Yes, this is true. It doesn't mean that the activities within a church service themselves are my life's purpose, it means that they put me in touch with my life's purpose like nothing else will.
It's not that the blessings of God won't come to me from God if I don't come to a church service. It's that I'll have so little to help me learn to catch those blessings.
It's not that going to church makes me a believer, it's that being in church shows that I am being the church, that I am a believer. I can't love Jesus and hate the church. I can't have Jesus and intentionally skip church. Church is for now and for then. It is the heart of how I respond to God now and the rehearsal for eternity with God then. There are substitute teachers and sugar substitutes, but no substitute for live, in-person worship with other believers.
Worship is my life's purpose. My life is not my own. I belong to a community and a community belongs to me. I am redeemed as part of a community. There are no private booths in Heaven. When I read John 14:1 and following, I must remember that the "you" Jesus speaks to is plural. The "you" is plural so often in Scripture.
Worship is OUR ongoing faith-response to the Cross of Christ. Worship is OUR life's purpose.
"The "you" is plural so often in Scripture."
ReplyDeleteYes,amazing, and we still hear it as singular. The fullness is in it being plural. His idea, I want Him all to myself. I've got to work on that.:-)