crowd and gesturing a lot. He looked back toward me but must have been too caught up in what he was saying to  see me standing there.

Wait, a moment a lady and a little boy are walking directly toward me. Finally, someone heard me knocking. The little boy looked right at me. The lady had to see me. She was coming right this way. No. She turned just past the door and went into another room near the water fountain.  I will wait  just a bit longer for her to come back out. 

The little boy comes out first and starts walking down the hall. The lady comes out hurriedly and catches up to the little boy and grabs his hand. They didn’t open the door for me. They surely had seen me? Maybe they were too busy.

The leader at the front is motioning to people. Some are standing up and walking toward the front. Most are turning to each other, grabbing their coats and talking.  I realize I have stood here all morning and the service is now over. Pretty soon people will be leaving and I never got to spend time with them.

They already had their programs, their singing, their offerings, their speaker, and their prayer.

I came to your church today, but no one let me in.

I wonder if I came to your house instead, someone would answer the door?

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.  Rev. 3:20

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One Moment In Time

These past couple weeks I have been scanning  photo albums and reflecting on memories from a long time ago. For most of us we have forgotten more than we ever use, and sometimes it only takes a little nudge to bring up the past. Hopefully, most of it is good.

My parents are celebrating their 50th Anniversary in July and I have been participating in the planning and getting ready for the events to take place and I have been scanning all these old photos. I have been wanting to do it for a long time now, and this is an opportunity to remember friends and family and things that happened that brought us to this moment.

Life is like that. For most of us, we tend to measure life in how many years its been, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, if you really take a few moments and think about it, life is not about years but about small moments in time that dramatically changed the path we were on. History is full of those moments where mankind was headed one direction and some small event, changed everything forever.

It’s Just One Moment In Time

Many times we do not take time to think about the moments in our life. We breeze past so many of them every single day without a thought. Perhaps it is what we might have for lunch, that item we bought at the store, or perhaps that one thing we meant to do but forgot. Oh well, we will do it tomorrow. If it was that important, we would have remembered right? 

It seems inconsequential, and so we don’t give it another thought and before long we have completely forgotten about it.  It usually takes something quite dramatic during our day for us to remember some things but if we do not do it right then, its just another lost moment we will catch up with later. It is just that one moment in time.

It we are honest, we all think that way. I was supposed to pick up that prescription, but I will get it tomorrow. I need to get new tags for the car, but I was running behind today and just didn’t have time. I really needed to get this paper done but… and before long.. just a lot of lost moments.

Most of  the things we forget are really not vitally important and time just passes by. Good things, bad things, life moments soon forgotten. If it was something we were supposed to pick up at the grocery store and we forgot, even when we had a list, we usually remember about the moment we walk through the door of our home. Usually we can get by without it. Other times we forget about these moments until something jogs our memories.

Memories

Looking at all the photographs, more than two hundred actually, a lot of good memories came cascading back to the surface. Friends, family, loved ones and those little moments of playing games, or what we were doing at that moment seems very close at hand, even when it was years ago. But did you ever stop to think about how those little moments at the time, are having a direct impact on what we are doing right now?

Those friendships you made with the family that lived across the alley from you, or perhaps that one guy who used to protect you from bullies. At the time you were hanging out and then years later you reconnect and all these moments come flooding back, the good and the bad.

Our destiny hinged on what we did in those moments. Oh at the time it didn’t seem so important maybe, but that one moment in time, where you took a left turn instead of a right, or perhaps you walked across the street and shoveled the old lady’s driveway, or maybe even that moment when you got mad and walked away from one of your best friends never to speak to them again. Memories, both good and bad  have a way of creeping back into our dreams and thoughts, sometimes when we least expect them, but they all bring us to this very moment.

We Aren’t Alone

I am certain that King David looked back on moments in his life. Maybe it was the time he slew the bear, or even Goliath. Or perhaps the loss of his child when he recalled how he had sent one of his men to his death because he had crossed into arrogance and stole his wife.

Yes, when we ask forgiveness God forgives but we all know there are moments when we do remember and look back and wonder. You know the ‘what if’s' of life. We all have them. If I could borrow a time machine for a little while, I would love to go back to a few moments in my own life and do it a bit different.  Some things in life we want to forget but the memory of man is much more intricate and can hold a lot more than a few terabytes that our current computers can handle, and we process it faster, and certain scents, images, or thoughts can take us deep into the files and we begin to analyze and ponder what might have been.

I have friends I have not seen in years, and every once in a while they are brought to mind and I wonder what they are up to. It may seem like nothing now, but they were an integral part of who I was at the time, and helped set me on the path I am today, and I wonder what became of them.

Moments Can Be Joyful

That moment you asked your wife to marry you; the birth of a child; the moment you raised your hands toward heaven and began to speak in other tongues. All joyful events with a purpose in our destiny. Over two hundred years ago some men sat in a room and signed a document making a group of tiny colonies into a country. Those few men changed the course of history for us all.

Had they not made the decision they did at the time, we would have remained a part of the British Empire, and the very fabric of our lives we consider normal would be much different. Our country that we are celebrating this July 4th, has been entered into events with purpose that has changed the course of the entire world.

Whether it was sending help to refugees in Africa, or funds and weapons, to the rebels in Libya, or even the wars we have fought in with rational or irrational reasons, we have help format what the rest of the world is today. Good or bad, whether you agree with our political leaders or not it affects us all. Yet, each thing we do begins with one moment, one thought, one action. It has made us who we are today.

Lost Moments

It was just a moment. I felt that tug on my heart to go pray with someone, but I had a headache, or perhaps I was just tired and in a hurry, so I went home instead of going to the altar with them. I haven’t seen them in church in a very long time and I have heard things, and I guess it must be true after all they don’t go here anymore.

Random thoughts can plague us, but they are soon forgotten as just another moment in time. We don’t pick up the phone to give them a call, we don’t take time to send them a letter, or even when they say hi at Wal-Mart, they are quickly forgotten again. And then we get a phone call from someone, and we find out they were in a car wreck, or perhaps they were sick, and we had planned to go visit them, but our wife needed us to run an errand as well, and while we meant to…. now it is too late. They are gone, and we will never get that moment back.

Sometimes Moments Cost

Did you ever stop to think about that? What if David had not picked up the five stones and took Goliath out? Would he have become king? Would he have been in the lineage of Jesus? It was just one moment in time where he made a decision.

And what if Jesus had said no? It was just one moment. He could have said no, I am God, I don’t want to go through this for these who curse me, deny me, and are so full of venom toward each other. I am glad He made the decision He did, but it was just one moment that took us to where we are now.

Can you remember a time when you wish you had chosen another path in life or in ministry? How about when we look back into our life, when we decided to walk away from the ministry. Are we satisfied with where our life ended up? How about the lives of our children? Are they happy? Are they living right? But it was just one moment in time, it shouldn’t matter so much. Tomorrow is another day.

A Few Defining Moments

There are entirely too many to list, but a few that will immediately stand out are listed below:

• Eve gives Adam a bite of fruit.
• Noah builds an ark.
• Moses leads his people into a wilderness
• David slays a giant
• Jonah is swallowed by a big fish
• Jesus is born, lives, and dies for our sins.
• Peter preaches on the Day of Pentecost
• We accept Him into our lives

What Are You Doing Next?

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Something else; something more...

It is 2:00 am and I find myself wondering why I am awake. I should be resting I know but something woke me up about an hour ago. At times, I appreciate the stillness of the night. It seems that is when God seems to catch my attention the easiest; and a time when it seems easier to hear him calling out my name.

A lot of things have been on my mind lately; important decisions I have to make, why this is happening, or perhaps just trying to make sense of it all. It would be nice if we were allowed to choose every aspect of our lives, but it doesn't really work that way. We can say yes, no, or run away when we are faced with life, or we can accept it, perhaps embrace it, and just move into a new phase.

I guess I have always been more emotional or maybe perceptive about the aspects of my life God is working on, and yet I see others who seem to either disregard or be oblivious to the direction their life is headed, and I wonder why does God allow it to be that way? People who have been completely sold out to God, or seemed to be, so quickly fall away when faced with difficulties. Somehow God has 'forsaken' them, and yet instead of trying to examine what is going on in their lives, they ignore the signs or just don't see what they are doing. Maybe they have become calloused to the point where it doesn't really matter anymore.

I realize there are times when we all just need to take things in stride, and know it will work out, but there are also times when those gentle tugs or the trials that seem to knock us down are trying to wake us up before it is too late.

I don't understand how some can profess to love God and yet, they seem so far from truth, and accepting of the changes, like somehow God is ok with it all. The true hunger for God has been replaced with something else.

We are a generation that knows God, or so we think, and we get so caught up in life that we forget the depths he once took us to. It never used to be a big deal if we spent time in the altar crying out to God and hungering after him. It never used to be a big deal if we were tired and it was a long church service, because we were there with a passion for God, and we found strength in him. It used to be when we were asked to help out, it wasn't just another chore we had to do, or some inconvenience to our lives, but it was a blessing.

What has happened to us? Have we become so complacent that we are not aware of the changes?

I have heard people talk about this as a 'new day.' We have programs and steps to achieve our ministries, rather than anointing and worship. Dedication has been replaced with acceptance; both in our personal lives as well as in our walk with God. There is this perception that God doesn't work the same way as he used to; somehow we have to 'help' him out to achieve his goals. Really?

I know God needs us, but he doesn't 'need' us.

Just recently someone made a comment that they heard so and so was going to another church, and how 'they talk about God moving there. It can't be true though, because they are not coming here like they used to.' We can be so self absorbed thinking God cannot move on someone else who does not look like us, act like us, or maybe sing the same songs we do.
And yet, those who at one time were our prayer warriors, seem to just take it all in stride. 'Oh, God will work it out, he always comes through.' While that is true, it seems like we have become so used to how things are that we don't expect things to be any different and somehow we have forgotten how it used to be. We think God understands, and yes he is the same, but we aren't. Many have become so blinded and yet so arrogant to think that our apathy is just God being patient with us.

I am so troubled in my spirit at things that are allowed to go on and no one seems to care. I am so moved seeing those who I believed in, confided in, and loved seeming to go further and further away from what they believed just a short time ago, and yet, they think they are ok. Whether it is blinded by sin, or just simply not caring anymore, I really don't know, but something has to happen to wake them up before it is too late.

The bible talks about the ten virgins and five let their oil run out, and five kept back just a little so they would have something to draw from when the bridegroom came. Most of the time, we talk about those who let the oil run out. People who were once dedicated, bright, shining examples for God, who have somehow let their light dim and flicker out. We talk about them like how could they be so stupid to not keep the faith, and yet we don't really recognize the reasons their flame has gone out. It could be they got lazy; or perhaps they got so caught up in life, that they weren't aware, but it could also be our fault.

The bible says we are to bear one anothers burdens, but it seems to me that we are so busy in our own circumstances that we don't even see what is happening to our brothers and sisters, or even our own families. I know salvation is one on one. It is between us and God, but when did we see a brother or sister slipping away, and not feel touched, or moved by God to do something about it?

We are supposed to be loving our neighbor as ourselves, and yet most of us have become so wrapped up in our own situations, that we don't even know what is going on in the lives of those around us. I had one person tell me not too long ago, that is wasn't so important that you believed and worshipped the way you used to as long as you gave God an hour or so on Sunday. Really! And this person claims to be in the ministry.

Some have gotten the idea that serving God is about making it to church, singing a few songs, and listening to someone talk for a little while about the bible. It is no wonder some lights have flickered out. Those who are 'ministers' don't have time to minister anymore except for when people make it to church, and I have heard preachers and preachers wives say, 'well, if they loved God, they would be here.'

It isn't that way.

Being a christian used to be about sharing. Sharing what we know; sharing what we have, and spending time worshipping together. It didn't take a continual drone from the platform about how we need to raise funds for this or that program. People gave of their own accord; not just finances, but they gave their time, and their worship was more than just something to do. It used to be that 'pentecostals' were considered oddballs, and you could definately pick them out of a crowd in the supermarket, or the mall. They looked different, they acted different, their love for God and each other was apparent.

Last sunday morning I arrived at church just a few minutes before sunday school, and there was less people there, at least on time, that I could have counted them on two hands and maybe part of a foot. This from a church that used to be known in the community, even despised at times. A church that when you talked about 'those people' everyone knew who you were talking about. Sure a lot of it was criticism, but they knew when they had a real need, where to find the answer.
Now, when I go the store, I almost never see anyone from my church. I almost never see anyone who looks holy. Everyone seems to have blended in to the crowd. A few weeks ago I saw a couple of ladies that looked holy, seemed to have a pleasant disposition, and carried themselves with dignity. I didn't say anything to them, but I wondered if perhaps there was another church nearby that preached the truth. There is only one apostolic church in my area for more than 100 miles, so seeing some who looks like what I remember we used to look like surprised me.

I mentioned seeing those ladies and my wonder to a few people from my church, and almost without hesitaion they all said, 'those are the two-by-two's, they don't believe like we do.' How do we know? Did any of us talk to them? How come we assume that we are the ones with the truth? That we are the ones who have enough oil? And if we are, how come we aren't at least trying to communicate with those who look holy? Maybe we are the foolish ones?

Just like in the parable, the foolish had let their light go out to the point that they weren't even aware of what was going on around them. They went out to find more 'oil' when they knew the bridegroom was coming. We see so many signs of the end, and yet most of us are just content to sit on the pew and not try to get on fire like we used to be. The bible says in the end there will be a great falling away, and frankly, I see it happening everywhere. Not just in those who 'quit church' but in the dedication we have for God and his work.

The thing I have always wondered though, and no one seems to preach is about the five wise virgins and how selfish they were. The principle of God has always been give and it shall be given to you. The widow woman gave to the prophet first, and never ran out of oil or meal. There are many cases like that in the bible and we used to be able to spout off the cases in our own lives where God came through when we did something first. So, why didn't the wise virgins share? Were they selfish with what they knew?

Truly, the bible says 'they all slumbered and slept.' All of them; those with oil; those without didn't try to keep it going, they went to sleep.

So we have a dilema; are we sleeping because we are wise, or sleeping because we think we have plenty of time? Are we truly the wise ones, or are we the foolish?

I am so hungry for a real move of God. Not just the "I came to church, sang some songs, worshipped some, heard some guy speak on some topic I will never remember" move of God; not just the occasional 'miracle.' I have heard people talk about miracles and why are we 'looking for signs, we aren't supposed to be.' That is a cop out, the same as when we know a brother or sister is going thru a difficult time, and we say we 'will pray about it.'

Someone needs to step it up and do something. Jesus said we were supposed to be doing greater things than he did. How many of us can say we raised the dead? Too hard? Yes, I know that only God can raise the dead, but what are WE doing? Or how about just being moved with compassion for someone other than ourself? That shouldn't be so hard.
Our churches have become just social hangouts where we do just enough to get by, and then plan if we will go to Applebees or McDonalds after church.

Again, I am so hungry for a move of God. If we looked in our cupboards and freezer for something to eat and couldn't find what we needed, wouldn't we go to the store? Most of us don't usually go to the grocery store to be seen, or to catch up with someone to make plans to go eat somewhere. We go there to get what we need to sustain us. Sometimes, we even share what we buy with someone else.

That is what the church is supposed to be about. Needing something else, needing something more to not only sustain us but to satisfy that longing. Something that will keep us steady; something that will be enough to keep us until he comes. It wouldn't hurt if we got enough that we could share as well. Someone else may be hurting and hungry; are we just going to walk on by, or are we going to help?

Once upon a time, there were four people; Their names were Everybody, Somebody, Nobody and Anybody.
Whenever there was an important job to be done, Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. When Nobody did it, Somebody got angry because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Somebody would do it, but Nobody realized that Nobody would do it. So consequently Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done in the first place.

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