Devotional from our pastor, Don Martin, Part 1

What if the Church did not exist?
by Don Martin, Pastor

Sometimes I dream about waking up on Sunday morning, going out to pick up the newspaper and coming in to have breakfast. After breakfast, I’d spend the rest of the morning mowing the lawn and cleaning up the yard without one responsibility to my name.

I dream about this a couple times a year. That is usually a hint that I need to take a short vacation. However, most of my time is anticipating an opportunity to meet with those God has drawn to Himself. Acts 2:17 “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people…..” Psalm 84:10 “Better in one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a door keeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” Almost every time I get together with those who fear the Lord, I experience something unique. It is something that I have never experienced anywhere else. I enjoy His Spirit within me, yet when believers get together God has appointed this to be a significant time. Matthew 18:20 “For when two or three gather in my name there am I in your midst.”

I cannot imagine being away from the church. I know that I can get away like anyone else, but from this vantage point it would be a loss of great significance for me. My sweetest memories in life are times in church. I have enjoyed what Acts describes as “times of refreshing.” (Acts 3:19) I remember them as vividly has any memory I have. One time it was as if God was focused completely on me. I knew He cared about everyone in the room as much as me, but it seemed I had His undivided attention. It was an experience of intense joy and an incredible desire to be pure in my inmost being.

If the church did not exist, my heart would be only half full.