Thought For The Day

As I write this article I am anxiously anticipating our Sunday morning gathering. The smiles, hugs, handshakes and encouragement are always welcome. To be able to spend time with people you love, respect and appreciate is truly one of life’s great blessings. I look forward to Sunday because I’m pretty confident that we will have a good attendance. Why this prediction? Because my calendar says that it will be "Easter Sunday" and we have a tradition in our country where on certain holidays people go to church, Easter being one of those holidays. Many of you will have family visiting and they will attend church with you. Perhaps we’ll have some visitors from our community who are responding from an invitation from one of our members. And then we may have some in our assembly who practice traditional church attendance on such holidays as Easter and Christmas. First and foremost let me say that everyone is welcome anytime here and we encourage your regular attendance.

As we’re thinking about attending church only for special occasions, we must turn to the Bible for God’s instruction concerning worship and all that we do in life. When you begin looking into the "perfect law of liberty" you will quickly see that God expects more from you and me than just an occasional visit to the church building. In Acts 20:7 we read that "on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread…​" We usually use this verse in teaching the necessity of having the Lord’s Supper each week. But I want you to notice that the same logic we use to support that doctrine can be used to show that the Christians in the first century church gathered each and every first day, not just every once in a while, just on a special holiday or when it was convenient. But it doesn’t stop there; the Saints of the early church practiced their faith every day, not just once a week. They enjoyed fellowship, encouragement, and faith building practices as a part of their daily lives (Acts 2:46). Christians studied the scriptures everyday (Acts 17:11) to confirm what the Apostles were teaching them was true. The early church shared the Gospel with their friends and neighbors every day and the church continued to grow not just on Sunday mornings, but daily! (Acts 16:5)

From these examples we can see that being a Christian is not something we do just once a week on Sunday or on an occasional holiday. Jesus said that to be His disciple we must live for and serve God every day. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." (Luke 9:23) Let us encourage you to begin a daily walk with the Savior and participate in the daily fellowship, love, faith and encouragement that can be found in the church of Jesus Christ.

Jay Launius
2021
Maud church of Christ
Maud, Texas