A bit late for church on Sunday, but it was God's timing , all the same. As I drove down Trinity Street towards the church, I saw one of our elderly members walking away from the church. This was most unusual for a faithful member.
We are currently meeting in the church hall, as we have scaffolding up in the main building whilst workmen carry out essential repairs.
I parked my car and walked back to meet with him. He is almost blind, somewhat deaf and quite elderly. It turned out that as he could not get into the main entrance and he only knew how to get to the hall from the church, he was going home. He thought that if he entered the church from the side (North) door he would have to negotiate some very difficult steps, for him, so he was returning home.
By then two more of our congregation had arrived and we convinced him to let me take him, by car - it was quicker -, to the hall and that this would avoid any steps. I eventually arrived with him holding on to my arm.
It was during the service as we sang 'By Faith' that I realised what the Lord had shown me.
Blind people need a mental map to help them get around their homes, streets etc. This is made up, not of visual cues, but cues from the other senses. It get harder if they are deaf as well. They also need to trust friends, family and neighbours more than most of use do. Finally, they may also have the help of a guide dog.
Our brother simply did not have the mental map to get him, by another route, to the church hall. He had no guide dog, he thought that he was alone, so he gave up and was going home.
When we walk by faith, we also need a map. God has provided us with one. It's called 'The Bible '.
Our brother simply did not have the mental map to get him, by another route, to the church hall. He had no guide dog, he thought that he was alone, so he gave up and was going home.
When we walk by faith, we also need a map. God has provided us with one. It's called 'The Bible '.
When we walk by faith, we need to trust our brothers and sisters in the Lord all the more and not less. It's called being built into the Church.
When we walk by faith, we have one other guide, a Guide God. He's called 'The Holy Spirit'.
If we take away reading the Bible and the faithful teaching of the whole counsel of God and listen to false teachers or no teachers;
If we take away a loving Christian fellowship and treat Church as a club or don't even go;
If the Holy Spirit is quenched, derided and mocked, or simply not listened to;
Then we cannot walk by faith, and like our elderly brother, we will have no choice but to give up and go home.
And this is why so many Western churches are empty.
