C&E

If you're a craps player, you know what this term means.  It's a bet that whoever is rolling the dice will roll an eleven or crap out (rolling a two, three, or twelve).  It's also a term used to describe some folks who identify themselves as Christians.  In this scenario, C is for Christmas, E is for Easter, and it's about the only two times some folks step into a church in a year.  We celebrate two very important milestones in Christianity on these occasions and I understand why attendance goes up at churches at these two times.

What I don't understand is why more people don't go to church.  Today, I'm going to use myself as an example for the rest of you.

I saw as an impressionable teenager what politics can do to a church first hand.  I saw a division in the church I used to attend.  I saw people that were Christians to things to other people for personal reasons that were, well, just flat out MEAN and un-Christian.  It happens because we're people and if you put four of us together in a room, there's a very good chance the only thing we'd agree on is the color of the walls. We all bring differing experiences from life with us that shape and form our opinions.  I understand that, and sometimes that carries over to churches as well.

When I first met my pastor, I explained to him why I didn't go to church.  He listened politely and just told me something I heard but didn't listen to until several years later.  What I had to learn on my own, and the hard way, was that all churches aren't the same.  A year ago, he gave me two pieces of advice I listened to that time.  He told me I needed church in my life and he was absolutely right.   I do need that experience in my life.

I wonder how many of you are like I used to be?  How many of you believe, but don't practice your faith?  How many are planning on going to your church on Easter Sunday but won't be there the Sunday before or the Sunday after?  I wonder if you'll stop and ask yourselves this question:  If I believe, why don't I go to church?  I can't answer that question for you, but I think it's important to ask yourselves.  If it's because you don't care for this or that, may I suggest to you to look for a new church?  That would have been a simple solution for me.  I didn't like what was happening in my church so I quit going because to me, that was my church and the only one for me.  I was so narrow-minded that I thought every place was going to be the same.  It took me almost 30 years to find out this was one of the largest mistakes I'd ever made in my life.

As we near the time when we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ, it's my sincere hope that you'll take some time and look at your own lives, your own faith, and start asking yourselves some questions about what you believe, why you believe it, and if you live it.  I did this a year ago and didn't like the answers I had to account for.  I'm just so grateful and humbled by the fact I could take all of that to Jesus, confess it to Him, and have it forgiven.

I don't want anyone reading this to think I'm judging them, because that's the LAST thing I'm doing.  I can't tell you what's right and wrong.  We have the Bible for that.  I can't force my faith on anyone and I think it's a mistake for anyone to try that, too.  You have to accept those things for yourself.  I'm just asking, out of love, that each of you that reads this post today just stops and reflects on these things in your own lives.

And if you're in the Ogden area and looking for a church, I know this neat little church on 25th & Jefferson...

One more thing... I wanted to share this story with you from Yahoo! News.