A-Z of Christianity - "C"

CHURCH

I've heard the following phrase more times than I can remember, just about every Church preaches it, but it shouldn't take anything away from the truth of it.

'Going to Church makes you as much of a Christian as going to McDonalds makes you a hamburger!'

Viewing from the outside, it is easy to think that being a Christian is all about going to Church and this scares people off as it makes it appear religious and cult-like.

However, whilst being a Christian is about so much more than going to Church (a relationship with the God who created you and loves you!) going to Church is very important if you are serious about following Jesus. This is why.

• Encouragement. You have a guaranteed meeting with people who also testify that Christ is Lord. There might be times in the week where you are isolated as a Christian - in work, at home, amongst friends for example. But at least once a week (or more as most Churches have a few events you can go too) you will get to be people who share your views. It's really encouraging. Britain is a country that has slipped so much spiritually that people will make you feel like a fool for believing in God. Being amongst other Christians reminds you that Christ is HUGE as He has not just performed wonders in your life, but in the lives of others too!

• Teaching. When I became a Christian it was embarrassing sometimes how little I knew. I remember stuff I once believed and said and I cringe. God knew my heart and loved me all the same but it's definitely been big for me that I have learnt so much more about the Bible, about Jesus and about how God sees this world. It makes sense and I am now in a position where I can pretty much account for my faith in anyway before others. (If you ever want to challenge me with a question on here, please be my guest :D)

• Sung Worship. I really value the time to worship through singing. I would love to just go at it all the time but things like working with others, living at home with many people mean that a lot of people would be inconvienced by my rather terrible singing! I want to gain the courage to sing when I can but sometimes it just isn't reasonable to do so. So getting to sing, being led by people spiritually and musically gifted in those area, is a huge plus!

• Help. Church is a community and through it you can help others and also get help yourself if you have issues. In what should be a loving, caring environment issues like babysitters, relationship break downs and lack of necessities should be solved a lot more easily. Together the Church is much stronger to tackle issues in our country and our world than on our own.

• Jesus time! I love spending time with Jesus and Church is another opportunity to do so with less distractions!

So whether you go to a Church already, haven't been for a while or have never been before....Get excited about the things a Church can offer you this weekend! :-D

Our Way or His Way?

I am currently reading through the entire Bible again using a Bible in a year book that I bought from Spring Harvest. I felt my reading time had become a bit stale and hoped the book would re-invigorate it and so far it gets the thumbs up.

Going through the Bible inevitably means a hard slog through the Books of the Law - Leviticus, Deuteronomy & Numbers. I am not knocking these books as I learned something from them that was reinforced in my readings today.

If worship wasn't important to God then why would so much of His Word be dedicated to how Israel should worship Him?

The overwhelming lesson I learnt was that God wants us to worship Him in a certain way. I have spoken to plenty of people in the past who say, 'I believe in God but I worship Him in my own way'. Often, it appears to  mean there are not worshipping Him at all hence the negative 'but' in the sentence.

In Judges 17, Micah and his mother decide to worship God in their own way...

³ When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, I solemnly consecrate my silver to the LORD for my son to make a carved image and a cast idol. I will give it back to you.

    ⁴ So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into the image and the idol. And they were put in Micah's house.

This goes against one of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:-

⁴ You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

And a command in Exodus 34:17:-

Do not make cast idols.

In Judges 18, Micah's idols are stolen from him and the priest he hires also leaves him. I would suggest this was for his benefit.

So the challenges for us is, are we truly worshiping God? Are we truly giving over every part of our lives to His Will? Are we not going our way rather than His Way in areas of our lives? 


My experience is when we give things to God, He never lets us down in those areas of our lives. May all of us  pray about the parts of our lives that are not fully given over and give them up for Him to bless!


Amen :-)

Video of the Day!

I want to write today about celebration! I am currently watching the Carling Cup Final between Birmingham City & Arsenal, where the winners shall celebrate a victory very joyously. Earlier, we went for a meal with some of my family for my Mum's birthday. Different types of celebrations but good fun all the same.

God has called us to celebrate (Phil 4:4) and as Christians we do have a lot to celebrate!

I was chilling out online this week and found a video of one of my favourite ever Cardiff City players, Robert Earnshaw. He definitely knew how to celebrate!

As Christians we know that:-

• We are saved (Romans 10:9)
• God Loves us so much (John 15:13, John 3:16)
• God works our good in all things (Romans 8:28)
• God has a great plan for us (Jeremiah 29:11)
• God will never leave us (Hebrews 13:5)

If that isn't worth celebrating, NOTHING IS!

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

 ¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
 ² Worship the LORD with gladness;
   come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the LORD is God.
   It is he who made us, and we are his;
   we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

 ⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
   and his courts with praise;
   give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
   his faithfulness continues through all generations.

A Line In A Song

Today at Church a line in one of the songs we sang spoke to me.

'I will worship you here'

I realised that not often enough in my life I am in a place of worship to God. Life sweeps me away from Him too often and then I find myself doing something I shouldn't.

One of the most powerful Bible verse in my mind is Acts 5:41:-

The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.

In Philippians 4:4 it says "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"

I want to always be able to say that I will worship God right where I am, everywhere I am.