Teaching on Calling on the Name of the Lord

[OBW]

Originally Posted by Evangelical

Keeping church for the high things fits with my idea of what church should be about. Personally I find it helpful to come to the meeting and forget my "low" problems for a while and I don't really come to church to hear about the "low" problems of others. First and foremost it is a time to remember and fellowship with the Lord. We should respect that the church meeting is not a family get together or social occasion, but for a particular purpose to build the kingdom of God through fellowship with the Lord.

If the high things are not spoken in church I doubt they will be spoken elsewhere. The low things can be spoken outside of the church , in the after fellowship or during the week at family dinners.

The problem with personal testimonies about the low things is that people are not normally comfortable telling 100 people, a proportion of whom will be strangers, personal details. That is only opening the door for gossip. Once it is in the public arena, it will become gossip, whether it is about a job, car, family, health etc.

First, you did notice that I agreed with the idea that the meeting is not generally the place for your average "testimony meeting," especially on a regular basis.

But your idea of what is a viable "high" thing to be included is so skewed. It absolutely should include our recognition and repentance for sin. A real "Lord have mercy" kind of experience. (And for everybody, not just the newcomer or convert.) And I would never presume that praying for the "low things" is beneath the meeting since those are the things that Christ taught us to pray.

We used to sing a song with many verses that started "Lord teach us how to pray, not as the nations do in vain . . . ." That much was real. But that was almost all (from what I can remember of it). It acknowledges that "we cannot but e'er fail you." But rather than bringing us to repentance, it becomes joyous because the "seed of life within us will break through."

Without repentance, it probably won't.