During a recent Sunday evening service, Pastor Bickelhaupt asked what it was that is so important as to keep church members from attending church when they know the doors are open and services are being held. He went on to say that people willfully reject the prospect of meeting with Christ Himself (as His presence is promised when the church meets together in His name). Jesus promises in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Pastor implied that there are too many professing Christians who find it preferable to attend the weekly Sunday morning worship hour, but find gracing the church building outside of that service to be merely optional, an inconvenience, or just not that important. It got me thinking. What could possibly be more important than meeting with the Savior?! Here is Someone Who gave everything for us. He literally sacrificed a heavenly abode for an earthly bed mat, for scripture reveals that He had no
Have you ever wrongly blamed someone for something you didn't know you did? I think we've all been there. It's not a pleasant situation to find yourself in for sure, because crow tastes awful. I remember once blaming a college roommate for throwing away a midterm paper I had spent hours writing. I became flustered and angry and said some regrettable things to him. After rewriting my assignment, I headed to the printing lab, where I had left my first report lying at the printing table. Open mouth, insert crow. Fastforward 18 years. I am now an educator, and our school just finished up our first-quarter Parent-Teacher Conference. I dread the Parent-Teacher Conference. My fellow teachers also dread them. Why? In one word.... Parents. Today's parents (for the most part) are enablers. The enabling trend has worsened over the years with the ever-increasing influence of technology and the digital age (the connection is worthy of its own blog). Over the last 15