Last week, we had a new couple visit our church which is very small and traditional, as we were talking, I told them that it was very laid back here and it takes one a little time to get use to how they do things.

I was told that it was fine with them because they were tired of all the contemporary junk that was going on in churches and it was nice to visit a church that was more family friendly.

I think theres allot of people who are tired of all the rock and roll good time charlie baloney thats going on in churches today.

In almost all churches in the area that we live, you have the little praise bands with ego filled people leading their flocks in song.

They raise their hands and get dreamy eyed and sway to their spiritual highs of melody singspirations!!

Women often wear provocative clothing to help the men who are eyeballing them to get the most out of their worship service.

And the men wear casual todays look clothing, half shaved for that sex appeal to help the women who are eyeballing their macho guitar strumming,  he men  (or metro sexuals) to help them get closer to Jesus.

Its a scene that goes on in many churches every Sunday,  how people look, who’s looking, music centered gatherings all in the name of Jesus.

Its the same scene on Friday nights in a concert of Lady Gaga or Coldplay, how people look, who’s looking and music centered gatherings all in the name of money.

The world has come into the church, theres no difference between a Sunday service and a Friday concert or for that matter a bar gathering.

One must really visit every church in your area to hopefully find a church that God is blessing.

You can go to a church that is growing and at first you think it has Gods blessings, but then you realize its not growing because of God, its growing because of man who is building it on mans talents, sex appeal and feel good theology of how to sell their church.

How do you think so many singers like Lady Gaga, Britney Spears or Madonna got so rich and famous? They were built on talent, sex appeal and a good theology of how to sell that person.

Many churches today aren’t being built and blessed by God, their being built and filled by the world and its programs.

And whats even sadder is the fact that Christians are growing dumber and dumber about what the bible says and how we are suppose to live as believers.

Many today take a verse and build their own beliefs out of it and ignore what God says with-in that verse.

Jesus said that his true church would be, persecuted for righteousness sake, I don’t see todays American church being persecuted for righteousness.  I haven’t seen too many churches come under fire for trying to bring salvation to a community.

When you go back to the book of Nehemiah Ch. 8-9  we see in there what a church is that is being blessed by God.

First of all we see the people gather together, but it wasn’t to sing and dance to Jesus or to show off their looks.

They gathered together and asked for the Word of God to be taught.

The true church of God is built on the Word of God, not music. Music can be used in a service like it did in Davids time, but it is not to be the center of a service, the bible is.

As the people in Nehemiah gathered together and asked for Gods Word, Nehemiah began to read, and the leaders began to teach what Nehemiah read,  something happened.

The people began to weep.

They wept because first of all they heard what God was saying to them, they put away all of their preconceived beliefs and they listened to what God said.

Secondly, they wept because they realized their beliefs went against what God said,  God says there are certain things that are sin, no questions about it.  But we make excuses for sin or place degrees on them.

That day the people quit making excuses and said Lord show me my sin.

Thats a first church service, the people gathered,  they wanted to hear the Word of God, they wanted to see themselves as God sees them.  Whens the last time you went to church and wanted those things?

God showed them where they had gone off course and they fell on their faces and prayed for Gods forgiveness.

Whens the last time you sought Gods forgiveness? When you wanted to be seen by God as an obedient child and not a rebellious child?

After they repented, they rejoiced,  they knew God had forgivened them and was pleased with them.

Thats a church service, but what we have going on in todays church is far from what pleases the Lord.

When people gather and seek the Lord, seek to have a right heart, thats when the good times start in a church service.

We can good times in church that are built on Jesus Christ that will last, or we can have good times that are built on mans flesh that won’t last.

We are looking at starting a church in a few months if we can find a building and we desire that its built on the Word of God, repentence and forgiveness.  We want good music, but its not to be the center of our services.

Nehemiah brought the Word of God to the people, and thats what people need today, we can either have a rock and roll good time charlie in a church, that leads to destruction, or we can bring the Word of truth that brings everlasting salvation.