It doesn’t matter if you go to church every day, or every Sunday. What really matters is the person you’re becoming every time you step out of the church.
What good does it do to be praying earnestly when you can’t even listen to someone who needs someone to talk to? So what if you’re present in every church activity, when you’re distant from your family and friends because you can’t make time for them. What is the use of knowing and memorizing the Bible verse line per line when you don’t live out to what it means?
The essence of going to church is for us to be better people. We’re not perfect but we can always strive to be. The essence of going to church is to bring the Good News to the un-churched. If we keep on with our self-righteousness, if we keep on rubbing to their faces that we are holy and they are not, if we keep on with our pride, there is no sense in our coming and going in churches. We will only discourage others to get to know God.
Our mission is not just to cleanse ourselves from sins, but to also show the light to those who are still in darkness.
Think back to the time when you were in darkness yourself. What did you need then? Did you need accusation, condemnation, criticism, or condescending? No. You needed mercy. You needed understanding, you needed love, you needed acceptance, and you needed it desperately. You needed someone to show you the way. You needed someone who will walk with you from the valley of death to the hills where help comes from.
If you have been blessed enough to come back Home, is it not right to pay it forward? Is it not appropriate to go out there and bring people with you? If you can’t bring them home, just bring to them the Word and eventually, they will go there themselves.
If you go to church and come out more judgmental, more proud, and less loving, you are missing the point. You are also destroying the church’s image to others.
Do not be religious be righteous. Do not be self-righteous be loving and merciful.
Do not be like the high priests and Pharisees. They were clean and holy on the outside, but they are rotten on the inside. They make people feel less worthy. You cannot keep salvation to yourself. You must share it, especially with those who need salvation the most.
