Safety First
This past week two things happened at the church which were oddly connected. The first of which was that I was up on our new 12 foot tall ladder changing some light bulbs and the second was that I received a letter from a member withdrawing her membership from the church.
Now you are probably thinking “What on earth can those two things have in common other than that they both involved change?” To answer that you have to know a bit more information.
The lights I was changing were big fluorescent tube lights which shine indirectly. That is to say, they shine upward to light up the ceiling. They are located on a recessed “shelf” about 14 feet up from the floor and you don’t see them, you just see the light from them.
When I was up on the ladder I was standing on the second to top step, about 11 feet up. Below me were the pews of the church which the ladder straddled. If I were to stumble there was a real danger that I would be seriously hurt or killed. Yet there did not seem to be a danger to me because my viewpoint was that of a two foot shelf on which I was working. It blocked my perspective of the long drop down to harm. It gave me a false sense of security.
The letter which I received was from someone who said they were transferring membership to another church. I have been with this church for over a year and a half and had never seen this person before in my life (I had to look them up in a 6 year old photo directory to even know who had written me).
Now I don’t want to point out this particular person as it is completely possible that they have been regularly attending this church nearer their home right along and just now decided to “officially” join it. My blessings to them.
However, I think there are an awful lot of people who, if you asked them, would say that they are a member of such and such a church and that they are a Christian. If you went to that church, however, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who knew them. Their “membership” in a church gives them a false sense of security to the very real danger of a fall they are precipitously close to making.
Don’t rely on something false to make you feel safe. Join a church, worship our Lord as he tells us to in his word and make sure your security comes from Him.