‘Stay with the ship [or] you cannot be saved.’ Acts 27:31 NIV
Every church has problems—and the people who cause them. It has always been so. Consider the Corinthian church. Some members got drunk during communion, and others formed exclusive clubs to support their favourite preacher! One guy was even having an affair with his stepmother (see 1 Corinthians 5:1).
Sitting beside you on Sunday mornings are some very messed-up and dysfunctional folks. But God keeps working with us, because He sees our potential value to His Kingdom. After writing about murmurers, complainers, the lustful, and the greedy, Jude ends his short book with these words: ‘Unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.’ (Jude 1:24 KJV) Noah didn’t jump ship for the same reason you shouldn’t leave your church—there’s no better alternative. Paul and 275 others were in a storm that looked unsurvivable. Nevertheless he told them, ‘Stay on board.’ Does that mean it’s always wrong to leave a church? No, but make sure your reasons are Scriptural and not self-centred. You say, ‘But the pastor’s sermons are too long.’ Paul once preached so long that a man sitting in a third-storey window fell asleep, plummeted to the ground, and died. And what did Paul do? He laid hands on him, revived him, and then went back to the rest of his sermon! (see Acts 20:9–11). Seriously, if your church has problems, don’t leave; stay and pray. That’s how things get changed.
SoulFood: Jer 4–6, Mt 27:11–19, Ps 55:12–23, Prov 8:19–21
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright 2024
