I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.”   Psalm 122:1

Are We Glad?

What does it mean to be glad? I’m sure the first word we all think of is happy. Happy and glad are similar as far as the world is concerned. Sometimes we use them interchangeably, such as, “I’m happy that it is sunny today” or “I’m glad it is sunny today.” But gladness in a biblical sense is much deeper than the weather. According to Vine’s Bible Dictionary, gladness is translated as having joy or delight in something. Another translation is exultation or exuberant joy. Gladness is associated with rejoicing. So gladness or joy has a much deeper meaning than just being happy. The words “glad, joy, delight and rejoicing” are all basically the same word or word form. Why do you think David wrote this Psalm? Obviously, the Psalm is meant to uplift God’s people. It is a song of encouragement for God’s people from their earthly king. I can picture the people singing this song as they traveled to worship God in Jerusalem. I feel like David was trying to instill the joy of worship in God’s people. Do we ever have a hard week and not feel like going to worship services or Bible study services? Do you think God’s people felt that way at times back then? I’m sure they did, and they had to travel a long way on foot. They also had to sacrifice animals to atone for their sins, which technically didn’t even take their sins away, only rolled them forward. It was a lot!! It was a much more difficult situation than what we have today. Do you think the people were happy all the time when they were on their way to worship? Was their life perfect? Of course not. Just like our life is not perfect, neither was theirs. We have disappointments, struggles and failures, just as did they. We lose loved ones, just as did they. We deal with sickness, marriage problems, and problems with our children, just as did they. Sudden heartache and tragedy can strike us at any time just as it could back then. But in all these things….. I ask these questions, do we still have something to be glad about? Can we still feel joy even when we are in sorrow? Do we still have something to rejoice in even in the worst of times? Yes! We can rejoice and be glad because of who we belong to! We belong to Christ! Because of this fact, no matter what happens in our life, we will still have that joy ingrained in us. We may not be happy every second of every day, but we can still find joy/gladness in the darkest of times, because we know where we are going when we leave this earth, whether it happens five minutes from now or 50 years from now. Belonging to Christ is our joy. Paul says in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” When does Paul say to rejoice in this verse? He says to rejoice always. I take that to mean in good times and in bad. And believe me, I know that it is hard to imagine rejoicing while suffering. But isn’t that how we get through the suffering? The Bible teaches us that we will have suffering. God has never sugarcoated this life for us. We will not always be happy. If that were the case, then we wouldn’t have Paul’s example shown to us as a person who endured tremendous suffering. I also don’t think Paul would talk about being content in every situation he found himself in, if his life was wonderful all the time. (Philippians 4:11-13)  Paul was even rejoicing by singing praises to God with Silas while they were in prison in Philippi. After the earthquake hit and all the prisoners’ chains were loosed, the jailor was about to commit suicide, because he thought all the prisoners had surely escaped. But Paul stopped the jailor and told him not to harm himself, because they were all still there. All this led to the baptism of the Philippian jailor and his family. Amazing isn’t it? And it all started with a worship service in the prison at midnight!! It also says that all the prisoners were listening to Paul and Silas as they sang. What an example for those prisoners! The seed can certainly be sown anywhere and at any time.  (Acts 16:25-40) So….what is the “house of the Lord” today?

In Psalm 122:1 David says that he was glad to go to the house of the Lord. And what do we mean by “house of the Lord” in today’s sense of the word? Well…..the house of the Lord is the church, and the church is made up of people who have been saved and added by God to the church after following God’s plan for salvation. (Acts 2:37-47) We cannot join a church of our choice. We do not join the Lord’s church. That is not found in the Bible. God adds us to the church after we are baptized. (Acts 2:47)  We may place membership in a certain congregation of the Lord’s church, but that happens after God adds us to the church as a whole. Every congregation of the church of Christ makes up THE church. The church is not the building. The church is  the people who are members. As long as we are worshiping God together according to His will, that is all that matters. We can look directly at the New Testament, and see if the church we are attending is the church found in the New Testament. The pattern of how we are to be saved and how we are to worship God is found in the New Testament. So…..what should my attitude be when I enter the “house of the Lord” or the church?

 Are we glad to go to the house of the Lord each Sunday for worship and Bible study? Each Sunday night? Each Wednesday night? We certainly should be. We should never dread going to church services. But are any of us ever guilty of feeling this way? When we start to feel this way, let’s think of heaven. If we don’t enjoy going to worship now, how will we ever be able to be able to be in heaven someday? We will be worshiping God for eternity in heaven. We will be around His throne worshiping Him continually. (Revelation 15:2-4, Revelation 19:6-7) So if I’m not enjoying worship here on earth, then I definitely need to do some soul-searching to figure out why. At this point, it’s a heart problem and I need to fix it as quickly as I can. And maybe, it is not that we don’t enjoy worship. Maybe, because our lives are so crazy busy that we simply just dread having somewhere else to go. Maybe we don’t dread the service itself, but we just dread having to leave the house to go somewhere, because our lives are go, go, go all the time, every night of the week some weeks! Is this not a little like the seed that fell among thorns in the parable of the sower where the cares of this world choke out the word of God causing the person to become unfruitful? (Matthew 13:22) Only in this case, the busyness of our lives is getting in the way of our commitment to the Lord’s church, and choking out our desire to be at services. If our desire and commitment are choked out by worldly things, can we be fruitful for the Lord the way we are commanded to? Or maybe we are just so tired that we don’t feel up to it. But then I ask myself, do I miss work just because I’m tired? Do I miss my kids’ ball games or other activities just because I’m tired? Folks, I’m not judging. I’ve been guilty many times of missing church services when I could have gone. I am talking to myself right now as much as anyone, and I’m simply giving all of us some food for thought. What about our kids? How does our own faithfulness and attitude about going to “the house of the Lord” for worship and Bible study affect our children? And how does this affect the entire future of the church?

Sisters, I have learned from life experience and observation that if I don’t take being a Christian seriously, then my kids won’t. If I don’t put God and His church as my top priority, then my kids won’t. If worldly activities are more important to me than the services of the Lord’s church, then where do I stand with God and where will my children stand with God someday? Now sisters…… I am not talking about missing services for things that are out of our control, such as personal illness, family illnesses, and at times our secular jobs. I know that sometimes our jobs do keep us from services. But, we can still be there every opportunity that we possibly can, and we can make sure our children are there even when we can’t be there. And…..if we do have to miss services for work, our kids need to see us grieve over having to miss services. They need to know that we didn’t choose to miss, and that we would rather be there with them. Just because our jobs keep us from services sometimes doesn’t mean that we are putting our job ahead of God. Sometimes it can’t be helped. As long as we are not choosing to work shifts that fall during church services, then I believe that God understands our obligations in regards to our jobs. It is about our hearts. He knows where our hearts truly lie. My kids are grown now and I hope that when they were growing up, they saw their dad and I putting God and the Lord’s church as the top priority the majority of the time. I know we made poor decisions sometimes. We were not perfect and still aren’t, as no one is. Looking back, I can pinpoint things that I wish I had done differently with my kids. But I can’t go back. I can only admit my mistakes and try to do better now, and be a good example now and in the future. Do we truly put our church services first? What message are we sending our kids when we are able to go everywhere else, but can’t make it to Wednesday night or Sunday night services? Or Sunday morning worship and Bible class? The future of the Lord’s church and true Christianity depends on whether we make it the top priority in front of our kids right now, starting when they are babies. I ask myself, who will be our preachers of tomorrow? Who will be our elders and deacons of tomorrow? Who will be our Bible class teachers of tomorrow? I ask that you read these words from Deuteronomy 6:4-7 and see how serious God is about our children being taught His word, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” I put my name in place of Israel in those verses. God is talking to each one of us. It is never too early or never too late to start teaching your children about God in your home and taking them to worship and Bible study. Again, food for thought my friends. 

What about our worship? Is it pleasing to God? Are we glad to get to worship our Father? Do we enjoy it? Are we rejoicing because we have the privilege and freedom to worship God? Do we give God our whole heart when we worship Him? It doesn’t do me any good to be at church services every time the doors are open, but have my mind focused on everything except God. Ouch, my toes!! I can’t just have the attitude of “well, I’m here and that’s all that matters”. I’m not punching a clock. I should have a deep desire to be with my spiritual family every time that I can. Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4:23-24 these words, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” What does it mean to worship God in spirit? It means that God wants our whole heart/mind when we worship Him. He is actively seeking people who give Him their all in worship. It is literally an “all or nothing” situation. That’s a little scary to me. We can’t have our minds on other things while we are in a worship service or Bible study service. He knows if we are truly focused on Him or not. I shudder at the thought of God seeing my mind wander to things other than Him during worship. It is something we all have to fight against, because our minds are stretched so thin all the time. We are busy people, aren’t we? But when we are too busy to truly worship God in the right spirit, then we need to re-evaluate our priorities. But people worshiping with the right spirit/heart is not all that God is looking for is it? Jesus said he is looking for people who worship in “spirit and truth”. We can’t do one without the other. What does it mean to worship God in truth? Well, first, where do we find truth? We know that truth is only found in God’s word. Psalms 119:160 says, “The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.” Let that verse sink in and key in on the words “entirety and forever”. Every word of the Bible is true and it will always be here…..forever. In Jesus’ prayer in John 17:17, he prays to His Father for His disciples and says, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” If something that we are doing in our worship to God is not found in God’s word, then we are not worshiping Him in truth. I know that people who are not a part of the church of Christ wonder why we do the things we do and why we don’t do certain things. For example, we don’t use musical instruments, praise teams, or have people singing solos in our worship services. I have gotten asked “why” several times in my life? I try to answer as best I can. We don’t use musical instruments because they were not used in the worship assembly of the first century church. God told us to sing and make melody in their hearts. He also told us to speak to one another as we sing. (Ephesians 5:19) No mention of mechanical instruments, solos or praise teams is found in the New Testament. No one’s talent is to be put on a pedestal above anyone else’s. We don’t want to turn worship into entertainment. This is why the church of Christ does not include any of that in worship. We don’t want to take any chances and assume that God is okay with things that He didn’t specifically tell us to do. I’ve heard the statement, “but God didn’t tell us not to use instruments”. If I tell my students in my class to color with crayons, I shouldn’t have to list all the other things I don’t want them to use. God has told us what to do, so why not just do that? We don’t have to have a list of all the things He doesn’t want us to do. This is food for thought, my friends and spoken with complete love and respect. If you are searching for a church that teaches the truth of God’s word in love, please consider the church of Christ. It is not a name, it is a description. It is the church that belongs to Christ. It is the church that Jesus told Peter he would build in Matthew 16:18. I love knowing that I belong to the original church found in Acts 2. I know that the apostles got their instructions on what to preach during that first gospel sermon in Acts 2 directly from Christ before He ascended back into heaven. Why would I listen to anyone else’s opinion? Acts 1:3 says that Jesus was with the apostles for forty days, “speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom (church) of God.” Jesus gave them instructions on how the church was supposed to be organized. He prepared those men for that day of Pentecost for forty days after His resurrection, and then He ascended back to heaven to be with His Father. (Acts 1:9) Nothing about the first century church should have been changed. Why take chances with your eternal soul? Make sure that you are being taught the truth found in the Bible. One of the greatest ways that we can show that we are glad to go to the “house of the Lord”, which is the Lord’s church, is to be content to do things the way that God says for us to do them in His Word. We just need to simply obey God. We don’t need to add anything to our worship to “make it better”. God established His church. He gave us a pattern for worship with examples in the New Testament of the things He wants us to include in worship. Nothing that we add to it or take away from it could ever make it any “better”.  How can man ever improve on what God has established? I know that many who read this may disagree. None of this is said to pass judgment. Judgment is for God and God only. Everything that I write is written with Christian love and the utmost respect for everyone who reads it. I am only giving a simple explanation of why we do what we do in the church of Christ.

So….to end this post, here are some questions for myself to review. Am I truly glad to go to the house of the Lord? Is my attitude right? I can’t dread going to worship. I need to remember that in heaven I will be worshiping continually. If I don’t love to worship here on earth, then how am I going to be in heaven doing it continually? Do I feel joy and rejoice in the fact that I am a member of the Lord’s church in good times and bad? I need to remember how lucky I am to be a member of His church, and find joy in that even in the hardest of times. Am I putting church services as my top priority? I need to remember that a part of putting God as my top priority is putting the services of His church as a top priority. This is so important when we are trying to raise our children to be faithful Christians. The church of tomorrow depends on us as adults in our children’s lives. Do I need to examine my priorities? I know that I need to continually examine my priorities to keep them in the right order or I will drift. And finally, am I a member of the “house of the Lord”, which is the Lord’s church? If you are not a member of the Lord’s church and have questions, please reach out. I’m happy to help in any way that I can. I’ll end this post the same way that I began it with the question, are you glad? Do you have true joy in your life? I hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead!! Thank you for reading!! Love to you all.

Are you in Christ? Below I have added God’s plan of salvation with scripture references. If you need help in understanding, please reach out.

God’s Plan of Salvation

If anyone ever needs help in learning the truth of the gospel, please reach out and I can help you or put you in contact with someone who can. Below is the plan that God has set forth in His word, for mankind to receive His grace that leads to salvation and an eternity with God in heaven. 

We have to hear His word. (Romans 10:17) 

Upon hearing the message of Jesus, we believe it. (Mark 16:16) 

Then, we confess Jesus’ name before men. (Matthew 10:32) 

Next, we repent of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19) 

Finally, we are baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:16, Romans 6:3-4, Acts 22:16, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:26-27) After baptism, God adds us to His church. (Acts 2:47)

Then, we remain faithful in our commitment to Christ until death. (Revelation 2:10, 2 Peter 2:20-22)