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Dripping Springs Weekly Bulletins
Three Stories: One is Believable, Two are Not
We all like to hear stories. The movies and TV would be in trouble without stories. The Bible tells a lot of stories, but I want to tell you a story or two that will really test your imagination. How about this one:
George has worked for his boss for eleven years. He did not steal pencils from his boss or cheat on his “sick leave” rules. But one day he just doesn’t feel like going to work. No, he’s not sick, he just doesn’t feel like going to work. Two or three weeks go by, then another day he does not “feel like” going to work. This time he doesn’t go to work for a full three months.
Eventually, he realizes he needs his paycheck, so he goes back to work. No one says anything to him about his absence. He looks in his box and there are all of his paychecks waiting for him. After two more months staying at home he realizes he should be more reliable and goes back to work on a regular basis. No problem. No one mentions his absence, and sure enough his paychecks are waiting for him.
Sue is a teacher of third graders. She is a good teacher, always in her place in the classroom. But third graders can be tough, so she just decided to rest for a few weeks. She wonders if the principal will let her come back. She gets ready for class and is back in her place that day. There in her box are all her paychecks, the students sitting in their places just as though she had never been gone. This continues for another two months. No problem.
Two more weeks of “rest” and she misses her students again, so she gets ready and goes back to her classroom. Again, paychecks are in her box, the principal greets her warmly and she goes about her business. No problem.
Jim is a Christian; has been for several years. He attends most periods of worship, puts a check in the plate every Sunday. He likes the people there, sings and reads his Bible on occasion.
One Sunday morning he decides he will just “sleep in”. No one calls, so this goes on for several months. He sees some of his brethren on the street and they speak to him cordially, saying nothing about his absence. He gets to thinking that he needs to get back to worship, so he gets up Sunday morning and he’s there in his usual pew. There’s the church bulletin, and his name is not in either the “sick” or “remove from membership” column.
Six months go by, and he does not attend a worship assembly once during that time. Now he thinks his brethren don’t care if he is there or not, but he decides he will go back and be “more faithful” than before. Sure enough – no problem. They ask him to lead prayer, teach a class. He feels better, so he is now “back in church.”
Now let’s be honest. You know story number one is absurd. George’s job would be gone if he did what our story suggests. The boss would have given him the axe months ago. Paychecks? Don’t even ask.
Story number two is just as silly. No school principal is going to let a teacher just come and go without an explanation for his/her absences. Paychecks waiting for Sue? Get out of here. Most likely a “pink” slip.
Story number three, however, is very believable. Jim is not so unusual. A lot of people drift in and out of faithful attendance in worship, then months or years later decide to come back. Repentance? Remorse for having been AWOL from the Lord’s assembly? An apology for the bad example he has placed before others? Nope, just walk in and act like nothing happened.
George and Sue would know better, but Jim knows “church” is different. Just come and go as you please. It’s nobody’s business but Jim’s. Or is it? Does God care whether Jim is “forsaking” the assembly? Do elders not notice that Jim has drifted away? In the Old Testament the elders/shepherds of Judah allowed that to happen (read Ezekiel 34:1-10). Judah went into Babylonian captivity, partly because their elders failed in their task of watching and warning their people.
The Bible says we “must worship Him in spirit and in truth,” John 4:24. Christians should not forsake the assembly, Hebrews 10:24-25. When we fail to do God’s will, the Bible calls that sin. Unless we want to die in that condition, be lost without hope, we must “bring forth fruits worthy of repentance,” Matthew 3:8, 2 Corinthians 7:10.
We cannot just walk away from our Christian life and then just drift back one day and do nothing about it. That is neither biblical nor good common sense.
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“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
“Reputation, once broken, may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.”
“I am a part of all that I have met.”
“Who sows virtue reaps honor.”
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You Can Be Just a Christian
Has it occurred to you that you can be just a Christian – nothing more nor less than a plain Christian? Yes, even in the midst of the religious confusion of our creed-bound, denomination-divided age, it is possible for you to be just a Christian!
Being just a Christian means trusting and obeying Jesus Christ, just as Paul and Philip and the early Christians did in the first century after Christ. It means going back beyond all the distinctive Catholic and Protestant teachings and doctrines of today to find Christ just as He is revealed in the inspired New Testament.
You see, there were no different denominations in the beginning of Christianity. The early disciples were all of one body. They were called simply “Christians” (Acts 11:26). They did not follow different creeds, but were guided by “the faith once for all delivered to the saints,” (Jude 3). The New Testament, first as the spoken Word, and later as written down by “holy men of God” as they were guided by the Holy Spirit, was their only rule of faith and practice (2 Peter 1:21). We have the same New Testament today and can reproduce the same pure Christianity which flourished in the first century after Christ.
Jesus built only one church, and God added everyone who obeyed the gospel of Christ to this undenominational church, the body of Christ (Matthew 16:18, Acts 2:47). The Bible teaches that you will be added to this same body today when you believe in Jesus Christ as God’s Son, repent of your sins (John 8:24; Luke 13:3), confess before men that Christ as the Son of God (Matthew 10:32; Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; Matthew 28:19; Acts 22:16; Romans 6:3-5, Galatians 3:27).
Why not become a Christian, according to these simple guidelines of the New Testament, and worship and work in the undenominational church of Christ in your community?
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