Like Button

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Skipping Church

Charles Spurgeon gave a parable about a king who gave feasts to his people. After some time, the attendance dwindled. He investigated and found that the servants thought the people wouldn't be able to handle the sumptuous food, so they were substituting the slop the people were used to. So they quit coming.

Hebrews speaks of two kinds of food -- milk and meat.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil (Heb 5:12-14).
Milk is the pablum, the soft-serve, the easy-to-swallow stuff you get at the beginning. It's fine for starters, but "by this time you ought to be teachers" instead of needing "the elementary principles", the milk and not solid food. Is it possible that more and more people are leaving off church attendance because all they can get is baby food and not meat? Are we lacking the depth Christ intended when He commanded, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matt 28:19-20)? Are we attempting to satisfy the masses with slop and pablum that they can get anywhere when we're equipped to serve the most sumptuous meals ever?

No comments: