I Was Glad When They Said To Me, Let Us Go Into The House of the Lord

Newsletter Article for November 1998

© 1998 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25)

I suppose it should give us some comfort to know that the early Christian Church in the first century had some of the same troubles as we do now. Although the way we live now is vastly different, people are unchanged. The same exhortations that we read in the New Testament also apply to us.

At one point or another we all need to be encouraged, prodded, cajoled, or dragged kicking and screaming into Sunday worship. Actually I would prefer to forego much of the kicking and screaming, but it would give those in attendance something to talk about. (“You’ll never believe what happened in Church on Sunday.... You should have been there!”)

The writer of the book of Hebrews is talking about what a great honor it is that God invites us to come near to Him and come into His house. This was almost unheard of among the Hebrew people in the Old Testament because only the priests could go into the holy place of the temple, and only the high priest could go into the most holy place on one day a year. At the death of Jesus God’s house was opened up to all the faithful. When Jesus died God was no longer our enemy. He was instead our salvation, and He welcomes us with open arms into His house.

Habits can be a good thing when we make doing good a habit. But habits can be bad when we do harmful things without even thinking about it. Bad habits are hard to break precisely because we don’t think about what we are doing. If we are in the habit of attending worship on Sunday then we are regularly reminded of God’s care and concern for us every day of our lives. If we are not in the habit of worshipping regularly then we have to rely on our (sometimes faulty) memory. The longer we stay away from God’s house, the worse off we are, but we forget why.

But let us encourage one another to attend worship. God’s people are like a family. A large family. A family of millions and billions of people both here on earth and also in heaven. However, we need that encouragement because sometimes we forget that those sinners we see in the pews and in the pulpit are people whom God loves, just as He loves the sinner we see in the mirror every day.

Our time is short on earth, but that is no reason to skip Church on Sunday. Instead that is the very reason why we should come to Church. We should be eager to come to God’s house and learn more about Him. When Jesus returns on the last day we want to be eager to see Him and be near Him. We don’t want Jesus to be a stranger to us when He comes back. It would be so embarrassing if we have to ask the guy next to us who that is coming from heaven on the clouds. Worse than that, we don’t want Jesus to say “I don’t know you” because if He says that then that would be the last time we ever see Him.

Let’s all recommit ourselves to worshipping God every Sunday. That way, we will get a head start on some of the joys we will share in heaven. See you in God’s house.