The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 5 of 19)

Patrick O'Hannigan /p>

Mr Henry, I just read your commentary about why you don't go to church anymore. While I respect your right to choose not to attend, I must say it seems to be a rather flimsy excuse to me. In spite of your deep feelings of sadness about the failings of those you have seen attending church, and the lack of helpfulness of a particular tiny country church to cure a man's alcoholism or another man's family problems, I must encourage you to not allow this to prevent you from finding fellowship in a body of Believers.

Regarding the man with the abusive, fat wife, my opinion is that he was a wimp and not a man. He should have NEVER allowed that woman to abuse his children. He should have put her in her place. Instead he was a failure as a man and as a Christian. You cannot blame a "church" for that. Neither can you blame a church for a man's inability to overcome alcoholism. Surely, if that man was a real Believer, he died forgiven in spite of his wasted life. Jesus is able to deliver, but the responsibility is ours to accept His deliverance. This requires us to choose to walk in the Spirit and not in the Flesh (fleshly emotions and "feelings"). No church can make us do that.

I would like to encourage you to not be so introspective, and perhaps self-pitying, and put Jesus first. The church we attend (in the St. Louis area) has wonderful counseling and has many successful recovering alcoholics in the congregation. But don't expect too much from a tiny country church with few assets. They seem to have had, at least, the gospel and enough love to accept the unlovely.

p>Blessings, br> -- Linda Shields /p>

Many people, in and out of the church, have the mistaken idea that the church is made up of perfect people. The church is not perfect, but striving for perfection. The church is not a country club for perfect people. The church is a MASH unit on the front lines of life. The church is a work in process -- in transition. Sometimes church members make mistakes, they fail, they stumble and fall. And sometimes the church is the army that shoots its wounded. Some church members are baby Christians and have not yet grown up in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some church members are spiritual toddlers, or teens, or young adults. Church members should be striving to become mature Christians -- become all that God wants them to be and will enable them to be.

However, in spite of her blemishes and warts, the church is the last best hope of the world. God left the church here to carry out His purpose -- to reconcile people back to God and reconcile people back to each other.

Yes, there are hypocrites in the church. But, I would rather go to church with them, then go to hell with them. At least in church they come under the influence of Christian songs, Christian prayers, Christian Scriptures, and the godly influence of Christian people. How come people criticize and condemn the church for her faults and failures and hypocrisy, but never criticize secular institutions. We bank with hypocrites. We shop with hypocrites. We belong to civic clubs with hypocrites. We play with hypocrites. Politics is full of hypocrites.

You know that there are genuine Christians in the church, because there are counterfeit Christians. People counterfeit money, because genuine money exists. It is not our place to separate the wheat and the chaff. God will take care of that at the judgment.

p>We need to be church every Lord's Day to meet with Christ at His Table, to fellowship with the people of God, to study God's Word, to speak with God in prayer, and to worship the Almighty God in all of His holiness. God will honor those who worship in spirit and in truth. br> --

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