Are You Still Limping?

“How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him.” [1]

Elijah’s challenge to Israel was to choose at that moment to worship God or to worship Baal – to stop vacillating between the two and pick a side and let the chips fall where they may.

I read these words from the prophet Elijah to the nation of Israel, and I can’t help but think about Grace Bible Church. I can’t help but wonder how many of us are limping between loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and strength and loving the things of this world. How many of us are limping between loving our neighbor as ourselves and loving ourselves above all others?

I’m not sure the answers are quantifiable, and I imagine to one degree or another most of us find ourselves pulled from time to time ‘between two different opinions’ –pulled between knowing what is true and wanting or desiring something else.

But a more profound thought occurred to me as it relates to this local body, too many of us are ‘limping between two different opinions’ on Sunday mornings. Too many of us are neglecting the gathering of the saints on Sundays where we are equipped for the work of the ministry and we exercise our gifts together so that we might build up the body of Christ.

As pastors we see it and it causes us grave concern for those who are allowing their own thoughts, feelings, opinions and comforts to keep them away from worshiping God with the gathered assembly. Too many are vacillating rather than committing – or better yet – rather than obeying God. Part of Tony’s address to the church before he went on sabbatical spoke to it.

“...the last two years have led some people to pull away from the church and one another for a variety of reasons which I won’t take the space here to address. Neglecting the gathered assembly when there is nothing truly preventing you (understanding illness, risk of illness, shut-in conditions and the like are unpreventable) is not only unhealthy but also a violation of God’s word (Hebrews 10:25). Our concern is for your spiritual health and well-being. As one pastor recently said, “A Christian without a church is a Christian in trouble.”

Aside from serious health concerns and shut-in conditions, there is no real way to know why some of you have yet to return. Some perhaps are disillusioned with the Christian church as a whole. Some may have been wounded by others. Some may simply be more comfortable at home watching from the luxury of your sofa with coffee in hand. However, absent illness and poor health, there is no biblical reason to stay away.

There can be no ‘limping between two different opinions’ on this matter. You must return for your own spiritual health and well-being because the gathering of the saints is not only a command (Hebrews 10:25) it is also a means of God’s grace to you in a number of ways.

Gathering for worship:

• Is a means to open your eyes to Truth. [2] Left to ourselves the scriptures say we are tempted to do what is right in our own eyes and that while those ways may seem right, in the end they lead to death. [3]
• Is a means to salve your wounds through the hearing of the word and the encouragement of the saints. [4] Left to ourselves the scriptures warn us that we will listen to the philosophies of this world rather than to Christ. [5]
• Is a means of grace to encourage and strengthen your faith when tempted to doubt and despair. [6] The scriptures warn us that left to ourselves that our hearts will become hard [7] but in the presence of God’s people we are stirred to action. [8]
• Is a means of grace to bring you hope, joy and contentment in the face of a world filled with false hopes and empty promises. [9]

To not gather on Sunday mornings leaves you in danger of growing distant, cold and hard to truth – to THE Truth. [10] If you’ve been apart from gathering with the local body, return and be refreshed. We need you. In fact, we need each other because it is together in the local assembly where we exercise our gifts [11] and we build one another up toward love and good deeds. [12]

Every Christian has been gifted by the Holy Spirit with a gift that we might serve one another. We need you. God has given you a spiritual gift to love and serve those in this local body [13] and elsewhere. He commands you to steward that gift – to use it for the sake of others [14] “that in everything God may be glorified!” [15]

So my dear friends, if you find yourself still ‘limping between two different opinions’ let me leave you with Elijah’s cry to the nation of Israel. “If the Lord is God, then follow Him,” and return on Sundays to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

Scott Denny is an Elder at Grace Bible Church

1. 1 Kings 18:21a
2. John 4:23, 24
3. Proverbs 14:12
4. 2 Corinthians 2:1:3-4
5. Colossians 2:8
6. Colossians 3:16
7. Hebrews 3:12-13
8. Hebrews 10:24
9. Psalm 16:11
10. Hebrews 3:12-13
11. 1 Peter 4:10
12. Hebrews 10:24
13. 1 Peter 4:10
14. IBID
15. 1 Peter 4:11