On the page below and in every Wednesday edition of the Blanco County News – and undoubtedly in tens of thousands of papers across the country weekly – is a headline that reads something like “attend the church of your choice.” What about you? What made you decide to join one of the fifteen churches in Blanco or the surrounding area? Maybe it is nearest to your house. Maybe it’s the church where your parents or grandparents joined. Maybe it offers the programs and activities that interest you and your family. Maybe you like the pulpit pastor, priest, minister, or preacher. Maybe you like the worship music. Maybe your best friend worships there. Maybe it has a lot of people of your or your children’s ages. Maybe the worship leaves you feeling good. Maybe the people there are friendly and welcoming. I am sure there are a lot more reasons we could come up with to explain why we worship where we do. But there is a fundamental flaw in all of these reasonings - they are all about the individual’s choice. They are about me! Yes, it is popular to say “attend the church of your choice,” “worship in the church of your choice,” and “join the church of your choice.” But there is something – or Someone – left out of this critical decision. God. What about the church of His choice? The church of my choice may not be the church of God’s choice. Is the choice left up to me? God told the prophet Isaiah “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, … for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9). Further, Solomon wrote in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
When I was a kid, I recall hearing there were as many as 300-400 churches across the United States. A quick Google search today found the number of Christian denominations around the globe ranges from 30,000 to 45,000. Paul told the Corinthians that “God is not a God of confusion…” (1 Cor. 14:33). Some people deal with this confusion by saying or believing “it doesn’t matter where you go!” or “one church is as good as another!” They’ve perhaps rationalized their decision by thinking “all roads lead to heaven.” Many who believe this maintain that the only thing that really matters is attendance at some type of church that believes in Jesus. Does it matter where or how I worship? Isn’t all worship to God acceptable? Don’t we have free will?
In Genesis 4, before Cain murdered his brother, he and Abel both offered sacrifices to God. If “all roads lead to heaven,” why was God not pleased with Cain’s sacrifice? Hebrews 11:4 says, “By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain,” so we see Cain’s rejection was because he did not offer his sacrifice by faith. Instead of obeying what God wanted, Cain chose his own way of worship. In 1 John 3:12 we learn that Cain murdered Abel “because his deeds were evil,” showing us what God thought of his personal choice of how to worship.
In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus said “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” This means that some people would do things considered great works of faith by man’s reasoning, but Jesus would reject them because they worshipped and acted based on their own choices, not God’s.
In Matthew 15:8-9, we find that to Jesus not just any worship is acceptable. Jesus castigated the worshippers of His time saying, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” Their worship was vain (empty, worthless) because it was according to man, not God. We must be sure that our worship is by faith. Not a faith we come up with ourselves, but the faith revealed by God. Jude wrote that Christians must “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” (v3)
In Matthew 26, Jesus is agonizing over his pending torture and crucifixion. Clearly he dreads what lies ahead. But He prayed, "yet not as I will, but as You will.” Jesus was God. He had the power to change His mind and not go through with it, but realized what He wanted was immaterial. It was what the Father wanted that mattered.
I am convinced that “attend the church of your choice” is a sentiment that makes God sad. We must worship at the “church of His choice.” That means we must read the New Testament and understand what God wants in worship. We then must compare what we read to what we find in the churches around us. Does this church worship like what I read in the New Testament? If not, we need to visit another church and see if they comply, and continue until we find one that does. Though I worship with the Blanco Hills Church of Christ, I do not believe that I must worship with a church that has “Church of Christ” on their sign to be acceptable to God. What really matters is worshipping at a church that God would approve of. Jesus said, “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matt. 7:14). Let’s work diligently to find that narrow way.
Buz Turk
Blanco Hills Church of Christ
blancohillschurch.com
830-554-0701