WHAT KEEPS YOU FROM CHURCH?
A young woman in China had been invited to a church and had gone just to please her friend. While she was there, she received Jesus Christ and began attending regularly. She did that because she found pure joy in her soul while she was at church. That was the one place in her life she could actually worship in the Lord's very presence.
And since she loved being close to Jesus that much, she wanted her mother to know the same feeling. There were two problems, though. Her mother was an invalid and unable to walk, and they lived 18 miles from church. The daughter wanted to go to church so badly; she was willing to overcome these obstacles. She purchased a basket big enough to put on her back, and she carried her mother all the way to church. They would leave the night before and walk most of the night -- just to attend God's house of prayer and worship. Then they would spend the entire rest of the day walking back home.
And what do Americans do? We tend to let the smallest of reasons keep us from going to church. We are tired from the hard week we just had. We need to understand that God is a restorer, and He will restore our strength. We complain that we just didn't feel that well, but then come Sunday afternoon, we are out and about, enjoying ourselves to the max. I cannot help but wonder if that hurts God as He looks down and sees how we cheated Him out of some time being spent with us.
(Source: from a sermon by Bruce Ball, "My Dream Church" 7/14/08,