Going to Church

This dedicated to my niece Tammy Loftis and all those I ever asked to come to church..


Someone said, Tell your Mom you went to church that will make her happy (or something close to that). And it hit me. I and others have sent out the wrong message to our family and friends. Sure we want them to "go to church". But just going to church doesn't give them relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  Just like walking into someone else's house doesn't make you their family.  

See, what I really want for people is that they begin a journey to know the Lord. That they begin. Because it is a never ending adventure to know Him. He is so deep, so amazing! His love for us is deeper than the ocean, wider than the sky. His love is more overwhelming than a tsunami wave. Walking with Him is the adventure of a lifetime.  There is the deepest peace you will ever know. He loves us so so much. I want for you to begin your journey walking and talking with the one who created the universe, who calls you by name. He isn't a God who is indifferent, distant.  One of His names is Jehovah Shammah. It means the God who is there.  I want you to become aware that that our Lord is right there with you.  A Savior. Yes. But also a companion. You can talk with him just like you do your best friend. 

I don't want you to come to church and just hear the words of the preacher like you were hearing a nice lecture. If the preacher is serving God at all, he has asked God to give him what to preach. And if he is preaching the Bible than he has words of life to help you, encourage you, help you to grow in your walk with God, to help you know the Lord better.  

Just think if you wanted to be a nurse. You would need to go to school and learn all about it. You would need to know all the bones of the body, the systems, how to give shots, bedside manner ideas, etc, etc.  The preaching and teaching of good teachers is your learning place except God is involved and many times the sermon or lesson will hit right what you need. It will seem personal like he was peeking in your life. He isn't but God is.  That's why it seems that way.  Other times you are just learning things you will need on down the line.  Like packing a backpack for a hiking trip. You don't need a bug repellent now but on the trail you might. Or a granola bar. But when you get hungry you will.  Sermons are like that.  Come Tuesday morning when everything in the world goes wrong, the words of the pastor that were "God will keep you in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him" will come back to you to help you stay calm and carry on.

Also I want you to know of God's love for you.  It's a great romance this love between God and us.  There is deep mysteries and great adventures waiting in our relationship with him.  He loves you so deeply. He thinks you are beautiful! He has these awesome plans for you.  I don't want you to come warm a pew. Just come and "check that duty off my list".  I want you to know God personally. 

Oh for the right words to tell you...  the whole purpose of Jesus coming was to reconcile us to Father God.  To forgive our sins and give us a meaningful life. Not all people will do big, huge things. But all, if they follow him and fall in love with Him, will find a fulfilling life.  You might just be a light shinning to your children and husband. You might just make your workplace a better place. You might just bring a smile to others. But to a child whose mom or dad was super that will make a difference. To a friend who is struggling with depression, your prayers and kind words will be like cool water on an August day. You, having the light of Jesus in you will make the world better. And he will thrill you like nothing else.  

I want you to learn how to know God and in that everything will change.  He doesn't want you to be anyone but you. But be the best you. He will take your talents, your desires and use them to change your world if you let him.  And in that pouring out your life for Him you will find  purpose, contentment, satisfaction and joy.

For instance, at one point in my life my friend talked me into working in a four year old class at church.  I was terrified and it was hard because I wasn't used to working with others. But the sweet little children and their pure, innocent love touched me. And sharing simple lessons was fun and doing art with them I enjoyed. And a bonus I didn't even know would be there I made lifelong friendships with the other workers in the class.  Sweet friendships that I cherish, that changed my life.  But God steered me into doing something I wouldn't have tried on my own.  This is just a simple example of an adventure He took me on.  I learned new things. I grew as a person, as a Christian.  I received love through the children and through my fellow workers.  Church gave me these opportunities. 

You may not ever work with children. Because your talent might be different. You may not even work at the church you might just be a part and take what you learn out into your life.  What I'm trying to say is that God will use your talent.  I work well with children, I love art, I love people.  Those were MY talents and needs and God fulfilled them there for that season.  I want for you to serve God and use your life in service to him so you can feel that satisfaction and contentment, find encouragement.  

Church or a small group or a Bible study group..whatever you find...become a family.  Not to replace yours but a church family. People who love on you, have your back, pray for and with you, walk through dark times with you, rejoice with you when you have good things happen.  Real, amazing friendships. That is what you are missing.  

Mostly I want you to know deep down in your heart the most profound truth in the world: That Jesus loves you and he knows you and died just for you.   He wants to be your closest friend. To walk with you daily, all day long. He wants you to belong to him, to grow as a person and to live well and love your life. He wants to give you a clean slate. Wash away all your sins.  A new beginning.  I want you to begin that journey.  It will have ups and downs and curves and twists. But it will be the adventure of a lifetime.  That is what I want for you!  Not ever "to just go to church". NO NEVER!!! But walk with the one who laid down His life for you.  To KNOW Him.  That is what I want for you!!! For you to dance through this life with the one who formed the universe.  To KNOW HIM!    to really know him.... 

This song above tells how I feel and how I would love for you to come to feel too. If you ever get to know him you will feel the same I'm sure. He will capture your heart if you let Him.. 

Music..some thoughts running through my head...

Recently there was some discussion that I came across about music and church.  I know, a hot topic at best.  But I've been thinking about it and a couple of things come to mind.  And I'm trying to write this in love but it's hard.  First, the flesh in me wants to say, "who cares what you think" but that's not nice.  But, maybe it's true.  Who says it's okay for others to judge my worship?  Or if I dance at church or if we sing the same song a gazillion times?   And by the way, why aren't you worshiping?  Don't say your whole thoughts are on Him if you can still look around and judge how others are worshiping.

But that's my flesh.  Let me try and put it in a kinder way:  I dance at church occasionally as I feel the spirit leads me.  I'm worshiping!   And as a person who has a hard time focusing I wonder if that is why the Holy Spirit leads the music pastor to sing the same thing over and over.  People like me can finally get all the thoughts from life out of our heads and can focus on worshiping God.  Also when I finally can focus I'm swept away, amazed at Him.  I get just a glimpse of his glory and I'm awestruck!  How can I not want to linger on the words that either praise him or tell of him or wonder at him?  I mean the God of the Universe holds my hand.  He is aware of ME.  If that doesn't move you, you need to have a talk with him, something is off.  Our relationship with him is a love affair.  We are lovesick.  We want to sing to him and of him.  We want to lavish praise on him.  If you see that as me getting worked up. Sorry.  You are wrong.  



As I tried to put emotions aside and examine this dilemma in black and white, a thought came to me. Maybe, just maybe it comes down to the fact that we are all different.  I love to worship one way.  You love to worship another.  And maybe there are others who love to worship a bunch of other ways.  Just like cooking or raising kids.  There are some basics but than we each do it differently. Maybe you like meat and potatoes cooking , maybe Suzy likes vegetarian cooking, or Martha is a gourmet chef and Jennifer just wants to feed her hungry crew.  In music if the message is true.  The basics are right.  Why do you have to have an opinion?  Especially if it's not your church?  Just like one family lives and breathes sports, another is into the arts.  Another is on the lake or camping every chance they get.  And another likes to stay home.  If they are loving their family and taking care of them what business is it of ours to tell them they are wrong?  We are all wired differently.  Let's give grace and mercy. Seriously, we are all so different.  How could the music pastor/leader please everyone?



I have worked and attended many churches as we have moved often.  Small, large and in between.  I love my church now because of a few things.  They preach the Word!  We have people being saved. More than any church I have attended.  We are a family of believers doing life together.  We aren't perfect by no means but our focus is on God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  What more can you ask for in a church?  If your church has the basics right, don't question every move the leaders make. Pray if you don't like something. Pray hard.  But be ready, you might be the one that changes.



Music.. not everyone will like every song, every time.  SO WHAT?    If you worship at home to the music you prefer, you can worship at church even if it's not your favorite type of music.  Listen to the words, focus on HIM.

Last thought:  Let's quit being critical and let's love people and be about the most important thing: seeing people get saved and helping them grow as we ourselves grow.



(Stepping down off my soapbox)      

BEHIND THE DOOR

My friend posted about her dream which reminded me I was going to share with you about a dream I had last week.  Her dream was totally different and so beautiful.  Mine was of a different nature...

My pastor and his wife were at our house.  We were all out in the yard having a picnic.  (In real life we have never done anything like this with them.)  My pastor's wife needed to use our bathroom.  I told her it was down the hall.  Then a feeling of horror came over me.  In my dream, the door past the bathroom held my deepest secret sin.  It was in there.  And I just knew she had opened the door revealing my deepest shame.  I ran in and there she was.  Mouth hanging open.  Shock and horror on her face.  She turned to me and said, "you know I have to do something about this".  I begged her to not to.  Then I was in a police car.  They were going to arrest me.  But as I sat there devastated, the most amazing thing happened.  My Pastor's wife started calling some of the ladies from the church who she most trusted.  Reminded me of Jesus calling the 12 disciples.  They were to come right away and help cover my sin.  Take away my shame.  Rescue me.  And I knew if they did the police would release me.  And she told them that after this day "we" will never speak of this again.

I woke in a cold sweat.  Because I KNOW what is behind that door.  Now if you are perfect and don't struggle with anything you can stop reading now.  But if you are human and honest and you struggle in an area. Keep reading.

Of course, I'm not going to tell you "my" sin, "my" struggle.  Did you think I would?  Sorry, not there yet in my walk.  But some sins that people struggle with are: lust, gossip, lying, prejudice, anger, stealing, shame from past sins, shame of failure in any number of areas, low self-esteem, guilt that has become a companion, drinking, smoking, drugs, depression etc. etc. etc.  Just add yours if I missed it.

My daughter and I kind of interpret the dreams of family and close friends.  We point out what we see.  My pastor and his sweet wife represent authority.  And being a woman too.  It's significant that it is she who opens the door.  But they may represent the Lord too.  Cause she covers my sin for me.  She rescues me with the help of the church ladies, and then tells them to not tell anyone.  What a beautiful picture of the body of Christ.  Coming in helping where I was struggling.  Showing love and no condemnation.  Lifting a burden I couldn't lift myself.  I heard once we are all to carry our own backpacks.  The day to day stuff is in our backpack but if we get a large boulder in the road of life and can't move it, then the body of Christ is to come in and help us.  It was a picture of balance.  The individual is strong but the whole body uses it's talents when we can't do it ourselve.  Then we can all move on toward Heaven.

But back to the dream.. the police in the dream, represent the law, no mercy.  Maybe even the devil.  They are going to take me away and put me away.  I'm a loser.  A criminal. But the ladies "fix" it.  That is like salvation and mercy and grace.  When we are saved we deserve the worst.  We deserve to be locked up and the key thrown away.  But Jesus pays the price and we are freed. We are given mercy and grace.  God's favor covers us.  And we have a second chance.

Also about the begging for her to not "tell" on me.  We often like our sin, our struggle.  It is familiar. I remember when I was very depressed.  I was comfortable there.  I could always fall back on it.  It was dependable.  I know that sounds so wrong but if you haven't ever been depressed don't judge me.  Just believe me.  When I was healed/delivered of the depression I had to learn how to behave without it.  And after 20 years of living with it, it wasn't easy to learn a new way.  On this side of it I can say it was worth it, for sure.  But I see so many times that people like their sin.  The devil makes sure we get just enough satisfaction in our sin that we aren't motivated to abandon it.  And sometimes our struggles make us feel virtuous.  We feel like "look at me, aren't I such a wonderful Christian?  I'm struggling with this awful thing and look how good "I am" doing!"   Getting glory for ourselves instead of letting God help us and him get the glory.

Again the picture of the church ladies coming together.  What power we have together.  Sometimes it is a physical thing.  We might bring in food for a birth or death.  My brother is good to help people move.  One time when we were youth pastors.  We were moving.  The youth group showed up 17 kids.  In no time flat our duplex was empty.  It was amazing.  How many talents do we possess and not use?  Sometimes someone just needs a few words of encouragement. Other times people need some prayers.  Sometimes just a listening ear.  Or maybe someone to pay their water bill.  There is power in coming together and doing something.   It makes the work light.

I also recognize that a dream is often unrealistic too.  Sometimes mere people can't stop what they are doing and come help.  We are at best forgiven at worst human.  But we could move toward the ideas of the dream.  Do what we can.  Do what the Lord nudges you to do.

You Put This Love In My Heart

People are busy these days.   There is all the responsibilities of life:  work, home, family, church, volunteering, staying healthy...  Just to name a few.  I don't know about you but I think it can be quite overwhelming.  Then you throw in one of life's curveballs:  a divorce, an illness of yours or a loved ones, a death, a financial setback.  Other setbacks big and small:  a change at work, a broken pipe, your car breaks down, your parent falls, your fridge breaks, deadlines, a child goes off track,  it can on and on.  Sometimes just catching your breathe can seem impossible.  And in the middle of it all you realize that you need to be a good christian, a good person, live a good life, obey God.  Whew! What a lot of stress.   Your plate's full!

I've been thinking  lately about that last one though.  Obeying God and what His word says to do.  Also my friend brought up at a meeting at church that we should pray for other people to come to our church and come to know God.  Which, of course is true.  If you love Him and realize how much He loves you it's only natural that you want others to know that too.  And when they know that truth your church will grow.  These two thoughts, obeying God and new people coming to church have been swirling around in my mind.   Which have led to some other thoughts.  One way to obey God is to love others.  In 1 John 4 in the New Living Translation it says


9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.


11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.


...we surely ought to love each other!  The New King James version says: "Beloved, if God so loved us we also ought to love one another".  And in an earlier verse,  verse 7  It says:  "Beloved let us love one another".  The word ought sounds like the word should.  And I truly hate the word should it conjurs up in my mind guilt and fussing and disaproval.  And that makes me want to resist.  But if it's coming from a loving Father, God himself perhaps I need to lay those preconceived biases aside.  This is an opportunity to obey, right?   But when you put that with the idea of loving people hmmm, it becomes a challenging opportunity to obey.   Because loving people whether they are new people in the church or people in your family or people at your work place or people you have to interact with in the many areas in your life  isn't an easy task.

My same friend also said a long long time ago in a prayer meeting that having new people come into your church would make you uncomfortable.  It would be inconvient.  I say even at times annoying.  You see, don't know if you've noticed but people are not always likeable.   And on top of all the stresses and annoyances of your already crowded life, God wants you to love new people?   The thought makes me want to run away and hide.   In that prayer meeting we actually prayed to be made uncomfortable.  It was a good prayer.  A sincere prayer.  But lately I've been thinking.   It sounds so virtuous, so wonderful.  Did it please God?   Or were we a little like a teenager dreaming of a fast car.  Only thinking of the wind in our hair, our friends riding with us, having fun,  life being perfect.   Not really knowing that having a car has responsibilities with it.  That it is a powerful machine that you may be too immature to control.   And that caution and time spent learning to drive it must be a big part of owning it.  

Yes, loving people is what we are to do.  Reaching new people is what we want and need to do.  But once they are there we have the responsiblity to love them.   And wow that is a huge thing.   Because new people at a church are like the other people in our lives. Imperfect.   I am a dreamer and when I think of loving people I think of this perfect little world where people all think like I do and we smile and get along and life is simple and sweet.  POP!!!  

Dream worlds only exist in our minds.

I have found that people rarely agree with me.  Life is anything but simple.  And we all have issues.  We all have unresolved stuff.  We are all, as believers, in the process of being made in His image.   And we rub against each other.  We get on each others nerves.   Often we find God and we become a believer and as a work in progress we come to church where we believe we are supposed to be and what do we find?     Reality.  Imperfection.  Sometimes everything but what we thought we would.  But for those of us already at the church our responsibility is to love the new ones and those already there.  But loving one another is far from idyllic.  It's honestly, very hard in ourselves.  Ahh that is the key.  In ourselves.  

In ourselves.....We need the Lord to help us.  We need the Spirit to guide us.  We can't love or at least I know I can't love like He asks, like I desire to, without Him.   People who come into church or into your life or maybe even the ones still there are annoying sometimes.  They whine.  They look different than me.  They make me uncomfortable.  They are immature.  They argue.  They are snippy.  They have messes.  They have baby mommas and absentee dads.  They have money woes.  They have purple, pink or blue hair.  They are unforgiving.  They are irresponsible.  They have tattoos.  They are rich.  They are poor.  They are everything in between.  They are set in their ways.  They dress in ways that offend me. They won't listen.  They are full of fear.  They are full of tears.  They are imperfect.  They are indifferent.  And they are all God's children.  They are loved by Him.   They are us.

And the only way I know to love them or love us is to spend time with the Lord. Spend time getting to know Him better and better.  To meditate on His goodness and His forgiveness on His love so that I have His love to give to others.  So that I can know I'm beloved and forgiven.  When I know that deep down inside I than can receive His love and I than have real love that I can give to others.  Otherwise my love I want to give runs out.  My trying is pitiful.  My grandiose illusions of being a loving person fall down on the ground just a heap of broken intentions without God's love, without his help.  

The Keith Green's song keeps going through my mind.  I wish you could hear it with me.  He is singing to the Lord, "You put this love in my heart"  and he is amazed by it.  I think when we become amazed at God's love, at His acceptance of us, at His forgiveness than we have some love left over and we can love people a little at a time a little here a little there.  Just slowly day by day, moment by moment, without fear or dread without trying or straining.  His love reaching out and touching lives and returning and blessing our own life.   Than people will stay at our church.  People will be able to overlook each others faults and grow together not as a "church" but as the body of Christ.

Here is Keith's song:

  I found it hard to believe
Someone like you cared for me
You put this love in my heart

I tried but could not refuse
You gave me no time to choose
You put this love in my heart

I want to know where the bad feelings go
When I'm depressed and I get down so low
And then I see you coming to me and it's alright

I want to tell you right now
I'm not afraid to say how
You put this love in my heart

There are sometimes when I doubt
But you always find me out
You put this love in my heart

Cause when I see all that you've done for me
It's hard to doubt, I just have to believe
Cause you followed and proved it all of your life

Well I know
the loneliness I had before
Is gone now
I'll never feel it anymore

Cause your love has released me
From all that's in my past
And I know I can believe you
When you say I'll never be forsaken
Your love is gonna last

There's so much more I should say
If I could just find a way
You put this love in my heart

Is all this real or a dream
I feel so good I could scream
You put this love in my heart

I want to know where the bad feelings go
When I'm depressed and I get down so low
And then I see you coming to me and it's alright

You put this love in my heart

You put this love in my heart

You put this love in my heart