From Pastor Bill

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THE  JOY  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP

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When I have an opportunity to visit some of our senior adults in their homes, a hospital, a retirement center, or a nursing home, I am struck when they talk longingly about the privilege to participate in a public worship service.  With this in mind, I’d like to modify slightly a letter in the form of an article that one of our senior adults handed me recently.  It reads as follows:

Dear Church Member,

Please don’t wait to go to church until the hearse hauls you there someday.  If you do, you will go there regardless of the weather.  There will be beautiful flowers carefully arranged, but you won’t be able to enjoy them.  The pastor may even say some nice things about you publicly, but you will not be able to hear them; and there will be beautiful music, but you won’t be able to enjoy it.  Nor will you be able to experience the praise and heart-felt prayers of your friends and relatives as they worship the Lord.  But go to the church you will—no matter how much you are needed at home, and regardless of how many hypocrites there are.  Furthermore, you will not be concerned about whether or not you’re dressed properly; and, after that final trip, you will never have to decide whether or not to attend church again, because you will never get another chance.

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Are you physically strong and mobile?  Are you grateful for such health?  Isn’t it an absolute joy and privilege to have the ability to choose, by an act of your own free will, to be in God’s house…With God’s people…On God’s day…Doing God’s will?

Devotedly your pastor,

Bill Blanchard

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