why we are here…

I’ve often struggled with the question of why we do the things we do. What is our motivation to move forward? While most of my thought draw back to our Creator, the question of why we have church has been a particularly difficult question. I know clearly what the church offers: fellowship, music, a message, Bible studies, small groups, pitch in dinners (which are amazing!) But what is the motivation for these things? Here is what I’ve come to so far. When reading the Old Testament and the stories of how God reached out to mankind, which is completely unlike any other “god” up to this point, I realize how unique of a God we have. One that created humanity, and then despite our turning from Him, has still reached out to us! This is more amazing the more I ponder it. Then I look in the New Testament, specifically the Luke 15 account of the “lost” parables. As you read through each account, you realize how crazy the Shepard, the woman and the father are. Leaving the 99 behind, throwing a party for a lost coin, and running out to meet the son that completely took advantage of the father. Then we realize how amazing our God is. How amazing the Gospel is.

So this is it. This is our motivation for church. It’s not that we do all these things (sing, pray, study, fellowship) so that God will be happy with what we did for Him. We do these things BECAUSE WE CAN! We pray because we have a God that searches us out. We study the Bible so we can know what his will is for us. We worship because we have an amazing God. We fellowship for encouragement to stay the path of holiness. Luke 15 is our motivation. We “respond” to the ridiculous love of God. We serve, because we want others to know the same excitement we have. We worship God, not so that He’ll feel better about Himself, but because we can’t help but glorify the one who paid our debt.