Worshipping God and Fellowshipping with Other Christians

I attend church each Sunday to come before my Creator in worship and praise.  I look forward to being with other believers who get together in one accord, with one mindset, for a unified purpose.  We gather together to meet with our Savior and other Christians to worship God together in song, prayer, statement of faith, and in offering of ourselves and our gifts.  I come to learn about God and His Word, the Bible.  The more I learn, the more my faith grows, and the closer I come into relationship with my Lord.

I have had a relationship with God from childhood.  I have never attended church because of a sense of obligation or because I had to go.  I have always loved going to church.  I meet God there but when I am unable to go, for one reason or the next, God does not condemn me with a sense of guilt for not meeting Him there.  He knows my heart and meets me where I am. 

My physical life is a journey and so is my spiritual life.  I am not the same person physically that I was 70 years ago.  I am also not the same as I was spiritually as a child.  My spiritual journey has progressed from a spiritual birth and baby faith into a mature ever growing faith in God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  I want to continue to know God better and to have a deeper relationship with Him.  I want to study His Word so I can apply His promises to my life and I can be ready to meet Him in eternity.  Nothing is more important to me than knowing and loving God.  I pray continually for those I love, especially each member of my family.  I want them to see and experience His love and His plan for their lives.  I pray for His blessings over their lives daily.  His love is forever.  The things of this world are temporary. 

The Church is the family of God, the collection of believers throughout the world.  We attend many denominations and have different ways of expressing and practicing the one Christian faith in the one and only true God.  We believe that the Bible is God’s Word.  We believe that God’s plan of redemption, seen throughout the Old and New Testaments, is only by His grace and through His Son, Jesus Christ, the long awaited Messiah. 

As I look back over my spiritual journey I can see how God used many experiences, people, and church denominations in my growth.  When filling out a form asking for my religion, I always say Christian.  I do not answer with a denomination.  In America we do have the option to choose to worship in a certain church or denomination.  We are fortunate.  Many Christian believers in other parts of the world have to go “underground” to come together in Christian worship.  Let us not take this freedom for granted.  Let us pray for our Christian family throughout the world; our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I was brought to God in infant Baptism in the Methodist Church.  As a teenager, I grew and received Christ at confirmation after a two year study course at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church.  Richie, our girls, and I belonged to and grew in our spiritual walks at St Luke Lutheran Church on Long Island for almost 25 years.  I taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School in the Lutheran Church and in the Methodist Church.  I also taught Vacation Bible School in a Pentecostal Church, the Church of God, which I attended for a few years.  My faith grew.  I studied the word as I taught children about God, about His Word, and about the gift of faith.

I have many believing, spirit led, family and friends who worship God in various denominations.  I have had to move on from a few churches during my journey because I was not being fed or I felt that their doctrine or preaching was not scriptural.  God gives us the gift of discernment to help us know the truth so that we are able to go to a church and sit under a pastor or priest who preaches the word and is able to help the congregation grow spiritually.  I would give this advice, “move on if you are not being fed”.  When one’s heart is convicted by the Holy Spirit we must always be moving forward in our faith; not standing still, and definitely not moving backwards.  My faith is not dependent on a church or denomination or on any other individual.  My faith and personal Christian growth is dependent on God alone.  God’s grace is sufficient in my life, in my discernment, and in my Christian walk.  I go to church to fellowship with other believers, to be instructed in the word, to worship and praise God, to please God, and to be a witness to those who are watching how I live.  Going to church, attending bible studies, and teaching others, have been and continue to be very important in my life and in my Christian walk.  I read in Hebrews 10:25, “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near”.  May God be glorified in my life and in His Church; the family of God in our country and throughout the world.