Most of my young life I grew up a stranger to religion. I say stranger because I had no religious affiliation whatsoever. I spent all my Sunday mornings until the age of 18 sleeping in my bed and always looking forward to the two days off each weekend. I believed in God, but had no idea there were things required of me to please Him. Sometimes I spent a few moments thinking about other families and how they did things differently. They would get up on Sunday morning and go to worship. Sunday night they would return for more worship. When Wednesday night came they would go back for more Bible study and, you guessed it, worship. A name was just a name then: Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Church of God, Church of Christ. I did not know a difference, and they all seemed the same. I could not have been more a stranger to religion.
When I went to college my life took an unexpected U-turn in a very positive direction. All of the friends I made studied the Bible and through example encouraged me to do the same. Not long after looking through the Holy Scriptures did I realize God was requiring special things out of me. He requires special things out of anyone desiring to be a Christian. I first learned that I was not one of His children. I was not a Christian yet because I had not obeyed God?s perfect plan for salvation. I also learned that anyone could answer the call (2 Timothy 1:9) as God is not a respecter of persons (Romans 2:11). That part of the plan was simple to understand and not physically hard to accomplish.
It was obvious through reading the scriptures, however, that the Bible was not written solely for the reason of making me a Christian. It was written for the ultimate purpose that after becoming a Christian I would remain faithful until which time I died physically. The Christian must live faithfully unto death for the crown of life to be his (Revelation 2:10). So in essence, there is more to do to be pleasing to God after you obey Him and become a Christian. I encourage each and every person to realize that the Christian walk is exactly that, a walk. Paul realized this and he tells us that despite already being a Christian he had more to do:
Phillipians 3:12-14
"Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. 13 "Brethren, I could not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing [I do], forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, 14 I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."What is it that we must do to stay faithful? How can we press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling? We are to worship and remember Jesus by partaking of the Lord's Supper each and every first day of the week (Acts 20:7). We are to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We need to sing praises to God "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord," (Ephesians 5:19). We need to contribute to the Church as we have prospered (1 Corinthians 16:2). We need to search the scriptures daily as the first century Christians did (Acts 17:11).
The Christian who truly desires to follow God's Will notices something in particular about several of the above mentioned acts. Most of them involve a specific action in order to be completed. It is undeniable that to fulfil some of these items we must come together as a group. If we follow God and meet on the first day of the week, we would be partaking in the Lord Supper, giving, singing, and praying. Everything is covered; as Christians we must ASSEMBLE! Without a doubt, you will find Christians who want to ignore the necessity of worship and assembling. However, they need to heed God who specifically tells us we must not miss the assembling of the Saints:
Hebrews 10:25
"not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting [one another]; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh."God clearly tells us here that we must not miss assembling together as Christians. As usual with a command from our Holy Father, obeying will only benefit our Christian lives. Going to worship will of course aid us in our effort to worship God but will also lift up the body as a whole. Please consider these following blessings of "going to church":
In the Christian walk, there are only two directions one can go. One is of course the "right" way and the other is the "wrong" way. The Christian wanting to miss worship is simply walking away from God. Why is it when we look in God?s word things seem so clear, but when we try reasoning on our own we are not so sure what God would want us to do? Obviously, we are more concerned about pleasing ourselves than we are in pleasing God.
1 John 1:7
"But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin"