COULD YOU SIGN YOUR NAME TO THIS?

Anonymous

Dear God in Heaven,

I want to write to you and let you know why we don't attend the worship services of the church faithfully. You have chosen for your day a day that comes at the end of a hard week when we are all tired out. Also, it comes just after Saturday night and that is the night, we feel we should enjoy ourselves and take in a movie or ballgame or a party and it is usually after midnight when we get to sleep. You have chosen the very day that we need to sleep late, Too, my family demands a big Sunday dinner and when I get up so late, I can't get all this prepared and make it to Bible Study and preaching. John likes to read the Sunday sports page and the kids want to read the funnies. I mean no disrespect, but it seems to me you picked the wrong day.

Then, too, we must think of John. He works so hard all week and Sunday is about the only day he has to catch up on odd jobs around the house. I also feel that he should have one day a week to sleep, fish, golf or visit the folks. Please try to understand and don't hold this against us.

Last Sunday we meant to go to worship but had company. The Sunday before, we meant to go but it was raining. I was telling John last night that we just had to get straightened out and get back to worship or people would think we had quit. You know how people are to talk.

I wanted to tell you all these things so that you could see our viewpoint and know that it is really our fault we do not go to worship. And don't think we do not love you, dear God, for we do. We love the church too, and have been faithful members for years, and we expect to die in it and go home to glory.

Faithfully yours,

Minnie Saints

Careless City, U.S.A.

Maintaining the Purity of Your Heart

by Heath Rogers

Last year we had some mulch put in the flowerbed on the side of our house. It helped make the bed beautiful. However, as summer progressed, I started noticing some new kind of weeds sprouting up in the bed. I put on gloves (these new weeds had some nasty thorns) and pulled them up by the roots. A few weeks later, more weeds showed up. I again pulled out those new arrivals. A few weeks later - more weeds.

I had hoped these weeds had died out over the winter. This spring we planted new flowers and put on a new layer of mulch. The weeds showed up again.

I blame last year’s mulch.

“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). Part of “keeping” or maintaining the purity of our heart is protecting it from exposure to evil. Once we have developed a taste for sin, it is difficult to get the taste out of our mouth. We can repent and strive to do right, but the taste will always be there, tempting us to return to the passing pleasures of sin (Heb. 11:25).

How much easier it would be to maintain our flower bed if we had never introduced last year’s infected mulch.

How much easier it would be to maintain the purity of our heart if we never introduced it to sin.

“How To Pray”

Gardner S. Hall, Sr. (1906-1978)

Editor’s Note: We may know good brethren who do not want to lead a public prayer. When questioned as to why they do not wish to lead a public prayer, they say things like, “I do not know how to pray in public.” Leading a public prayer is not about eloquence or performance. It’s about pouring our hearts out to God and leading others in that communication. Brother Gardner S. Hall, Sr. (1906-1978), was confronted with this problem and wrote down four suggestions to help men with public prayer. Please read these suggestions carefully, and I hope this encourages more of our brethren to lead prayers in a public manner. – JMJ

1. Pray often in private so that you will be familiar with God and used to speaking to Him. Then, when you lead prayer, think of Him (as you would any other time) and not of men (Psalm 88:1).

2. Do not make a sermon of the prayer. It is true that prayer is to be understood by all being led, and it will edify them. But it is silly to pray (to God) by preaching (to men) as though God needed the reproving and rebuking people need (James 1:17b)!

3. Do not try to be eloquent. Be sincere, fervent, humble, and respectful in talking to God as you would at any time; if you do that, it does not matter what men think about fancy words.

4. Give careful thought to what you say. Pray that we may prepare our lessons or may always worship God acceptably; instead of that, “we may have” done such; it is too late if we have not! When praying at the Lord’s table, do not pray the same prayer you would at the close of worship; think of the specific occasion of the prayer.

(Gardner S. Hall, Sr.)

Hopefully, these suggestions will help all those who pray to become better. We need to remember, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16)! Let us all work on leading prayer better and more effectively. What a wonderful blessing prayer is! When we pray, we are talking to God Almighty. Surely, the songwriters were right when they wrote, “What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer”!

If we want to read about how to pray and what the subjects of prayer might be, we need to read the prayers of Jesus (John 17, etc.), the apostles (Romans 10:1, etc.), and the early Christians (Acts 4:24-30, etc.). God has given us these great examples to study. Why not study these prayers that were offered to God and work to better ourselves in leading a public prayer?