Churches and Their Perfect Match

 Like many Friday mornings, I sat in the dark watching out the window. Usually, the sky is covered under its blanket of night when my husband gets up for work on Fridays so after I make the coffee and put something out resembling food for him, I wait. Slowly the sun slides in breaking open the darkness and starts the cycle of chores. Country living necessitates having good visibility when you venture out where the wild things are creeping.

 But today, I just sat. Restless animals started rustling but I did not budge. The sun was screaming at my eyeballs and I remained unmoved. My thoughts tried to wrangle why my heart was rebelling against this new day and it hit me. About this time a year ago, I did not just sit, I picked up and moved from my church. It was hard, very hard but it was right and that has been made even more obvious during this year. Spiritually, I have grown leaps and bounds. Hard to believe, I know.

 Now I get it. The picture of the church as a Body makes so much sense. I understand better than I ever could about leaders being shepherds and how we  submit to that leadership. That is why it is so important to find a church that is committed to following the Bible. The leadership will have to answer for how well the sheep are doing. This makes me a little hesitant. Do I want to do that to a new church that is just gaining strength to stand on its own? A young leadership? They are going to have to know me and the other sheep are going to have to love me. That's a lot to ask. If there was a site to match believers to churches, I would be in trouble. 

Sheep-Harmony Profile

 Looking for a few more sheep? Try this little piggy:

People tell me that I have a good personality

- 3 previous sheepfolds
- Lives with goats
- Financial contribution is limited
- Feet are prone to stumbling and jumping in muddy puddles sometimes wallowing in them
- Eye problems, leak consistently and lose focus easily
- Likes reading, walking, and debating anything. 
- Loves baby sheep, studying, natural health, and chocolate
- Dislikes cotton candy teaching, intermingling with others because of fear, & the mall
- Desires to glorify God

 Kidding aside, it is time to refocus. Churches are full of sheep with all kinds of maladies and no one can claim to be the worst without forgetting the work Christ has done at the moment of salvation. That being said, He has called us to be in a Body and outfits us with talents and abilities to suit that Body. It is a commitment, it is part of a covenant, and, yes, it is serious. We should not break fellowship with a Body without serious prayer and consideration. If you leaving your church does not cause at least a ripple, something is wrong. A Body cannot lose parts without feeling it and the part cannot separate from a Body without starting to die off spiritually. 

 Once you leave, find a church that is solid. Is the congregation growing (I don't mean numerically)? How does the leadership handle Scripture? What is the focus of the worship time? How does the leadership handle sin/issues? How does each member handle sin/issues? Do they know and care for one another?

 Seems like there is a theme in those questions, doesn't it?  And, no, I did not forget questions about programs. A church should  be focused on God and His Word. How they deal with sin speaks a lot about how well they know and obey Scripture and that speaks a lot about what they think about God's holiness.

 Which, by the way, is something that each of us should examine in ourselves so that we are beneficial to the Body. Get God's holiness right and it is difficult to get doctrine, living, and serving wrong.

- Psalm 99

The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! 
He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!

2  The Lord is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.

3  Let them praise your great and awesome name! Holy is he!

4  The King in his might loves justice. You have established equity; 

you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. 

5  Exalt the Lord our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he!

6  Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who
called upon his name. They called to the Lord, and he answered them.

7  In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them; they kept his testimonies

and the statute that he gave them.

8  O Lord our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them,

but an avenger of their wrongdoings.

9  Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain;

for the Lord our God is holy!

I Am Fine and You?

  Amazing how a little obedience changes things quickly. 

  When God puts something on your heart to do and you take it to mean that you need to pray for someone to step up and do it, you get worn down faster than the welcome mat at Chik-Fil-A during lunch hour. The call would pop into my head and my response was, "Yes Lord, someone needs to do that so please send a strong, solid person that will take care of it right away."

  Ahhh, personal rebellion...gotta love a heart that tries to operate on its terms. Nope! Gotta rebuke it, repent, and be obedient. Why I have to add all these extra steps to my life, I'll never understand. 

  The call was to confront one straying from Truth. If you know anything about me, you know I am as confrontational as a swinging door. I am also a big scaredy cat of making grown-ups mad (children are a different story). Top all those winning qualities with the fact that I prefer to be in the background in a corner and you have an amazing leader - NOT! 

 Week after week, the burden gnawed at me. I used to boast that the Lord had given me the gift of being able to go to bed and go right to sleep but even that was taken from me. My stomach hurt. My nails were chewed to nubs and I was grumbling to others. I felt awful, looked awful, and started acting awful. 

  Unfortunately, the time for my mission trip is drawing near and wham! It struck me that I might need to back out. How can one serve with an unclean conscious? You can't. Backed into a corner, my view of the situation became clear. It was me. I had to respond. I had to step up. There was no strong, solid person being called. They had their own calls to answer, this one was mine. 

  So...I did it. It was not even close to resembling David standing before Goliath with a slingshot or Esther going before the king but it was obedience. The whole time I was wondering if it was appropriate to pray that I did not wet my pants or vomit in front of others but, ultimately, I determined that if it meant God would be glorified I had to do it and be okay with the fact that I would probably be humbled in the process. Oh, the peace that flooded in afterward!

  If you learn nothing else from this blog, learn to obey God and do it quickly! Few things in life I take very seriously because in life, most things are temporary but God's holiness is very serious and it is eternal. Obviously, I need to be even more serious about it so I respond the first time.

  "Holy" has become a church word that is void of meaning. We say it but we do not think about it. How can we get back its meaning? Its reverence? One way is by being obedient when you are called to do something. Now please excuse me while I go study the lesson I have to teach on this mission trip about submission to teaching and correcting others in love. Coincidence? I think not.