Love to hear from and know who is listening
As spring drags its feet and the warmer temperatures I am longing for turn to cold, cloudy, rainy days, I’m tempted to stay in my recliner wrapped up in my blanket, being just plain lazy.... Days like this are often refereed to as SAD days. SAD is an acronym for “Seasonal Affect Disorder. Seasonal affect disorder is a form of depression also known as the winter blues. Our spiritual walk can at times looks suspiciously close to the winter blues. We can become content, casual, unconcerned, even apathetic towards worship and towards the need to witness to the lost. By definition a complacent person is one who has an attitude marked by self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of your actual deficiencies.
It is unfortunate that many members of church are complacent Christians. Here at Immanual Baptist we have nearly 400 names on our membership role. The average attendance for Church is between 125 and 150 persons. The average attendance for Sunday school is only 60 to 75 and the attendance for Wednesday evening bible study it is a sparse 20 to 30. Many members of our church attend a Sunday morning service once and month and some are CEO's “Christmas and Easter Only” attenders. They simply do not see the need to worship any more often,,, and likely see no need to witness to the lost at all. They are content that they have their salvation. They have their “Fire Insurance Policy” and are not concerned at all with the eternal destiny of anyone else.
Deuteronomy 8:14 NIV Then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Remember the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare? Comfortable with his enormous lead over the Tortoise, the Hare thought he’d rest for a while. Relaxing peacefully by a tree, he drifted off to sleep. He figured he had nothing to worry about. You know how the story goes. His slow and steady contender, the tortoise, who didn’t initially seem to be a threat, overtook him and won the race. The devil is not the the bright red demon with the forked tail and pitch fork standing on you shoulder telling you to do evil deeds. He is also quite content watching you take a nap, peacefully relaxing in your recliner at home rather than attending church and actively worshiping and witnessing!
It’s 8:30 on a Sunday morning, as you and your family scramble to get to church on time. Not a hair out of place, your smiles give the illusion that life is near perfect. Before you get to the car, you realize you left your Bible inside and you rush back in to grab it. Searching high and low, you wonder where on earth you left it last week. Is it under the stack of mail? Mumbling a few choice words, you find your Bible, smashed and wrinkled on the coffee table. Its been unopened since you last paraded through the church hallways. It was untouched, unopened, and went unnoticed. Throughout your busy week, you haven’t thought about God, let alone had the desire to open His Holy Word. Content to be present at church once in a while. Christianity has yet to invade your life.
Revelation 3: 16-17 NIV So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
For most of us it is not difficult to avoid doing the so called evil deeds. You know the ones I am talking about, murder, stealing or cheating on you spouse. But we do have a tendency to just ignore the things would should be doing. We are not doing evil deeds we are simply so busy with our day to day lives that we forget to attend
