Oh Come Let Us Endure Him

Oh Come Let Us Endure Him.   No, this isn’t a typo, just my knee-jerk reaction to something I saw on Facebook recently.  The topic of the tongue-in-cheek post was an insider’s perspective on being a member of a particular church.  Some of the humorous “secrets”, as they were called, included, among other things: that communion wafers taste like cardboard; it’s ok to halfway kneel during church; don’t give up anything you really like for Lent; sitting through a service tests your ability to stay awake; and get to church late, so you can stand in the back and leave early.  Don’t think I didn’t get a chuckle out of this post, I did, mainly because we tend to laugh at what we identify with.  My point is not to pick on any church “brand“, because these things occur in any denomination, but to focus on what our ultimate goal in going to church is.

 Many Christians feel that Church, like cod liver oil, daily exercise and housework is some odious task we do, because we feel we must.  The end justifies the means, so to speak.  If we endure the service, and follow religious rules, we’ll fulfill an obligation, and hopefully gain enough points to achieve Heaven.  After church, we make fun of it, and pat ourselves on the back for having endured. Yes, I was once a member of that group, if I made it to church, which wasn’t often.

 I’m not saying that enduring is wrong.  It’s not!  In fact endure is used frequently in scripture, but not in the sense I just described.  For example, “If we endure, we will also reign with Him;” 2 Timothy 2:12.  When Paul was telling Timothy, that suffering, in one form or another, will happen in all our lives that we must endure, he didn’t mean the church service!!!  So then, let’s go back to the verse from “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”, the word used in the hymn wasn’t endure, it’s ADORE. “God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth. ... “ John 4:24.  Adore carries with it love, respect, utmost admiration  and spiritually speaking, the desire to express that love in true worship. When you adore someone, no one can force you to express it any more than they can tell you to be silent. It is free-flowing from a heart that is full of love.  Can you see what a difference it is to endure?  Let’s bring this discussion down to an earthly level.  Would you rather your loved ones adore you, or endure you?  That’s a no-brainer!!  God doesn’t want pews filled with “endurers”, any more than you want to see  your grand kids squirming to leave your presence.  Are you enduring or adoring? Please, search your hearts, and the Bible, and make the decision to replace endure with adore in your Christian life!