Cold

The weather folks I listen to are saying that the next couple of days will be colder than has been in a couple of years. So much for a warm, wet winter. It’s time to cover the exterior faucets, make sure any exposed pipes are wrapped or insulated, bring in some fire wood for the fireplace.

I prefer warm weather, but I don’t mind the cold if there is enough snow to ski, or sled down the hill. Just icing up the streets is not on my list of “great winter weather.” I would rather walk on the beach when the temperature is 90 than walk to the car when the wind chill is 11.

One thing I have noticed is that a lot of Believers are “winter” folks. I mean by that they are chilly to cold toward the Truth of God’s revelation to mankind, and active, continual, involvement with the family of God.

While the Church I am attending is experiencing record attendance (for the last couple of years), there are still a significant number of folks who can’t warm up to what God is doing. I can’t help but wonder how that can become so prevalent in the family.

I don’t doubt that everyone has that temptation to “drop out” somewhere along the way. We have multiple excuses – the music, the preaching, the S. S. teacher, the lack of a cutting edge Youth and Children’s ministry, to much outreach and not enough in-reach, or to much in-reach and not enough outreach. Sometimes it is because the building has become a little drab over the years, or everything is changing, or everything is always the same.

The Truth is all those things, and all the others, are just excuses. God has commanded His family to gather, to Worship, to Praise, to Pray, to Minister to one another, and to reach out with the Good News of God’s saving grace. No Believer is exempt. Not even the ones that have all the best excuses.