Giving Up Church and Going it Alone? - Dante Marola

 An old method for barbequing was to use charcoal briquettes. By using lighter fluid, sticks or newspaper one could get a fire going to cook meat. Interestingly enough, if one briquette is removed from the rest and put to the side it will stay hot... but only for a little while. In time it gets cold and is cool enough to touch... but it is no good to anyone. but if it is put back with the other charcoals it will get hot again and be useful for cooking.

Some Christians are like that. 

They don't think they need church or other Christians to live the Christian life.
They think they can do it all by themselves.

That is not biblical.

Christians NEED other Christians to keep them on fire for God or else they, like the lone charcoal briquette, will grow cold and hard.

There is strength in numbers and that is the method the Lord desires for believers, as well as Bible reading, devotions, praying and sharing our faith in the Lord.

There are no "Lone Rangers" in the Lord!
Strength and unity by the power of the Holy Spirit for believers in Jesus Christ is what God had in mind when He created the Church.

    - Dante

Consider these words from the Bible:

Psalm 122:1
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!”

Hebrews 10:24-25
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life Lesson from the Rearview Mirror - Dante Marola

Every car or truck has a rearview mirror. The purpose of the rearview mirror is to see what’s behind you or what is past. A quick glance is all that is needed as we are to pay attention to what is ahead of us by looking through the windshield. It is much bigger than the rearview mirror! We need to concentrate on what is ahead of us because staring at the rearview mirror will cause us to not to pay attention to what is ahead of us. The result is that we will lose control and crash. Like a Christian’s past, we give it a glance and only a glance, whether the past is good, bad or both good and bad. We must focus on what lies ahead! God has dealt with our past and He is working in our present and future. In Luke 9:62 Jesus said: “He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God.” Our past is over, our present is happening and our future God has the present and future in His hands and we trust Him to direct us. - Dante Marola
Read more

A Bad Taste in Your Mouth? - Dante Marola

Have you ever gone to a restaurant expecting a good meal, only to be disappointed? Bad service or bad food? What did you do? You can bet you're not going back to that restaurant! It doesn't mean that you won't eat out again only that you will not go to the restaurant you had a bad experience with. You will try a different restaurant. The same thing happens with church. You may have gone to church only to be disappointed with perhaps hypocrisy or gossip or personal issues with the leadership or other issues. Fine. That one church let you down. So you try other churches. There are many out there. If you avoid the temptation to sleep in on Sunday and you are earnestly seeking God then He will direct you to where He wants you. God does not want "Lone Rangers" or Christians staying away from the Body of Christ, withholding their talents and giftings that they should be sharing with others. We just cannot "take our ball and go home." God loves us and He has pl...
Read more

A Tale of Two Women

 A Tale of Two Women A rich socialite had a maid work for her for many years. The maid went to church often and gave liberally while the rich socialite went only occasionally and gave just as occasionally. Eventually the maid died and a few years later so did the socialite. When the socialite got to heaven St. Peter greeted her and wake her to her mansion. As they passed a huge mansion St. Peter told her, “That big mansion belongs to the maid who worked for you.” The socialite got excited to see her own mansion! As they walked further they got to a much smaller mansion. “This is your mansion,” St. Peter said. The socialite, confused, asked St. Peter, “Why is my mansion so small compared to my maid’s?” He replied, “We did the best we could do with what you sent up.” 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Romans 14:12 says, So then each of us w...
Read more