Self-inflicted wounds

Read Hebrews 10:24-25

24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together,as some people do,but encourage one another,especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. (NLT)

It is a fact that many followers of Jesus no longer regularly ‘go to church’. Some continue to meet with other Christians in other ways,while others don’t bother about such meetings at all. Faith has become privatised.

There are all sorts of reasons for this non-meeting,none of which really justifies an abandonment of the teaching of this text. One such reason may be that of shame. Some Christians have made a mess of things. Coming to Christian meetings,they are faced with people who appear to have it all together. Living the victorious Christian life while they are mired in defeat and despair.

This is sad on two grounds. One is that any Christian gathering that conveys the impression that it is only for the spiritually dynamic is kidding itself. Any sort of church gathering is a meeting place of the broken and the spiritually bankrupt.

Linked to this,the other sadness is that Christian fellowship ought to be one of the means by which we heal our brokenness and our shame. To stay away from it because we are ashamed is to miss out on the great possibility of overcoming that shame as we are embraced by the accepting love and strong help of fellow strugglers.

To stay away from other Christians because of our many and varied sins is like deciding to only go to the doctor when we feel better.

Blessings
David Reay

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