Good News and Praise

In a perfect world, when it comes to the Word of God there would be only black & white, right and wrong, truth or lie, every believer would be able to tell the difference. Unfortunately we live in a fallen world and due to the amount of publicity given to the all inclusive churches and the current crop of feel good pastors, God’s Truth gets twisted a bit. This leaves non-believers as well as confused new Christians who don’t have a solid foundation for their belief, in a quandary.

As believers we must try to put aside our human nature of wanting to know everything now and focus on what we do know. The Bible is filled with wonderful glimpses into the future and gives us a solid framework to build upon the Rock, but not get bogged down in trivial stuff.

I’m talking about simple interpretation arguments like; What day is the Sabbath? (Saturday or Sunday) When will the rapture happen? (pre-tribulation or post- tribulation) We can discuss those subjects until we are blue in the face or we can just agree to disagree and let Peter settle the arguments when he greets us at the pearly gates.

Paul, the author of Ephesians, had a lot of experience dealing with Christians who had trouble setting aside their differences. One can imagine the disappointment he must have felt. While he was suffering in prison because of his testimony, many of his converts were bickering over trivial matters.

The Word of God is what should bind each of us together. This day you have been given is far too valuable to be wasted on arguments that have no eternal significance.

Bottom line – It doesn’t matter which church you belong to, if your pastor is black or white , young or old, or if you meet on Saturday or Sunday. It is insignificant in the big picture if your choir sings traditional hymns, you have a solo organist, or you rock out to a steel guitar and drums, praise is praise and it is all good to God!

“Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. . . Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.” Psalms 95: 1,2

Here is an idea; Visit another church this Sunday, go in with your heart open to God and your praise lifted to Heaven. Listen to the words of the pastor. Are they the words of God? When you walk out stop and talk to a few of those other Christians, it might surprise you how like you they really are. On the way home change the channel of your radio and listen to a different Christian music channel and really listen to the words of the songs and those of the DJ’s. Are they words of praise and adulation, just like the channel you usually listen to? We really are one body, diverse in many ways, but united in the One Way.

Praise be to Him, “let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad” Psalms 96:11