The other day I was talking with someone about church, priorities, friends, families, obligations, etc. As a Christian I know a lot of people who attend Church services on a regular basis. They are the type of Christian the Pastor usually gloats about, the ones that are “there whenever the doors are open”. Basically what everyone thinks you should be doing to be a good Christian.
But what if “going to church” gets in the way of your priorities, your friends, your family, or your obligations? The person I was talking to said something like, “It’s almost like we put church before God.” Of course, what they meant was the act of going to services versus living a life of Worship.
The question is, are we denying the right things when we decide to go to a Church service on Sunday mornings? Perhaps instead of going to a Sunday morning church service, we should go to a food pantry or visit people in the hospital. Instead of going to choir practice, stay home and have relationship-building-fellowship with your neighbors.
I am by no means perfect at putting God first in my life but these are some things I have been thinking of lately.
Are you suggesting that I might not be putting God first by sitting in a pew, having a sing along, or even voting in a “business meeting”?
-Alan
That is quite possible Alan.
God Speed.
Don’t EVEN get me started …..
Heather, it sounds like I already did… feel free to rant and rave :)
Lew
Do whichever has the most potential for building relationships with others. I think this is often where we will find God showing up. I attend church, but will skip in a heartbeat to help friends/family if they need it. I don’t think God gets too upset about that.
I think that at times we put the schedule in church before God; however I don’t think that it’s valid to say that you can put church entirely before God. The Church (The body of Christ) can never be put before God because the body of Christ is God. Worship, prayer, and reading the word are all fundamentals to getting closer to God for the purpose of putting him first. Yes, Church (the building) could in fact be put before God if it’s not used to advance his Kingdom or to get closer to him. This is probably the reason why Churches close. Most definately, our schedules in church means that we put God on the backburner. We should be able to let God move the way he wants keeping in mind that God is an organized God who values organization (not confusion) in the church. It’s also interesting to note that when Jesus spoke to the samaritan woman in John chapter 4 she told him “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” and then Jesus replied “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks”. This might suggest that it doesn’t matter where you worship as long as you do it in spirit and in truth. But in Hebrews 10:25 it says “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching”. This means that we should congregate with each other. This is why church is so important. We can encourage each other in the temple. Thus, if you are going to church for God, then I think that obviously means you’re putting God first. If your thinking about your family and your priorities as being right and going to church to worship God as wrong then you’re actually putting your family and life priorities before God. And lets be honest-When we are working and when we are with our family and friends we get distracted from God. It is impossible for us to be like robota that are programmed to think about him every second or millisecond of the day. I think God has spoiled us enough with our free will. So why not give him one or two days out of the week to devote to learning about him, worshiping him, and advancing his kingdom.