Listen to Him

It is not surprising that the majority of people in this area have had some sort of connection with a church in their past.

You can hear claims of denominational loyalty, “I am a Baptist,” “We are Lutheran” or “I was raised Catholic.” I can go on and on like this. What strikes me though, is that when it comes for the actual gathering of these Christ followers, many of these who claim a church affiliation are absent from any congregation come Sunday morning. Why is that?

Did not King Jesus want us to assemble as those He has made righteous by His work on the cross? If we honestly ask ourselves why this is the case, a host of excuses would pour forth that would leave us all ashamed of ourselves and one another. We’ve become well accomplished at giving others a reason to not fellowship as the church.

Whether from false piety, meddling in other’s affairs, flat out gossip or any other host of lame excuses, we’ve come a long way down this road to apathy and I don’t think the majority are too excited about correcting course. (Ouch! The truth can be hard to hear.)

What can we do? I wish I had all the answers.

Wouldn’t that be nice!

But since I don’t, maybe I should learn to listen.

“Listen to what?” To the voice of Him who called us in the first place. If we did that together, maybe then we could hear the truth and do something about it, He is our king after all.

The man Pilate, who would have Jesus crucified, came face to face with our Lord and asked of Him, “So you are a king?”

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world - to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37, ESV)

This is the same Jesus who in the garden the night before prayed that we would be made holy in the truth.

Getting down to the truth and dealing with it is never the easiest thing, but it is always the best. The way to start is by stopping what we’re doing, being quiet and listening to what Jesus has to say. Then we can know the truth and it will set us free because it will take us to the cross and have us start from there.

With loyalty to our king and His Word we, as struggling Christians, can find a new opportunity for fellowship as it was meant to be, in His name and for His purposes.

What do you say? Shall we listen together?

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Editor’s note: Neil Vanderbush is the pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church, Pea Ridge. He can be contacted at P.O. Box 555, Pea Ridge, AR 72751, or by e-mail at [email protected].