Day after day, I would find myself sitting in the grass in the graveyard next to a burial place which had no marker yet. In the beginning I had no idea or plan to make this a pattern or habit for the next two years. It’s funny how quickly time rushes by while it drags one’s heart into slow motion. Grief has a way of putting life in a wave that continues but goes nowhere. For two painful years I routinely made my way to the same plot of earth to sit and weep through muffled words to no one there.
At some point I became obsessed with the need to communicate with the one we had lost so violently and with no warning. I had a message I was compelled to deliver in person to the mere death shadow. He was my brother-in-law, my friend, my motorcycle companion; we needed to talk. So, I did the unthinkable, I turned to the occult.
So much frustration. I tried everything. I was taught to speak with the dead; “nothing is working”, I wept! I had no idea that God was protecting me from myself and the evil one – but looking back, that’s what it must have been.
On the day that was to become the end of my grief-stricken evil sojourn, I finally discovered the One who could hear and respond with compassion and with an all-consuming peace. This was the first time in two years that I experienced peace beyond anything I could explain. No, in my whole life I had not experienced this peace.
It would take another 30 days before I was finally personally introduced to the Prince of Peace. I met Jesus on a Wednesday night in 1978, and He came into me by His Spirit, and I was reborn; made altogether new. On February 5th, I was in church for the first time because I was drawn to be there and I was happy about that.
From that point to this moment, church attendance has been important; I have missed very few Sundays or any other day when the church was meeting. Who Needs Church? Anyone who has truly been saved and appreciates our LORD’s shedding of His blood to pay our debt for sin will have a desire to publicly worship Him in the Church gathered!
The Bible expresses that we, His Church, must gather ourselves together to worship God and be taught His Word to grow spiritually. We must follow the example of the first church as “they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers (Acts 2:42). Keep in mind, there were no sanctioned church structures as today, “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart” (Acts 2:46).
The underground churches I attended while in China were extremely well attended and they met in the strangest locations. Some were continually changing sites for each meeting. Some were in caves far from populated places. Wherever they met, the members craved the fellowship and the teaching of God’s Word.
Beloved, going to church is not just an option; it is God’s will for every born-again individual. God declares in Hebrews 10:25, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
We must love one another, encourage one another, draw love out from each other and push to do good works together, serve one another and God, show honor and be kind and compassionate, and be the light of God to the world around us. We are one body in Christ and we can’t be what God ordained the Church to be without one another. All the parts of the body need to be in united attendance and working as they are gifted.
It’s not enough to just attend a church. It has been a truth of the American church for decades; only 20% of those attending church support and do the work of the church. We all should be involved in some type of ministry and service to others, making full use of the spiritual gifts God has blessed us to have and use.
It is not demanded that a believer be in Church every Sunday, but someone who truly belongs to Christ ought to have a desire to worship God, welcome His Word, and engage in fellowship with other believers.
Being that we are in Christ, we are the fabrics of God’s Holy House of Prayer. We are inherently family, one to another, by His blood – and that bond is unmistakable when the Church actually “goes to church.”
Who Needs Church? Everyone in this world needs you to “be” the Church! Church, come on home and Pray On, TOGETHER!