Author: Sodwana Bay

The church is a wonderful avenue to build a strong community of believers who can help point each other to Christ. However, the church is far from perfect and the way that we do church can sometimes be flawed. In church services, people can build some strong habits that can actually be harmful not just for the body as a whole but also for the person. Here are some habits that church goers should stop doing to fully enjoy the blessing that is the church community. 1. Cherry picking sermons When the pastor starts preaching about faith, joy and blessing, everyone seems to be all ears and attentive to the feel-good sermon. And then suddenly the pastor starts encouraging people to read their Bibles, join a small group or give to missions as an application to God’s grace. By that time people have their eyes set on smartphones and on the exit. Every Word spoken through sermons fulfil a need in us, even those that we don’t want to hear. 2. Coming in late to miss worship The first ten minutes of church service will sometimes look like a deserted hall, but just as soon as worship ends people start flocking in through the doors. Worship is the most integral part of the service, and it’s even more important than the preaching of the Word. The preaching is for our benefit, but the worship that we give is our way of blessing and honouring God for His goodness. 3. Saying no to small group invitations There’s a reason why your pastor wants you to be part of a small group, and that’s because he wants to see you get discipled, grow in your walk with Christ and win in every area of your life. Church is a great place to find friends whom you can experience worship, fellowship and discipleship with. 4. Leaving early and skipping fellowship Church isn’t a once-a-week event that we attend to fulfil a religious duty. It is a gift given to us by God to grow in relationship with others whom we can do life with. People should be just as excited about after-church fellowship as they are with the service itself. It’s the time that we can share life with one another. 5. Feeling entitled to a favourite spot I’ve seen people give ushers daunting looks after they were requested to give way for the elderly or to move to the front. Often people can feel a sense of entitlement thinking that the church- and ultimately God- owes them something. Here’s news for you: The church doesn’t owe us anything and it is us who owe our lives to God. It is a blessing and privilege to be a part of the church community.

We’ve all experienced times in our lives when we’ve felt unloved, low or as though we didn’t really matter. Whatever the reason, whether it’s because we feel lonely, far from God or distant from our family and friends, we can draw comfort from the Bible by reminding ourselves of the value of our lives. Here are 10 verses which illustrate just how precious our lives are: Genesis 1:27 – “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them.” Genesis 2:7 – “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” Psalm 22:9 – “Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.” Psalm 127:3 – “Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.” Psalm 139:13-15 – “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.” Jeremiah 1:5 – “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Matthew 6:25-26 – “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” John 10:10 – “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Romans 13:9 – “The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other command may there be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”

Last week Donald Trump tweeted the following: “How can Ted Cruz be an Evangelical Christian when he lies so much and is dishonest”. You might not take Trump seriously and already understand that the practice of politicians using faith to score points is nothing new, but his comment does lead us to think about some of the common mistakes people make when they think about Christians. We’re perfect We are definitely not perfect. And we know that we’re not. We still sin like everyone else but Jesus came to save people just like us. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost,” (Luke 19:10) We know that we’ll never be perfect but that’s ok because Jesus already died for us so we can go ahead and do whatever we want Although it’s not a case of doing good to get into heaven, we endeavour to be more like Christ because he paid the ultimate sacrifice for us, and because of the gift of God’s grace, (Ephesians 2:8-10). We judge others all the time Although we can identify sinful behaviour, as Christians it’s not our place to judge others. When a woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus, he said: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7) We’re no fun Living as a Christian doesn’t mean that we’re stripped of our personalities. Christians can be just as much fun as anyone else. The Bible is full of examples of joy and although we’re not always happy, we have a lot to be happy about. We spend our time plotting to convert everyone to Christianity Sharing news of God’s grace and love is important to us as Christians but it doesn’t mean that we spend every waking moment constantly figuring out how we can turn every single person we come across into a believer. We’re anti-science and we believe everything in the Bible in a literal sense Most Christians believe that science and Christianity are compatible. Francis Collins, the Christian scientist who was appointed head of the National Institutes of Health by President Barack Obama, sums this up well: “I have found there is a wonderful harmony in the complementary truths of science and faith. The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome.” Some Christians interpret the Bible in a literal sense but many understand the Bible through a mixture of literal and figurative interpretation. We only read the New Testament The Old Testament, along with the New Testament, is crucial in revealing to us God’s nature and helps us understand the whole story of God’s love and grace. We only go to church on Sundays There are many Christian denominations and not all of them attend church on Sundays. For example, Seventh Day Adventists celebrate the Sabbath on Saturdays and Catholics attend Mass on Saturday evenings or Sunday mornings. In between all that Christians go to church throughout the week for various reasons.