Is Your Church Your Family?

Everyday life events become Bible lessons for me. It happens almost every day...I'm just living life and something minor happens and I feel like God teaches me a spiritual lesson. Tonight was one of those lessons.

There was a time that we lived here when we didn't have any family living close...so the church became our family in more ways than one. The Bible says weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. Our church did both of those things with us. And they became our family. I told our pastor about nine months ago that I think church is like family. There are times when you disagree and you just want to walk away (sometimes run away), but you can't because they're family. You stick together in the good times and the bad. We all get frustrated with things. We don't always agree. We get our feelings hurt and we get offended. And Satan uses that offense to cause division in the church. Sometimes people just walk away from the church or God completely.

This breaks my heart and I know it breaks God's. And so, I've committed not to walk away, no matter what, unless God gives us release. And I'm thinking God will only give us release from this church family if there is doctrinal error being taught. Why? Because, we're family and you just don't walk away from family. You can fight and you can be frustrated and you can want to walk away, but in the end, you stay. Why? Because they know you like no one else and they love you anyway. And you know them like no one else and you love them anyway.

Tonight, our pastor honored a family who has been at the church for over 20 years. They have been there through the good times and bad. Everyone clapped. I stood. Why? Because I know these people personally and I love them dearly. They are good people and they understand that church is family. Have they always agreed with everything at the church...I'm guessing not. How could they agree with everything in 20+ years?

Someone said to me after the service, "I looked and saw that you were the only one standing and I felt bad for you." I said, "Don't feel bad for me. I am not ashamed to stand by myself". Some of that is just in my personality...I've always been willing to take a stand even if it meant standing by myself. But tonight, this was personal. I wasn't looking for people to join me. I was just being obedient to what I felt God prompted me to do. Some people have left our church and it hurts. It'd be foolishness to pretend like it didn't. But the decision for us is that we're in it for the long run....even if it's hard at times.

I'm reading a book on spiritual warfare and the premise of the book is this: everything visible and physical is the result of something invisible and spiritual. Therefore, only by addressing the invisible, spiritual cause can we fix what is wrong with our visible, physical lives (Tony Evans).

The battle is waging...whether we know it or whether we see it. There is a war going on all the time. And so this family is going to rally behind our pastor and leadership. I personally am going to pray with more perseverance and more passion, because I do truly believe that our greatest days are ahead. And I want to be a part of them as we rejoice together and give God the glory for the great things He will do!

I hope you love your church and that they too are your family.