Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,… exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. – Hebrews 10:24-25

A college pastor called William was invited to preach in a city church. The service lasted 2 1/2 hours. When it was finally over, Williams was exhausted and asked the pastor, “How do you get these people to stay in church so long?”

His friend replied, “Unemployment is nearly up to 50 percent here. This means that when our people go about during the week, everything they see and hear tells them: ‘You are a failure. You are nothing becasue you do not have a good job, you do not have a vehicle, you have no money.’ So I must get their eyes focused on Christ. Through the hymns, the prayers, the preaching, I say to them, ‘That is a lie! You can be royalty! You can be citizens of the kingdom of God!’ It takes me a long time to get them straight because the world perverts them so terribly.”

The world is constantly pressuring us to conform to its values. We need to read God’s Word to understand who we really are and to see how God has allowed us to be in His family through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Why go to church? Because God uses the exhortation and love of Christians to reassure us that the world’s message is a lie and that God’s good news is true.

—Dennis J. De Haan