Forsaking the Assembly

Today's New Testament reading is Hebrews 10, a rich chapter where the writer concludes what commentators call "the longest sustained argument in the New Testament." But what stands out to me is Hebrews 10:25, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together" (KJV). That verse stands out because I remember it being used so much when I was growing up. It was the reason we attended Wednesday and Sunday nights, supported all gospel meetings and always found a church when traveling. It was also the reason why summer camp began on Sunday afternoon; to start on Saturday (the original practice) caused us to "forsake the assembly." (I remember having Sunday worship at camp in the early days before the change. I remember it largely because the little glasses they used for communion were snuff glasses, which I thought was hysterically funny!)

I'm glad we attended every service. I'm especially grateful for my Dad's example of leaving his business on Wednesday to be at church with us even though that often meant him returning to work after church and staying until midnight. I never doubted where my Dad's heart was! I'm glad we always found a church when we went on vacation. Sometimes you need to make a commitment to something good and allow that to become a good habit. But the point of Hebrews 10:25 is much deeper and more important than "You gotta go on Wednesday nights."

The next verse says "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left" (10:26). Hebrew Christians were leaving the Christian assembly to return to the life they lived before Christ. But to leave Jesus means there is no more sacrifice for sin. Thus to leave off assembling with other believers was to give up on the quest for holiness and forgiveness. being with other Christians was what constantly called them back to Jesus.

It is good for church attendance to be a habit, but we need to see the reason behind the habit. We live in a world that continually seeks to suck us back into the unholiness, materialism and selfishness that we left behind when we committed to serve Christ. Daily we pray and praise and study to keep focused on who we are. But one powerful tool God gives us to help us in our fight with sin is our assembly with other Christians. The word used here for assembly is used of formal church gatherings (1 Cor 5:4), more informal prayer gatherings (Acts 4:31) and even elders and deacons meetings (Acts 15:6). It is also used of Jesus gathering us together at the end time (2 Thess 2:1). Sunday morning church is not that is addressed in Hebrews 10:25. The writer is talking about Christians gathering together as a spiritual support group.

The Hebrew writer doesn't want us to do is quit gathering with Christians because our gathering is a powerful tool God uses to help us in our fight with sin and Satan. The question is not, "How many church services must I attend in order to please God?" The question may be "How serious am I about living a holy life for God in this unholy world?" And the question is also, "How serious am I about encouraging others to live for God?" You see, even when you don't think you get anything out of a worship service, a small group, a Bible class, an after-church activity or some other "assembly," your presence may be a encouragement to someone else.

So... how serious are we?

Hearts of Stone and Flesh

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

There's a story about a man who cleaned out his attic and threw out a lot of the old junk he found there. Among the discards was an old Bible. Now we usually don’t throw away old Bibles; that just seems sacrilegious somehow. But this one was falling apart and had writing all over it, so he threw it away. A friend collected antique and he expressed interest in the old Bible.

The man said, “You wouldn't have been interested. It was in German; somebody named Guten-something-or-other printed it.”

“Gutenberg!” exclaimed the book collector in horror. “That Bible was one of the first books ever printed! Why, it could have been worth millions!”

“Nah,” said the man. “It wasn’t worth anything. Somebody named Luther had scribbled all over it!”

We live in a culture prone to discarding old things. Mass production and planned obsolescence make it easy to throw old things away and get new ones. No one makes a living repairing old coffee pots, toasters, or VCR’s anymore. It’s easier to discard them and buy a new one.

Unfortunately, we are that way we people and relationships. Companies discard old employees and replace them with new ones who don’t require as much salary or benefits. People are far too quick to throw away marriages that don’t seem to be working; it’s easier to just move on to a new relationship. And Christians are too often much too quick to give up on a church and move on to a new one.

But the secret to repairing old things is the God who makes all things new. God promises his people to give them a new heart. He will replace rebellious hearts of stone with hearts of flesh, hearts that are led by His Spirit to obey His words. God would not discard his people; He will rather make them new. That is what God wants to do with each one of us. How blessed we are to serve a God who repairs and restores and makes new!

Thanksgiving Day

I enjoyed a pretty traditional Thanksgiving Day at my in-laws yesterday. By traditional I don't mean turkey and dressing; our new tradition is my father-in-law's special prime rib which everyone loves, including Maggie the mut. No, by traditional I mean someone else did all the cooking while I gorged myself and then vegged-out in front of football. I'm not sure who started that tradition, but I'd like to shake his hand some day! (And we are sure it was a "he" who started it, right?)

It was a great day all around, but the best part for me was the drive there. Normally I don't mind the hour and a half trip over the river and through the woods, but I usually don't enjoy it. But yesterday I did. We started out listening to some praise music I recently downloaded (legally of course) from iTunes for Lynn. We soon went from listening to singing along, Tressa singing alto along with Lynn and Angelynn's soprano. And I sang also. We've made a trip or two like that with anything but harmony coming from the backseat! And we weren't in the car 5 minutes coming home until the CD was going and we were singing again.

There's no better way to reconnect with the true meaning of Thanksgiving than through worship. The day isn't really about prime rib, coconut cake and pecan pie (I'll write the Atkins people an apology letter later). It's about family and reflecting on the goodness and blessings of our gracious God. What better way to focus on both of those than worshipping together?

Yesterday was a great day! Then the Cowboys lost, and that made it perfect!

Hospital or Museum?

I really hate going to the dentist. It is not because I’m a big sissy. OK, maybe I am a big sissy, but that is not the real reason I'm dentaphobic. I hate going because of the lecture I that I almost always get because of lousy flossing. Now, I'm no Neanderthal; I know I should floss and I do floss; evidently I'm just not good at it! On one occasion after getting the flossing lecture, I insisted, perhaps a bit too adamantly, that I did floss regularly. So the hygienist ripped off a piece of dental floss, handed it to me, and snootily said, “OK, then show me how you do it!” And she then scolded me for being such a flossing klutz! I didn’t need that! What I needed was someone to help me, not someone to tell me how lousy and pathetic I am.

Could this be why some people give up on church? They come searching for God and spiritual meaning in their life precisely because they know that is what is missing in their life. But too often what the searcher finds is a healthy dose of brimstone as their sins and weaknesses are categorized and condemned. But then, they knew that they were sinners when they came. Oh, maybe they did not know the correct theological categories, but they knew that they needed God. And what they needed from us is to be gently and lovingly shown how to find God and make Him a part of their lives.

The church is no spiritual museum where we place on display spiritual giants who have all their spiritual ducks in a row. It is rather a spiritual hospital where the spiritually sick can come for recuperation and healing. And the spiritually ill include each one of us. The church at Denbigh is not perfect and it never will be-- either in its programs, its perspectives or its people. But we serve the perfect Christ who remains the Great Physician who continues to heal us and equip us to serve as wounded-healers who reach out with His healing message to the world.

Change and Decay

One of my favorite church songs used to be "Abide with Me." Now, I usually go for more upbeat tunes, but this one has an interesting tenor deal going on at the end that I always liked. And the idea of a God who is "Help of the helpless" who would always "abide with me" is an important message. But there is a phrase in the song that bothered me. "Change and decay in all around I see..." I know the message of the song is that God is changeless, but to imply that "change" and "decay" are somehow the same concept is not helpful. A lot of changes that we see around us are both good and positive.

As I write this, my daughters are on the road driving home for Thanksgiving. One is in college in Searcy and the other has graduated and is working there. Both of them are quite different from the little girls I used to carry around on my shoulders and play "roof ball" with in the back yard. They have both really changed and grown as people. And as nostalgic as I sometimes get for the good old days when they (and I) were younger, their changes have been growth-- not decay. They don't even have the option whether or not to grow and change. The only alternative to growth is death.

Also as I write this, our church pews are on their way to southern Mississippi. They will have a new home in a church building that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. We will sit on borrowed chairs as we wait for our new chairs to arrive next month. Change. The auditorium does look very different; in fact, it even looks a little sad. I know I am a little sad. My girls grew up sleeping on those pews and climbing over those pews. They both got up from one of those pews to walk down front to name Christ as Savior and be baptized. There is a lot of history in those (extremely heavy) pieces of particle board furniture. It will be a change sitting on form-fitting, lumbar-supporting chairs. But it won't be decay. Growth. Churches like people grow, and growth is change, not decay.

Sour Grapes

In 2002, the African nation of Swaziland suffered a famine in which 250,000 people were on the brink of starvation. At the same time the UN asked for emergency funds to relieve the suffering, the king of Swaziland ordered a $55 million private luxury jet. The money was taken from a development fund for projects aimed at making Swaziland economically self-sufficient. In the meantime, a quarter of a million Swazis were starving to death. The injustice of so many suffering so much due to the corruption of a few is overwhelming.

This injustice gave Israel in the time of Ezekiel a bad case of "sour grapes." An entire generation of Jew grew up in Babylonian captivity due to Israel's rebellion against God. But this generation of captive had not rebelled; that was the sin of their fathers. They used the proverb, "The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge" (Ezek18:2). They were being held guilty of sin that was not theirs. They even saw in this a proof of God's injustice, "The way of the Lord is not just" (Ezek 18:25). God's gave a clear answer to their proverb--

For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die. (Ezekiel 18:4)

While sometimes the innocent must suffer the consequences of the sinful choices of others, only the soul that sins will be held accountable as guilty. Fathers will not be held guilty for the sins of their children; neither will children inherit the sins of their parents (see Ezek 18:19-20). Ezekiel here may not be giving a full treatment on the doctrine of "Original Sin," but what he says here is powerful. As is the fact that God ends the text with an invitation--

“Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live! (Ezekiel 18:30-32)

Assignment 2006

I need your help on this one! What do we do for next year? This year we have read through the Bible together suing a reading calendar with an Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs reading. I have preached on one of the Sunday texts in the series. I'll likely not do that again, but what do we do for our daily devotional reading?

• Maybe we read through the Bible in canonical order, Genesis to Revelation.
• Maybe we use the Chronological Bible to read the Bible in historical order.
• Maybe we use the One Year Bible (similar to this year, but less repetitive.
• Maybe we study through 12 long Bible books (1 a month) at a slower pace.
• Maybe we use a devotional guide like Power for Today or Morning and Evening.

What do you think? I like the idea of us having a "recommended plan" for our quiet time. At least this encourages those of us who have a hard time staring on task! Whatever the plan, it won't have us read through Proverbs 12 times in 2006!

So what do you think? Post a comment below to let me know what you are thinking!

On Biting and Devouring

Some time ago, Cindy Byrd sent me a video clip a dog with a bone. He reaches up with his hind leg to scratch his ear or something, but the dog evidently sees his leg as a rival that is after his bone. He is so intent on protecting his bone that he growls at and snaps at and then finally pounces on his own leg. Click here to see the video.

That reminds me too much of how the church acts at times. We can be so intent on eating our bone (our perspectives, interpretations, traditions) that we are suspicious of and snap at other believers not realizing that we are attacking our own body. I wonder if we look as silly to the world and to God as the dog in the video looks to us!

The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. (Galatians 5:14-15)

Now For Something Completely Different

In 2005, I sent out daily email articles (OK, there were really 3-4 a week) that were devotional thoughts and musings driven on one of that day's daily Bible reading texts. See this link for some of those articles. I appreciate all the nice comments many of you send me.

I thought that for 2006 I would try a blog (Web Log) that will do much the same thing. The comments I post here may be rambling thoughts (OK, they will almost certainly be rambling thoughts) on the sermon, a class, a comment I received or something that I've read that I found either helpful, interesting or maybe even a bit infuriating.

Hopefully the blog format will make it easier for you to comment, share your thoughts and reflection and add to the discussion. I am curious to see where this goes. Hey, I am curious to see if this even works!

-- Tuck