A Question To Ponder

I like to listen to one of the local Christian radio stations and am blessed by the teaching. Some of it really makes me think and get into the Bible for myself. I don’t agree with everything I hear, and I sometimes debate one of the preachers on the station through e-mails. Recently, he posed this question: “If a person’s religion doesn’t take him to church (regularly), can it take him to heaven?”

Obviously, he thinks the answer is ‘no.’ I’m not so sure, though. Here’s part of the answer I sent him:

I believe the answer is ‘yes, it can take him to heaven.’ For me, I love to go to church, and it benefits me to be there. But my dad is an example of someone who didn’t go to church often, but he lived out what it really means to be a Christian. He was saved as a boy, about age 12. After he married, he didn’t attend church much. He loved to study the Bible, and he knew more about the Scriptures than many church-goers. He prayed every day and had great faith. He really lived out what he read and studied in the Bible.

He wasn’t opposed to church. In fact, he encouraged Mom and me to go, and he liked to go to Bible studies at our church at times. But he wasn’t comfortable with the crowds and the noise and he didn’t like all the ‘politics’ that, let’s face it, are part of every church.

It was the way that Dad lived outside the church, though, that made the biggest impact on me. He showed me how a Christian should live by what he did. He studied the Bible a lot and really strived to do what it says. If he had a question or didn’t understand something, he would study until he found the answer.

Even though he was my dad, I have to say he lived as fine of a Christian life as any regular church-goer that I know. He loved God and served him in the way he lived. I know he is in heaven today, and I look forward to seeing him again.

So, to get back to that question, “If a person’s religion doesn’t take him to church, can it take him to heaven?” Absolutely! I wouldn’t recommend staying out of church to everyone. But you don’t have to go to church to get to heaven any more than you have to go to a restaurant to get fat.

It’s what’s in the heart and making Christ as your lord and savior that counts.