Thursday, April 08, 2010

A Christian MUST

Support a local Church - if any exists. If you are a missionary in a hostile country, well then, there should be a Church, somewhere, supporting you. But if you are here in the U.S., you need to be supporting a local Church.

I have written, before, on how to find a good Church.

Support them financially, if you can. If you are one of the 30% of our country that is having trouble putting food on the table, hen this does not apply to you. If you can afford cable TV (other than the $15 a month "limited basic" package), then you can afford to give, at least a little. You are not required to Tithe, or give 10%. Or any other amount. Giving is voluntary, and more importantly, the amount of giving is up to you. I covered that in an earlier article.

But even if you cannot give money to the Church, you can give the pastor a word of encouragement. Did he cover a point of scripture you have been wondering about? Did he give you encouragement? Did he provide a point of view that you had not heard before? And support them by praying for them. Pray for the Pastor. Pray for the Elders. Pray for those in need. Support them by prayer and giving an encouraging word. Both to their face, and to others
in the community.

UPDATE: Here is an article on a similar subject, that might have planted the seed for this one.

4 comments:

Pilgrim said...

Don't you shove your works righteousness on me, buddy. God wants me to be happy, and I'm happy on my couch watching football, tithing to Pepsico. At least I get a cola and a stack of potato chips out of that deal.

TRex said...

Hmmm, the smiley didn't show up at the end. I put one on the end of one of mine, and it didn't show up either.
TRex

TRex said...

Well, the Bible says "do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together"

But I hope I don't come across as saying some minimum level of attendance is require. My own attendance record is around 25% at my Church of choice. And I am not a member.

But, the local Church (the one I choose to support) teaches the Scriptures and the Bible also says that those who are teaching the Scriptures are worthy of our support. In fact it says some of them should earn their living by teaching the Scriptures.

Some of those who read this may not be able to give financially, but all of them can pray. And all can give an encouraging word.

Am I still unclear?
Or do you disagree?
TRex

Pilgrim said...

You're clear. I'm just being a helpful, thoughtful, and irascibly sarcastic blog commenter.

A glad Lord's Day (tomorrow) to you!