Daily Devotionals

Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life

Devotional: February 10th

Holy Week. The week beginning with Palm Sunday and ending with Easter. A time of triumph and victory. A time of reflection and reconsideration. A time of challenge. A time of awe. Eight days which rocked our world as none had ever before or have ever since. Holy Week. A time of shame?

Having been in the ministry for some thirty-four plus years now I have marvelled at the human intellect and its disfunctional nature at this time of the year. Only perhaps at Christmas will the human intellect operate at a level comparable to that of this week. For somewhere deep inside the human intellect exists a thought process that reasons plausible probability that God can be apeased by a one service wonder Christian.

You know what I'm talking about. It's Easter. Maybe I better go to church. What kind of person wouldn't go to church on Easter? Ah yes, the human intellect at its finest. This is the same person who never attends church because you don't have to go to church to have a relationship with God. True. But the same holds in other situations as well.

You don't have to live with your wife or husband to be married to either, but the relationship usually fails if you don't. You don't have to go to work to be hired for a job, but if you intend to keep it showing up and working never hurts. You don't have to play golf to have a tee time, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to have one if you don't play golf. That's the thing about a relationship with God.

You don't have to go to church to have a relationship with God. But it stands to reason that if God doesn't think you're comfortable in His house here on earth He probably won't make you endure eternity in the one He has in heaven. The Hebrews writer put it very well. "Don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but encourage one another enthusiastically as you see the Day coming. Hebrews 10:25 Hope you're in church on the 18th and 25th as well.