MAX ON LIFE

82. My wife and I don't have any friends at church, and we're not involved in any of the activities. We're thinking about just staying at home on Sundays. Would this be wrong?

I know what you mean. I think about staying home some Sundays too... and I'm one of the ministers!

I wonder what would happen if, as I went to work, my stomach decided to stay home, take a little break. Or if my spleen just needed some time to get its act together. Or if my left foot walked out on me.

I would be a mess. Practically dead. Completely incapacitated.

Ever wonder why Paul refers to the church as the body of Christ?

"We are parts of [Christ's] body." (Eph 5:30)

"[Christ] is the head of the body, which is the church." (Col 1:18)

I am not his body; you are not his body. We - together - are his body.

But bodies are so fragile, prone to sickness and rupture. Church bodies are fragile too, prone to envy and insignificance.

"If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body', is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body', is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased." (1 Cor 12:15-18)

Every part of the body is necessary because each serves a function. No part is the whole, but every part is part of the whole. Our world desperately needs people who stick together and love one another. This group is the church.

Is there ever a time to leave a church? Yes. In the event of immoral or dishonest leadership. If the pastors are using or abusing the flock, get out. Otherwise,

brains need to find reasonable answers

eyes need to see the problems,

stomachs need to digest the situation,

spleens need to get rid of bacteria,

hands need to soothe,

feet need to get to work.

Don't eject yourself from the body... or it will die.

By: Max Lucado