Last night, I visited a strange church and listened to a pair of angels sing!

No I wasn’t dreaming. A couple of our young ladies were taking part in a musical and they invited me to come and hear them. My wife hates it when I name drop in a bulletin, so suffice it to say they are sisters and both have names that are a little “fishy” (one reminds me outright of a fish, the other’s is a close cousin to a beautiful mermaid. How much fishier can ya get than that?)

In any case, while we were waiting for the proceedings to commence, I took a good gander at the denominational building we were in, in particular at the things that were NOT part of the play, the stuff that was part of normal worship services. Two huge projector screens, a baby grand piano, and enough drums and music stands for instruments that a good sized pit band would easily fit on the huge stage. No podium in sight, though, I guess their speaker does a lot of pacing around because there sure was lots of room up there and little catwalks that jutted out near the audience. Finally, a set of risers for a fair sized choir of singers to stand on, I guess to compliment that band.

Ok, most of us have probably set foot inside a different church building at one time in our lives, for whatever reason. I used to build them when I was a drywaller in Colorado, and know of at least one big church with trap doors and secret rooms and passage ways with even more secret rooms branching off of those. Phew! But that’s not what I wanted to yap about today.

I know some folks think we have a “cult” because they don’t understand us or our ardent faith. They see our plain jane building and think whoa, these folks are backwards and ignorant, like Amish from PA. I can understand how they might think that, when their buildings are lavish and overflowing with all this feel good gobbledygook. The place last night has the ten commandments in a very prominent place, chiseled into large marble tablets. Very pretty. They had huge banners talking about their ministry services, their efforts to reach the lost. They had pictures and posters and ribbons and the like with passages from the bible on them. Everywhere I looked there were bright, attractive tracts for the taking to help you with your kids, your teens, your marriage, your old parents. It all had a beautiful, lively veneer, there’s no doubt about it, and if I knew nothing at all about what the bible had to say I would find it very friendly, soothing, and attractive. Loads of eye candy!

We’ve had bulletins in the past that point out how sin can be dressed up in beautiful clothes. I mean, just take beer – all those pretty people drink it on TV. They talk about how great it is to relax with some suds and some hot dogs, or meeting friends for a “night out” with bright lights and glitter. We know there is an ugly price to pay for that, though, and we easily grasp that you can dress sin up as much as you want but there’s nowhere good its going to take you.

But this isn’t the same thing. These are good people who are wanting to worship God but are doing it in a broken way. Right off you might ask how I can dare to say that, but the bible tells me so, it’s as simple as that. And thus I felt a great sadness for them. Those who indulge in outright destructive things reap what they sow, and often times their lifestyles catch up with them and they see it for what it is, sometimes even repenting. But who will help these poor, sincere people who have accepted counterfeit communion? It would seem to me the only way is the way Jesus did it, to love them, encourage them, guide them, and yes when opportunity comes to correct them by getting them to consider the word.

And thus I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be nice if God would speak to them directly, but kindly, and just nudge them in the right direction in some way. Perhaps God might send an angel among them? Then I remembered they had not one but two, and I prayed for good things to come. One never knows what great things God may use us for.

Randy