I Love Sunday Worship - I Love My Small Group - I Love My Time Alone with God

CHURCH

I sat there again yesterday -

in a pew in church.




I had started out my morning in the choir loft, 
worshiping our Lord and Savior through song.

We moved through the service, through greeting fellow believers, through sharing peppermints, through reading of the Bible, through setting an example for kids and grandkids, through prayers, through teaching and learning.


Worshiping as a body of believers.

We gathered as believers in Jesus Christ, members of our local church, one small group out of the thousands, or maybe tens of thousands of groups around the world doing the same thing, worshiping our Savior, members of one holy catholic church. 

 But we are members of our local congregation also.

SMALL GROUP

Thursday we met again – after a break of several weeks thanks to snowy, cold weather.  We gave each other hugs, waited for Sue to start us in line for our meal, and sat down to catch up on family and friends. 

We share our "happy’s" and our struggles. We sing.   

We discuss where we can do God’s work in our church, in our work, in our family, and in our community.

We open God’s word and look to the Lord – “I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and Earth.” We are members of this small group of Christians who meet once a week, but we are members of our church also. 


PERSONAL STUDY

      

I sit at the kitchen table, the sun is shining at my back in the cool, morning air.  My Bible, my latest study book, my book of 1000 praises (I’m only in the 200’s), and my prayer notebook are cluttering up the space.  My mind wanders, back to the challenge we were given in Sunday School yesterday.  Take a Psalm and “take it apart”, analyze its form, look at its content. 

            Howard sits in the big green chair with his "cheaters" on, computer in his lap - reading through his latest book choice, taking notes and telling Julie and I that we should read this book next.



           Worship the Lord who is speaking through this Psalm. Worship by myself, but I am also a part of a church family.

Worship is More Important

            There is a link attached to the above statement.  It goes to an article titled "Worship is more important than your small group". 

Of course the title caught my attention. Though I was a bit leery of what the contents would be. I was pleasantly surprised at what I read and wanted to discuss it with others – I find that sharing things with fellow Christians makes me dig deeper and we sharpen each others thinking.  We spent a good bit of time on the contents of the article in our small group last week, and some more time discussing some of the comments that were found below the article.  

We all came to the same conclusion: Worship is more important than small groups – but small groups and personal worship ARE important too!

I challenge you to read the article with some fellow Christians and then worship together – in church, with your small group, and by yourself.