(Going to church VS Going with God)

 

 

   In 1995, Sheboygan Wisconsin was selected by Reader’s Digest as the best city in America to raise a family. It is a wholesome town filled with good solid old-fashioned stock and midwestern values reflective of the ‘Old country’ immigrant population base. Like most folks in Sheboygan Wisconsin, Sue grew up calling herself a Christian and going to church. Her dad was Catholic but only attended church on Christmas and Easter and went directly to the bar after work nearly every day. Her mom was a fairly devoted Lutheran and made sure the kids went to a Lutheran school and church while she was alive.

 

   When Sue was only twelve years of age, her mother passed away and that was the end of her church going for many years. She still made sure to say her prayers at night, like a good Sheboygan girl, but without the pushing and prodding by her mother, there was just no motivation from within to make the additional effort to make church a priority. It just went by the wayside.

 

   Sue then found herself living the life of someone on the fence spiritually. Part of her wanted the excitement of going out partying and drinking with her friends but she still wanted to ‘cover her bases’ by making sure she still prayed and acknowledged the existence of God. It was not until years after Sue was married and her first child was born that she felt the need to start going to church again. Sometimes, we will not have the motivation to straighten out our own lives as adults until we have kids. We then see the need to change our priorities and values for the sake of the children whom we love even more than ourselves.

 

   Sue began going to church regularly after the birth of her daughter but it was still a matter of going through the motions and covering the bases. It was not really a result of a true understanding of the Gospel message or a real relationship with Jesus. She would go to church faithfully as her ‘Christian duty’ on Sunday but she also would be right there with her husband at the bar for Friday night ‘Happy Hour’.

 

   There is a famous picture from Sheboygan dating back to the 1870’s of an elegantly dressed man in the middle of the old dirt main street, sitting on a dead horse. Nobody is sure who the man is or why he was sitting on a dead horse but there he is, literally all dressed up with only a dead horse to get him there. Many people are like the man in that picture in that they get all dressed up for church on Sundays only to go and sit on the ‘dead horse’ of stale, dry, religion that is disconnected from really knowing God.

 

   In some ways, Sue in those days, was typical of countless millions of people who have grown up as ‘heritage Christians’. They are to a large extent, beneficiaries of the faith and faithfulness of others before them, but are only vaguely aware of the Gospel that they hear about and sing about every week.

   Sue continued going to church for many years with one foot in and one foot out. She tried this church for a while and then that church for a while. Some churches were deader than a doornail. Some had hypocritical leadership. Some were embroiled in scandal and church politics and power struggles.

 

   But then something changed when she went through a Bible study series at her church called ‘Experiencing God’. She began seriously reading the Bible for herself and when she did, it was like the things she had been looking at for her whole life, suddenly came into focus. She no longer saw the failures of the people and the shortcoming of the church but she saw Jesus Himself and she literally fell in love with God’s Holy word.

 

   She began devouring God’s word and wanting to learn all that God had to teach through it. Her love for God’s word also awakened a desire within her to have others experience God through His word as well. Doors began opening for her to lead Women’s ministry and Young mothers ministry. She leads a Thursday afternoon Bible study and is part of a Saturday night ‘Life group’ Bible study where she also helps with the teaching.

 

   She has discovered that as she pours out all that the Lord gives her, she is then quickly filled up again and again. She is constantly studying and searching Christian websites and reading various books always looking to go deeper and learn more herself in order to be able to help others who see her as a mentor and teacher.

 

   She is quick to pray for people’s needs and offer Christian encouragement that is pure and directly from the heart with no trace of ‘dead horse’ religion, or going through the motions, or covering the bases. She is not a cultural or heritage Christian. She is someone who has herself personally experienced the saving power of God’s grace and lives to see others know Him also.

 

   She is a good friend, mentor, wife, mother and example as a follower of Jesus. You will never find Sue sitting on the fence and she won’t allow you to either. She may give you a good solid German bop on the head to knock some sense into you (but she will be right there to pray for your speedy recovery!)

  Sue says that she does not believe in the word retirement for Christians. She believes that we can retire and relax in heaven. In the mean time we have too much to do to sit around counting the days until we can quit. She works hard at her job and works hard in the Lord's service as well.

 

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   There is an old saying, “Going to a church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going into a garage makes you a car.” If you find yourself in the place where Sue was, just going through the motions or covering the bases, I want you to know there is much much more available to you in Christ than that! Sue has found it and she would be the first to tell you that it is there for you as well. If you get real with God, He will certainly get real with you. All the tools you need are available to you right here at this website. Ask the Lord to open your spiritual eyes and ears and start digging into His word. Don’t be surprised when you start seeing things that you thought you knew but are really only getting for the first time!