It does little good to wring out hands and lament the inroads of television, ball games, and other attractions on our church attendance. If we do not have enough vitality to compete with all this, maybe it doesn’t matter much whether we have our meetings or not. If the gospel means so little to us that it can be sidetracked by every sideshow that blows into town, it wouldn’t mean much if such people did gather to go through the hollow motions of a dead faith. It is certain that the answer does not lie in stubbornly holding on to the form when the power had departed. We seem to be preaching and promoting something while most of its adherents wouldn’t miss it much if they lost it! There is something frightfully wrong when we have to beg most of our crowd to come to church to hear about it.
Devotion of the Day
NO OPTION
Ye are not your own…for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s
I Corinthians 6:19, 20
It has been said that becoming a Christian is optional, but after we become Christians we have no option, we are to obey. Most church members are strangely ignorant of that. We go on living as though we were our own and had paid for our redemption. But we are not owners of anything, we are stewards of everything we are and have. And it is required of stewards that they be faithful. It is required of servants that they serve. It is required of soldiers that they obey. And every Christian is a steward, a servant, and a soldier.
We have no right to anything, we are bought and paid for by the blood of Christ. We are His property. It is not for us lightly to choose what we shall give or withhold. We belong to Another and He has the say-so.
What a long way we are from realizing this on Sunday morning, when we have to be begged and besought to give God a tip! To withhold one thing is theft, for everything is His!