Attending Church Properly

Today it is not to be taken for granted that everyone attends church. Many people have given it up, often something which has developed quite gradually. First the week-night services were omitted. Then one time per Sunday was considered enough. After that it was once in two weeks, and then just once in a while. Finally, a last time at New Year’s Eve, and then it was totally neglected.

The lusts of the flesh have gotten the mastery, and many no longer know what to do with the way of the Lord. Church attendance may often have been maintained for a long time, so that for years they have made their way to the house of God. But finally they have come to the conclusion, “It doesn’t mean anything to me any longer. I always leave the church just the same as when I entered it. Therefore, I will discontinue going to church.”

It is never true that we leave the church just the same as when we entered it. The Word of God always does something to us. If it doesn’t humble us, it hardens us. The Word of God never returns to Him void.

It is also a wrong habit to begin with the question, “How do I leave the church?” We must begin with the question, “How do I enter the church?” The departure from God’s church is not to be separated from the entry into it. Therefore the question: “How do I go to church?”

In Ecclesiastes the preacher points out to us the necessity of an inner preparation required of those who go up to the temple of God. He says, “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.” Be careful that you do not stumble and dash your foot against a stone, for there are many stones lying upon the way to church. Be very alert, for the devil also knows that there is a church service. It is precisely upon the way to church that he will try to devour you. First he will try to keep your feet from this way. He will direct your attention to the weather conditions — it certainly would be too bad if your beautiful Sunday clothes became wet. If you have been rising early all week and have worked hard, then he will say that you can certainly sleep in one morning. Furthermore, it is only a reading service. In this way our feet are already fettered before we are on our way. Much can also take place early on Sunday morning between husband and wife, or between children and parents. Yes, especially on Sunday morning.

What a great number of stones and holes there are upon the way. If we do not keep our foot, we shall certainly stumble. On the way to the church our thoughts and desires are also often drawn away from the purpose for which we are going. Our conversation is about everything and everybody, so that there is no opportunity to arrange and regulate our thoughts in order to ask, “Where are we going?” Thus we direct our way to God’s house without the least impression of God’s greatness and majesty, and without a lively desire for strength, light, comfort, or forgiveness. In like manner we are sitting in the church while the service is in progress, and in like manner we depart again. We have performed our duty, and there it remains. Thus, in this way, if we do not keep our foot, sin is multiplied and blessing restrained. Then there is no river bed on which the waters of the Holy Ghost can flow. Then the Holy Spirit is grieved and resisted, yes, also quenched.

Attendance in God’s house requires an inner preparation. The Lord commands it. “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.” The commentators say: Take notice of where you are going. You are not going to a common place, but to a holy place. Therefore, you must appear there in humility and reverence, as in the presence of God. God is in heaven and we are upon this earth. We must not speak with the great and exalted God as if we are conversing with a person our equal. We must appear before His majesty in complete humility, mindful that we are but worms of the dust. To keep our foot is to abhor ourselves in dust and ashes. Then we realize that we cannot stand before the Lord, and supplicate Him for the ministration of His Holy Spirit. Then we know something of the way of the publican in the temple, where he cried out, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

Then we leave the church as we entered it in this blessed sense that we go with the Lord to churchy are with the Lord in church, and remain with the Lord after church.

To keep our foot is confessing that we cannot come before the Lord unless He Himself removes all hindrances. To keep our foot is also to desire salvation. If the Holy Spirit discovers unto us our unworthy existence, He also works a powerful and upright desire for the fulfillment of our need. Listen to David plead in Psalm 84, “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.”

To keep our foot is also to be active with God’s promises regarding the blessings which He has promised to give in His house. First, the knees are bowed and there is a calling upon the Name of the Lord. Then the soul prays, “Lord, Thou hast promised that Thou wouldest provide the richest blessing upon the food of the poor. Hast Thou not promised that there would be food in Thy house? Wilt Thou fulfil Thy promises to us out of grace for Christ’s sake, so that our hungry souls shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house? Lord, Thou hast promised that there Thou wouldest dwell, and would there satisfy Thy poor with bread.”

Keeping our foot is also striving against all the evil desires of the flesh, against all doubting thoughts and unbelief. To keep our foot is also a looking in faith unto Jesus Christ who kept His foot when He entered into the house of His Father. He took a scourge of small cords, and before He entered into the house of God, He drove out all buyers and sellers, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers.

The Holy Ghost also teaches us to know our inability in order to keep our foot, so that we can never keep our heart in such a way as to be worthy of receiving God’s blessing. Then our hearts are kept by Christ’s power in His perfect suretyship, and prepared to receive His blessing. Our heart is dependent and receptive, and we may enter God’s house through the multitude of His mercies. Then blessing shall be multiplied and the soul enlivened by the river of the Spirit. The loving fragrance of Christ then compels the soul to love in return, and the heart is gladdened and strengthened, comforted and refreshed. We are then led to the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. The sweetness of His forgiving grace may then be tasted, and His glorious Name given praise. Then we sing:

The habitation of Thy house

Is ever my delight;

The place where dwells Thy glory, Lord,

Is lovely in my sight.

Then we leave the church as we entered it in this blessed sense that we go with the Lord to church, are with the Lord in church, and remain with the Lord after church. We then cry out, “Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: they will be still praising Thee.” The fatness of God’s house is then tasted.

Dear readers, we live in dark times. With an extreme coldness we feel free to blame the Lord for our barrenness in church attendance. We wander aimlessly, the one to Paul, another to Silas, and yet another to Cephas. Whose heart still longs, yea, faints to see, the hallowed courts of God’s house? Oh, be aware of the temptations of the evil one on the way to church! The murderer of mankind did not neglect to attack Christ as He travelled His way to build the house of His Father. They called unto Him, “Come down from the cross,” but He remained standing in this temptation. For Him, only the will of His Father was sufficient, and He did not waver from that way.

The Lord’s Day is again approaching, when the doors of God’s house will again be open. Do not go thoughtlessly. Do not refrain thy feet from it, for various reasons. But “keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God” in order that the Lord may gladden you in His house of prayer.

Counted

“Thou tellest my wanderings: put Thou my tears into Thy bottle: are they not in Thy book?” — Ps. 56:8

The Lord has determined the length of our pathway of afflictions. He has decided when they shall begin, and when they shall end; as well as the number and intensity of them. When it is experienced, as we read in Job 11:16: “Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away,” then a believer realizes that God in mercy has counted his wanderings, and he can say: “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it, and God doeth it so that men should fear before Him.” Then God’s child may testify — yes, Lord, Thou tellest my wanderings, not only to bring them to an end, but to grant me a glorious reward of free grace. This Thou wilt do because of Thy righteousness, holiness, goodness, and truth. “For I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor.” Therefore, I believe that, “the Lord will perfect that which concerned me: Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever: forsake not the works of Thine own hands.” This is the reason why David, in the exercise of faith, could testify in his wanderings: “I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me. He shall send from heaven and save me…” — Rev Hendrik van Lis

Rev. H. Hofman is pastor of the Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Sioux Center, Iowa.

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