Document: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db940515.TXT
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OUR DAILY BREAD                        Sunday,  May  15,1994
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READ: Hebrews 10:19-25

        "WHY GO TO CHURCH"

  ...not forsaking the assembling
   of ourselves together ... but
      exhorting one another.

        - Hebrews 10:24-25

William Willimon, chaplain at Duke University,  was  invited
to  preach  in  an inner-city church.  The service, with its
long preliminaries, lasted 2 1/2 hours.  When it was finally
over,  Willimon  was exhausted and asked the pastor, "Why do
these people stay in church so long?"

His friend replied, "Unemployment  runs  nearly  50  percent
here.   This  means that when our people go about during the
week, everything they see, everything they hear tells  them:
'You are a failure.  You are nothing because you do not have
a good job, you do not have a nice car, you have no  money.'
So  I  must  get  their eyes focused on Christ.  Through the
hymns, the prayers, the preaching I say to them, 'That is  a
lie!   You  are royalty!  You are citizens of the kingdom of
God!'  It takes me a long time to get them straight  because
the world perverts them so terribly."

The world is constantly pressuring Christians to conform  to
its  values.   We  need to read God's Word and encourage one
another so that we will be able to keep alive a strong sense
of who we are in Christ.

Why go to church?  Because God uses the exhortation and love
of  fellow believers to reassure us that the world's message
is a lie and that God's good news is true.

Author:  Dennis J. De Haan

The world will try to pressure us To fit  into  its  godless
mold;  That's  why  we need encouragement To keep our hearts
from growing cold.  -Sper

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
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Seven  days  without church makes one weak.

The Bible in One Year:  Psalms 103-105
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