There is Gladness Going to the Lord's House

Back in 2010 I used this graphic for a blog “House of the Lord.” I've used it four other times, too, since I started this blog in 2008. It has a familial attraction for my family - it was built in the 1890's by my Beloved Husband's great-great-grandfather, Jacob Blickensderfer, in Oakland, Missouri, and still stands in the same spot, next to the cemetery that holds many of that generation's family members.

I like using it when I need a church graphic - I took this photo on one of our many trips to the area. BH's parents and eldest brother are buried in nearby Lebanon, Missouri, though there are no close family members living there. We've pretty much moved on. That happens as lives change and grow.

It happens often to young people who leave home to go to college. There are new schedules, long study hours, considerable stress, and new friends who do not attend church. Some laugh at expressed memories of happy times in church activities.

One of the young men from our church who went off to university ran into this phenomenon. When he was home on vacations or summer, we would see him in church, but that slacked off at school.  He worked during his time home at a place where we ran into him often. I know his siblings, and I've watched them grow. It saddened me as each of them ceased to encourage each other to attend services or activities. They all used to believe and they were as glad as David when going to church:

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. (Psalms 122:1 KJV)

I know one of the reasons the family hesitates to attend, but I firmly believe the Lord would pave their way, making re-entry smooth and welcome. Some might say I bugged them about it, but I promise, though it was often, I didn't mention church every time I saw one of them. A couple of weeks ago, though, I did mention it again. Our young man graduated, was back in the area, and gainfully employed nearby. When I ran into his Mom, I mentioned how we missed them.

"Funny you would say that," she began, then told me about his being out with a college friend and ran into a group passing out Christian pamphlets. As he read the pamphlet, he realized it was from our church and thought, "Have I been gone so long they forgot what I look like?"

His Mom told me he saw it as a reminder from God that he should be back in church activities, so Mom and her children came to the house of the Lord and were glad. And I was happy, too. They are a pleasure to be around and I've missed seeing them on a regular basis.

Missing Christian fellowship can easily occur. After a trip to ER, I spent a week in the hospital. I missed a couple of Sundays there and recuperating, followed by a couple more not quite well while doctors convinced me what needed to be done. Then a couple more after the operation. I got in maybe two Sundays at church, then took a trip and missed another. So over a four month period, I was in church no more than four Sundays before healing enough to really enjoy leaving my home. 

I believe we are commanded by God that He be our first love:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40 KJV)

Knowing that, we can understand when Jesus said to the Church at Ephesus:

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (Revelation 2:2-4 KJV)

When God is first in our lives, we do work for Him. We study His word to whether what is told us is true or not. Bible reading and studies can be accomplished alone, and we can praise God alone, but when we share Christian fellowship we can discuss so many of the questions we have plus share our studies with others. I see that fellowship described in Hebrews:

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:23-25 KJV)

I am glad that when I assemble with others in the house of our Lord, there will be many encouraging me to love and do good works. May we encourage you, also, to Let us go into the house of the LORD.