In our society, particularly in America, stuff means more than God or a relationship with Him. How much can we live without Him? Not much really. We have enjoyed prosperous times in the USA since the late 18th century. Yes, there have been bumps and problems occasionally. Wars, civil and otherwise, have caused many of our problems and sometimes they have given our country a boost in confidence and pride. But, just in the last thirty years or so “stuff” has come to mean more to us than our Spiritual health. Think about it and learn from it. Seek God while we still have the time to do so and the freedom to as well.
Romans 8:23,28; John 3:16,17
I seem to have stung some people in the wrong way with this post and it wasn’t intentional. I really was pointing out our society’s love of stuff more than religious services or even getting to know about God Himself. He loves you more than you could realize and yet many people are so worried about specific words or hymns or whether there is going to be coffee served as you come into the sanctuary. Read the Bible, all of it, and get to know Him for His ways and His love that is expressed toward all of us!
No, He doesn’t condone sin and He doesn’t like any sins. A perfect and Holy God can’t, but you and everyone else need to get to know Him better and the only way to do that is by reading His Word. Even if you don’t go to a “perfectly home-style church”, you need to get to know Him before you put down the worship services that are at least trying to point you toward Him.
Do Christians or church-people fail, yes they do, miserably at times depending upon their generation and their culture. I happen to be one of the latter years of the Baby-boomer generation so I don’t understand some of the new generation that has come along. I do have a sixteen year old son who really doesn’t fit into the “norm” for his generation because he was raised around a mom and dad who grew up more in the seventies and early eighties. We all make mistakes and I have made my share, but my point is that if you will get to know God as He is in the Bible, regardless of the congregation around you, then you will find that He is a loving a compassionate Creator, One Who can be trusted and followed regardless of those around you.
The Living Message of Christ 
So … if we reinstated those pesky Blue Laws that used to close down places of business on Sundays, the church would just be full of people? I doubt it. For one, not everyone’s a Christian, not everyone’s Holy Day is Sunday, and it’s quite unlikely that people actually respect the church anymore.
That is not what I meant by that post at all. I know that not everyone is a Christian or that some “Holy Day” is different. I also agree that many people don’t respect the church or its message anymore. The point of my post was to get some people to consider turning to God, learn about Him more. If you don’t want to do that, it is fine with me. I am a pastor of a very small church and on the best Sundays I may have five to eight people in the pews not including my wife and son. It saddens me, but there is nothing that I can do about it except try to get people to pay attention to their eternal life that is ahead of them and to pray for all who read these words. Thank you for your input.
My previous church also had under a dozen people. They had a traditional type service, sang hymns, and had no children, teenagers, or young adults. Try as I might, i just never fit in and never became anything more than the regular outsider. They weren’t interested in changing or trying new things, so I left. I don’t know how to sing, but I prefer contemporary music. I don’t care for tradition, but I like seeing both men and women preach and teach the word of God as equal partners in His work with an equal share in that work. If you want to get people to consider turning to God and learning about Him more, you might want to consider how the church frequently is the one sending people away or driving them away or somehow repelling people. That was true in my case; I wonder how many more have seen the same problems.