(Submitted by Kerry Patton)
…and let
us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking
our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you
see the day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:24-25
In preparing for teaching a
Bible Study class at our church recently, I was taken by the impact of four
questions I felt impressed to present along with the lesson I was to
bring. The four questions were as
follows:
·
Why
Are You Here?
·
What
Have You Brought with You?
·
What Will
You Take with You When You Leave?
·
What
Will You Do with That?
Yesterday we looked at Questions
one and two. Today we conclude with
three and four.
Question Three: What Will You Take with You When You Leave?
Too often, I leave worship with…a
hungry stomach. That is what is on my
mind. It’s like “Okay, church is
over. Now, what is for lunch?” And I leave the church campus having taken no
inventory of what I have received there.
Having just sat through Bible Study, a praise and worship time, and Pastor
Van’s message, what have I learned? What
am I taking home with me? Have I
received any marching orders from the Holy Spirit? I have recollections of feeling spiritually
refreshed, and joyful. It is always good
to be in the house of the Lord…but, just as I advise us to enter with purpose,
I suggest that we also leave with purpose, having a conscious remembrance of
how I just experienced the presence of my Lord Jesus; of how my thinking or
behavior have been altered (or altar-ed, as is sometimes the case) by what I
have just heard or experienced. What
will I take with me as I leave this place of fellowship, worship, and
encounter?
And finally:
Question Four: What Will You Do with What You Have
Received?
We cannot accidently become
“Collectors of Spiritual Information.” I
had a family member years ago who collected shot glasses from the various
places she had visited on vacation.
Soldiered side by side on a narrow shelf that bordered the top of her
kitchen cabinets, she had what seemed to me to be hundreds of shot
glasses. This struck me as funny because
I knew that she was not a drinker of alcoholic beverages. And please understand, I cast no dispersion
on collecting shot glasses…or anything else.
I have various collections myself.
But I always wanted to pull a few of those down and serve apple or grape
juice in them. They were GLASSES, but we
couldn’t use them. No one was allowed to drink from those tiny glasses.
I feel the same way about living
my entire life as a Christian as one extremely long Bible class. I would be ever learning powerful stuff, and
recording it all on my resume’ of Christian learning…but am I USING the
information I’ve gathered?
After I have encountered God in
his presence; after bringing to him my concerns, needs, or hurts; and now after
I have received new information about how the love of God in Christ Jesus can
change the world…WHAT will I do with that which I have received? A good solution: share it with others. Give it away!
Put the word which I have received to work in helping and healing others
around me!
Prayer
Father God, in Hebrews 10, you command us to “not forsake
the assembly of the brethren.” Neither O
God, let us squander nor neglect all that we receive in attending worship with
our faith family. Help us to know why we
have come, what it is that we bring to you, what we are taking away from your
presence, and formulate a plan of what we are going to do with all that we have
received there. In Jesus’ name we
pray, Amen.
