June 12 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Hebrews 10:19–25

Devotional

The author of Hebrews seriously warns against unfaithful church attendance. We still need this reminder in our day and age. In the morning, church attendance is not that bad, but in the evening it is a different story, especially in large cities. Many churches are empty for evening services. People are willing to go once a week to church for an hour, preferably shorter than that, but that is sufficient for them.

The rest of the Lord’s Day is spent in hiking, sitting at home, or sleeping, for “otherwise you waste the whole Sunday.” When an office-bearer seriously warns against unfaithful church attendance, let him not be surprised when he receives such an answer. But Sunday is not our day. It is the Day of the Lord. It is dreadful how selfish church-going people can be when they consider the Lord’s Day. It is also in this area, among others, that we as churches of the Reformation have become rather Roman Catholic in our thinking. We attend “mass” once; the rest of the day is “for me, for me!”

A mother once said to her son who misbehaved himself: “If you don’t watch out, you will have to go to church twice on Sunday.” He would have to go twice, while otherwise they would only go once to church. There are also parents who think that their children can be just as easily converted outside as inside the church. That is where this cancer starts. It starts in families. If parents themselves no longer realize the sanctity of the Lord’s Day, how can they expect their children to have reverence for this day? They may have taught their children many things; but they did not teach them awe for God’s majesty, nor did they teach them reverence for the Lord’s Day.

What is the cause of this lack of reverence for God’s Day? Why is it that so many places are left empty in the house of God? The answer is that there is no hunger. A hungering soul cannot be sloppy in his church attendance, for perhaps a crumb of spiritual food will fall upon him under the proclamation of God’s Word.

There is no hunger. That is the reason why so many fail to attend church faithfully. It is terrible to stay away from the place where the immortal soul can be fed! We act as if we had no soul that could perish. We act as if there will never come a day in which we must die, and after that the judgment. Oh, let the ministers of the gospel point out clearly that their hearers cannot die with a soul that is not satisfied by God’s grace!

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.