WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

I come home to my wife at the end of every day.  Yes, there are some nights that I am out of town on business or for emergencies in my extended family, but I have never chosen to not come home simply because I didn’t feel like it.

My spouse dwells in our house and I don’t neglect the responsibility to be in this house at the end of every day.  I don’t come home only on days that I know Sheila will be waiting for me in something slinky, not just on the days that some crisis has happened in my life and I need her to comfort me, not just on the special occasions that socially obligate us to spend “quality” time together.   I come to our house at the end of EVERY day.

I come home to this house every day because Sheila and I have a covenant relationship.  We are married.  To neglect the house of where my spouse and I dwell together would be to dishonor the covenant of our relationship.  My mouth might say, “Baby, I love you,” but my actions would say, “I don’t really give a crap about you or this relationship.”

True, Sheila’s grown and she can drive.  And, if I got a room at a hotel in town, she could find me and come there if she really wanted to see me.  

But really?

By neglecting our home I’d still be saying, “As far as I’m concerned, our relationship does not define home for me.  I define home for myself.  So today I’m going to act like I’m still single.”

This whole being a Christian thing is most essentially about beginning and living out a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ.  It’s about becoming and being the bride, the spiritual spouse of Christ. 

Ephesians 5: ^31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ^32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

The church is the house of God.  At the end of every week you ought to go to your Spouse’s house.   

Oh, you can use your mouth to say, “But God is with me wherever I am on Sunday morning.  I don’t have to be in some man’s church.”

O.K. But let’s be real here.    Your actions and your heart are actually saying, “This covenant relationship I’m supposed to have with God isn’t a priority for me.  Today I’m going to act like I’m still spiritually single.”

 

Mark 7:6  Jesus answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.' "

Work, emergencies, and sickness do sometimes happen on Sunday morning; but the regular EVERY  Sunday pattern of your life should be----- I’m at Jesus’ house, our house, my church.

Hebrews 10: ^24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,  ^25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as isthe manner of some…

Church involves some trappings and rituals.  Songs and offerings and titles and such------ that’s all just housekeeping.  Some of it needs to be done.  Some of it needs to be done differently.  Some of it is decorative and unnecessary.  But none of the housekeeping chores in the Lord’s house change the fact that you ought to be there at the end of EVERY week.

Not just the weeks when the Holy Spirit will be waiting to give you an ecstatic experience.

Not just the weeks that you are in crisis and you want God to comfort you and the church to give you some a$$istance.

Not just the weeks that fall on special occasions when society expects you to be in the Lord’s house.

Not because of who’s preaching or who’s singing or who’s single.

But because you love the Lord and you value this covenant relationship you have with Him, you should end your week automatically headed to the house of God just like you start your week automatically headed to work (or wherever you go when the week starts).

If I just didn’t come home at the end of today, and then I showed up in the morning asking Sheila to cook me breakfast, she might have reason to doubt my commitment to our relationship.

So you don’t show up week after week after week, and then during the week you ask God to bless you with this and with that.      Really?

Maybe the reason your life in one crisis after another has less to do with haters and more to do with neglecting your Spouse’s house.

Haggai 1:9 You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away.

“Why?” says the Lord of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house.” 

I’m just saying.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116