Viewpoint - the unseen angle

Did you ever consider how many of the population from your town actually attend Church on Sunday, or any other day for that matter?
You can step outside of the Church into the street and take a short walk and what do you see? - you see lots of people buzzing around, just getting on with their lives and business. We had a look at this in Church this week and when you actually stop and consider the figures it is a bit of an eye opener to say the very least! and it is at that point when you begin to realise just how the Church is rapidly lacking in it's major role

All to often we spend time trying to "Church the Churched" or Evangelize those who are already believers, meanwhile there are more people in just one day passing through the doors of the local B&Q or Asda (Wal-Mart) than are attending Church throughout the whole town.
I dont know about you, but I personally tend to feel a little ashamed when I see statistics such as this because when Jesus said that we are to be Fishermen of Men, I dont think he really meant for us to be fishing out of our own fishtanks (Aquariums), when there are literally Millions of lost, misguided Souls out there.

Make no mistake about it friend - these are the last of the last days in which we live. Take these two verses from Matthew's Gospel Chapter 24:32-33

Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its buds become tender and its leaves begin to sprout, you know without being told that summer is near, Just so, when you see the events I’ve described beginning to happen, you can know his return is very near, right at the door. (New Living Translation)

Now I know that some of you will be wondering just what these things are that he had previously described - but I'm not going to tell you, I would rather that you picked up a Bible and read it for yourself. Find Matthew in the New Testament and go to chapter 24 then read the whole chapter, and if it inspires you (which it should) then please also read Chapter 25 as well because it is very much a continuation of the previous Chapter.

Another sad fact is that all over the world there are "backsliden" Christians, people who once were on fire for God, but sadly they fell into one the enemy's subtle plots and drifted away from Church and from fellowship altogether, only to find themselves once again consumed by the world and all it's bitter sweet offerings. but what is it that drives people away like that? - lets take a look at some common causes for what we will call "offence".
A human being is quite a complicated arrangement of emotions, hormones, pre-conceptions and opinions etc, and lets face it we all have a breaking point in some area of our lives, because we are only human right? - The problem is that the enemy (the devil) knows what they are because he watches us to observe our weaknesses, and then periodically attacks (tempts) us in our weakest areas, and IF that happens in line with something that is not going right at Chuch or in one of our prayer or cell groups, something that we don't like or agree with, then it is easy to take offence, and when you take offence that opens up the door and if you are not careful the floodgates to a whole host of other negative thoughts, feelings and emotions which can in fact have devastating effects if left unchecked, because if you decide that you aren't going to put up with, say a particular person's ideas in the Church then you may just say "well ok, i've had it with him (or her), I'm not going to Church this week", or you may decide to go and visit another Church with a view to leaving your regular Church and attending somewhere else, and in doing so forgetting the all important fact that it should be God himself who places us in a particular part of the Church (body)

Then he called his disciples and the crowds to come over and listen. “If any of you wants to be my follower,” he told them, “you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life.

Basically, what Jesus is saying here is that we need to let go of our "old selves" that we adopted naturally from the world in which we live and instead be guided by the Holy Spirit in whatever we do, because in our flesh, our own strength we just cannot do it!
So, you now find yourself either sitting at home or in another Church building, probably with mixed feelings, but with a strange sense of contentment that you are teaching "somebody" a lesson, but the thing is that if you miss next week and perhaps the week after or you begin to regularly attend another Church the desire to go back "home" becomes less and less until you no longer feel as if you can go back, so what then? - I'll tell you what, you have begun to backslide down a slippery slope and no matter what you do, you will not feel the same, and before you know where you are you will have slipped back into many of your old ways and once again you will become just another lost soul living in the world, living a lie, I say that because if you have been living an active Christian life and you then turn away from it based upon a decision made in the flesh, probably influenced by another person or the way that they did something.

If you have anyhting to add to the viewpoint page then please send in your views and or observations to me - I can't promise that I will publish them but if they are Biblically correct the chances are that you will certainly see it posted here - Each article will be archived and made available for download on a Monthly rota, so please get busy and send in your articles - Thanks.