The Bible tells us in Hebrews 10:24-25, "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more as ye see the day approaching."

By this point in my life in 1976 I was praying every day and had been to church a few times during that year. Now God began working on a new area of spiritual need in my life. I had never heard or remembered reading Hebrews 10:24-25 but the Holy Spirit began to convict me of my need to be in church.

Attending church regularly usually begins with a commitment. For me, that commitment came while I was working in the oilfield. My job required being available on a 24-hour basis. And in those days I didn't have a pager and a cell phone. We had to call the answering service and let them know of the telephone number that we would be at if we were to be gone. I had a outside bell installed at home so that if I was needed I wouldn't miss the call. It seemed to me that it was difficult to find the time to be in church and frequently I would be working on Sunday and Wednesday so I used that as an excuse for my non-attendance.

Attending church is a right which we take for granted. In this country we can either go to church if we want to, or we can stay away. Many people in other countries know what it is like to have that right taken away. The German, Russian, and Chinese people know what it is like to lose the right to attend the church of their choice. But, even some people in this country have temporarily lost that right.

Howard Rutledge lost the right to attend the church of his choice when his plane was shot down over Vietnam. Howard experienced seven long years in captivity. He had been raised in church and had received Jesus as his Savior, but after getting married he stopped attending church. His excuse was always how busy his job kept him, and the cocktail hour at the officer's club seemed to be more exciting. However, under the pressure of Vietnamese torture and years in solitary confinement, Howard rediscovered his faith in God. He struggled to recall verses of Scripture and hymns, and eventually succeeded in remembering about 100 hymns and Scripture verses. Each day he would pray and go through all of the 100 hymns and scripture passages that he had recalled. Howard made a commitment early on in those seven years of captivity to attend church faithfully if he was ever released.

In February, 1973, Howard was released from the Vietnamese prison. On the day he was released from the Navy hospital, Howard and his family attended church at the First Southern Baptist Church of Clairmont, California. That day Howard thanked the people of the church for their prayers and told them that it was only through their prayers and his faith in God that he was able to survive. Howard transferred his membership to the Clairemont church that same Sunday. Because of Howard's testimony, five people came forward during the invitation and prayer to receive Jesus as their Savior.

While he was in the Vietnamese prison, Howard had a deep regret that he had not attended church faithfully with his family. I, too, regret the years I failed to attend church regularly and faithfully. For the most part, I look now at those years as being wasted, as years that the locusts ate.

From 1976 to 1978 I began to attend church more and more frequently until God intervened in my life again. This time God's intervention came in the form of our second son, Nick. Nick was born September 2, 1978 and our lives would never be the same again. God used my newborn son to stimulate me spiritually and bring me to a point of commitment about my church attendance. I made a commitment to God that to the best of my ability I was going to be in church whenever the doors were open. Meaning Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night and any other time there was a service. I would have been a part of the WMU (Women's Missionary Union) if they would have let me.

Now this was not an easy commitment to keep but whenever I was not on a job I was committed to be in church. It is amazing to look back and see how God moved to make it possible for me to do exactly that. Sometimes I would be out on a job until late on Saturday but I would be home Sunday morning and would attend Sunday School and the morning worship services. But that afternoon I would be called out on another job. Or it might be that I had to work Sunday morning and but I would be home for the Sunday evening service. Sometimes I would have to work all day Sunday but I would be home on Wednesday night and be able to attend the prayer meeting then. So God worked out after I made the commitment and began to follow through so that I could be in church at least once a week. And now I'm there virtually all the time! My only regret about church attendance is that I didn't begin attending on a regular basis much sooner.

We have to the tendency to be lazy people and so we as non-Christians or as baby Christians look at church as a waste of time. There are other things that we want to do like catching up on our sleep, going to the lake, having some quality time with our families. In the past sincere Christians would not work on Sunday and would keep all activities to a minimum on the first day of the week which was the day that our Lord Jesus arose from the dead. But that seems to be a quaint custom of the past in the eyes of many today. In my first pastorate many of the members of the church were farm families and I remember having several discussions about whether or not you should work on Sunday. There was one man in our congregation, Raymond Pickering, who except for very rare emergencies simply did not work on Sundays except to feed his cattle in the winter. As I was visiting with another farmer/rancher one day he talked about how many hours a week that he had to work and during harvest it would be day and night. He said that he wished that he could be like Raymond. Because he had watched Raymond over the years and even though Raymond didn't work on Sundays he still seemed to have time for every thing and still came to church on Sundays and Wednesdays. This man seemed to be even more amazed at how God had blessed Raymond financially. He said that He knew God could do it but he just didn't have the faith to stop working on Sundays.

An amazing thing about God is how He multiplies anything given or committed to Him. If we commit our money to Him, He will than make the remaining amount of our finances stretch further then if we had not given. If we give up a few hours of sleep and what we humans think of as rest and give it to God, then, He will multiply the remaining hours of our week so that they are more useful to us. He will use that time given to Him to give us more energy and strength. We think that if we stay at home on Sunday and take our family to the lake or some other family outing that this is quality time. That is a lie straight from the pit of hell. There is no better quality family time than to have your family in church on Sunday. The church is what has held my family together. The church is what has kept my children out of trouble. The church is where I have learned about God and been empowered to go forth in His Name.

When the Israelites were wandering in the desert for 40 years their clothes and shoes did not wear out. When Jesus blessed the bread and fishes of the little boy the result was that in the hands of God thousands were fed and 12 basketfulls of fragments (one for each disciple) were left over. When we commit hour time and resources (actually they are not ours but God's anyway.) to God He multiplies and blesses them.

It is obviously God's will for us to be in church to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together and so much the more as we see the approaching day of our Lord's coming. I like what C. S. Lewis says, "There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way." The point is this: God will never force us to do His will: it's up to us to decide to do His will...and then to do it.