I'm a church baby.
Out of 52 weeks in a year - unless I'm on vacation or way too sick to leave the house, I can almost guarantee that I'm in church at least 50 Sundays a year. 50 Sundays a year, minimum.
Not at all.
Am I complaining? ... Not at all.
I love being a church baby. I'm a proud church baby. I'm grateful to be a church baby.
But you learn some things.. You learn things like..
There must be more to going to church than just "going to church."
Perfect attendance has nothing on an actual relationship with God.Church babies.. still need to come to Jesus.
Church babies...still need to get saved.
Church babies are still in need of relationship....
And I know, because I am one.
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You've seen it all. You've seen mess; You've seen miracles.You go to church long enough, and you'll find you'll have many opportunities to put things into perspective.
You've seen the glory of God fill a room to where no man could stand to teach, or preach.. or sing, or dance...You've seen flesh on parade. You've seen how important it is to have an extended family beyond your extended family - you've experienced its challenges. You've seen your blood relatives leave, you've seen them stick around..
You've seen yourself... in different seasons of life - still press your way..still seek, and find -- no end to a limitless, MIGHTY, faithful and loving God.
You've participated and you've experienced...then life taught you, so you'd know for sure...
JESUS is the main attraction.
There is literally nothing more appealing - no man, and no gift, more capable of drawing a lifelong, committed crowd or heart than Jesus.
We must always remind ourselves...
"JESUS is why I'm here....
JESUS called me into this family.
JESUS has a plan for my life ....
I'm here because of HIM.
We can get so easily caught up in the parties and services, the fun, the fellowship, the minor meetings and major rehearsals that we become too familiar with how good and pleasant it is that we would even be together, too familiar, and sometimes even take it for granted.
We forget that with each year we share the pew with our neighbors - perhaps we should be growing closer....Closer, to one another...closer to our Father. Iron should often be sharpening iron, and we can't be afraid to love one another because we're called to more, we're brothers and sisters.
We learn that offense should never separate us and love should always bind us. We learn that we do have an enemy, but it's not one another... We learn that each trivial distraction in life, in church - or outside of it, was only meant for our decay....we learn that we're smarter than that.
We learn that Jesus is still the answer.
Never be too proud, church baby, never be too familiar. Don't get "used to it." Don't get tired.
Don't get lost in "knowing it all..."
Never let your familiarity remove you from your reverence.
Don't let it remove you from your commitment to knowing Him more.
In all you've seen, in all you've experienced, in all you've come to know...there's still so much more.
Read "Dear Church Baby, Part 4"
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"Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard....there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore." (Psalm 133:1-3)
Philippians 3:10: "My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death..."
Psalm 25:14-15: "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; He will show them His covenant. My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only He will release my feet from the snare."
Ephesians 5:18-20: "... be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father"
Ephesians 4: 15-16:
"... speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love..."
"And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise."
Galatians 3: 29
"Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary."Galatians 6:9
"One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple."
Psalm 27:4
"And having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, all the more as the day of His return is drawing near.
(Hebrews 10:21-25)
1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "…Or
do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in
you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body."
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