Please help with this question

Going to church is vital to progressing from simple belief into relationship.

There is strong Biblical doctrine associated with fellowship, both because of the geometric increase in prayer authority and the value of group study, edification, and accountability.

 

From the Anglican perspective so that one may partake of Holy Communion and grow close to other believers. The Christian Life was meant to be lived as a group not as a solo deal.

All those these days who speak of doing their own thing and not wanting to go to Church scares me for one reason

"Dear friends, if this is the way God loved us, we must also love one another." 1 John 4:11 ISV
also
"Whoever says, “I love God,” but hates his brother is a liar. The one who does not love the brother whom he has seen cannot love a God whom he has not seen" 1 John 4:20 ISV

I quote those two verses because from my experience many who don't like attending a local church it's because they don't like authority or other Christians but please do not think I'm painting with a broad brush there are certainly exceptions but I think many of the soloist could be described above.

 

Hi Waremock wifey,

This is where we as a church have went astray. What is believeing in God? What we must also address is what does it mean to be saved?
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What does it mean to be saved...

We are not saved from Hell. Yes it is true that if we are saved in the end, we do not go to hell. Yet this is not what we are saved from in our salvation. We are saved from or sins and sin nature, that places us in Hell.

In the fall of man..Adam in the garden made a choice. God told Adam, you can do anything you want, but do not eat from this tree. God was saying, ..Now Adam if you eat from this tree, you are saying you want your will and not My will."

When Adam choose to eat, he was taking a path away from Gods will. This is what sin is. There are only two ways in life...Gods will....or our will..following the devil, who was the 1st to take this path away from God. Our sin nature makes us sin..over and over again. We just can not stop sinning. For this reason..we are going away from Gods will...the other path.

Death is the end of this path.. Death in hell. All we need to do is go by Gods LAWS...yet we can not. Even in good works we sin.,,with pride.
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What is believeing in God?

This leads to what salvation really is. When we say we trust in Christ Son, we are saying we trust He is our only hope of forgivness of sins. By placing our trust in Him we are now worshipping him. This is nothing to do with works. It is about God and our love for Him. By saying we trust in Him, we are saying we worship Him.

About 3 months ago I stopped asking if someone was "saved/believed/ born again".

I now ask..What God do you worship?

We all worship something. When we worship...we also love. I love basketball, and so I play Basketball, even though it HURTS now that i'm in my late 40s. I love ice cream..and I eat ice cream when I can. If we love God and worship Him, we will show it by taking time out for him...even if it HURTS.

2nd...I ask...How offten do you worship?

If one spends no time with God, how can they say they worship God? In the book of James, the writer is saying.."you say you have faith...show me that faith. If you have faith..I better see some action with that claim...or "faith without works is dead"".

How can any one NOT read the Words of God everyday? Maybe you miss one day or maybe even two. But you have a longing to get into the Word. If you DO worship him...would you not take time to go to church..rather then watch a game? If you go to church 2 times a year..i think there are others things in life you worship other then God.


In Christ...james

 

The short and biblical answer is found in Hebrews 10:23-25.

 

I like the 1 John verse that Nate posted.

Also:

"I'm adopted. Why should I spend time with my family?"

 

C.S. Lewis had some profound things to say on the issue.

"When I first became a Christian, about fourteen years ago [dated 1944], I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my rooms and reading theology, and I wouldn't go to the churches and Gospel Halls. . .
I disliked very much their hymns, which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But as I went on I saw the great merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off.
I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren't fit to clean those boots. It gets you out of your solitary place." From God in the Dock, "Answers to Questions on Christianity"

Also,

"The New Testament does not envisage solitary religion; some kind of regular assembly for worship and instruction is everywhere taken for granted in the Epistles. So we must be regular practising members of the Church. Of course we differe in temperament. Some (like you-- and me) find it more natural to approach God in solitude; but we must go to Church as well.
For the Church is not human society or people united by their natural affinities but the Body of Christ, in which all members, however different, (and He rejoice in their differences and by no means wishes to iron them out) must share the common life, complementing and helping one another precisely by their differences." Letters of C.S. Lewis, dated December 7, 1950

Sorry for the long post, but I found these two excerpts to be both powerfully insightful and deeply humbling.

Blessings,
SpyHunter

 

Yeah...'cause dismembered bodies are gross. Pun intended.

SpyHunter