“Come Let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our God our Maker, For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and sheep of His Hand.” Psalm 95:6-7
I just bumped into a dear lady that is part of our church family. I asked her how her day was going, and she told me. It wasn’t going great. She was kind of having a rough day, so we sat down and talked about it. As she spoke, I was trying to think of some way that I could encourage her, until I realized I didn’t have to. She went on to tell me, how the Lord was seeing her through, and while I had stopped to help her, she ended up helping me. This family is a beautiful thing.
It’s beautiful but it’s still a family. Like most families this one has its share of ups and downs. We all have plenty of stuff on our plate, plenty of our own struggles to face. Sometimes when we come to meet together it’s hard to put all of that stuff aside. Sometimes its hard to even come to meet together at all because of all of the stuff. When I happened upon the sister I mentioned both of us were doing other things, yet the Spirit made those few minutes to encourage each other, very sweet.
When your family gathers around the dinner table, to talk about the day, undoubtedly you find great comfort in knowing you have a home to come to where you can share your burdens. When the people of God gather to feast on His Word, we find comfort in belonging. We find peace in knowing that wherever we have been that week, and whatever we have gone through, we get to come home at the end. That is how the family of God works. We come to care, and be cared for, by people that we love, who also love us. I want to plead with you to come care, and be cared for, by a family who needs to give, and receive love.
Often Satan whispers in our ear that our church gatherings are just a place to get stuff. We gather to have our needs met, and then dive back into the rat race. This is not what Jesus describes for the children of Light, who walk in His rest. He gives something much higher, and more precious to us than a place to come have our selfishness fed. He gives us a family. A place to come knowing we are loved, but also knowing there are others in need of love. A place where we have a niche as Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, or even crazy aunt Ethel. The feast is empty and lacking if even one can’t make it. We need you, because “we” aren’t a “we” without you. Your momma doesn’t take any excuses when she cooked a roast for you to eat. “Come on home honey, we don’t care it the kids are noisy, we don’t care if your coming straight from work, we don’t care if you missed last time, just git yourself here.”
Its time for a family ‘git together, Sunday Morning (Call your brother and sister and make sure they git here too)

Love Ben