I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house
of the Lord” (Psalm 122:1)
Saturday is usually Walmart day for the Shiflett
household.What's so great about wally world? For one thing, Walmart has
“Glad” bags. Gladness is missing in a lot of churches today. Where's the beef?
Remember that commercial? I was perusing the shelves at our Super-Walmart in Romeoville...(its
not just Walmart anymore) and thought how is it I can get a burger at Walmart and
Target when some churches fail to deliver a meaty inspired sermon on
Sunday Morning? The pulpit is now used for stylish infomericals.Look how great
we are. We believe in giving back to our community! while people sit on the
pews starving to death spiritually? Shouldn't be so! What's happened to the
beef? Have we become spiritual vegetarians?Afraid to use our teeth? Afraid to
take a bite or get bitten? Once bitten,twice shy? No doubt, you've seen
the commercial about the filthy fifth-grader who came home with mud and grass
stains on his jeans. His mother threw the clothes into the washing machine
announcing, “I guess we’ll have to Shout it out!” If you have a tough
stain Shout it out! Joshua authored that slogan some 2,500 years before the
grocery clerk knew anything about it. Marching around the walls of Jericho, he
cheer-led his troops with the words, “Shout for the Lord has given you the
city” (Joshua 6:16). David echoed the Shout commercial. He believed in
voice and volume – “O clap your hands all ye people, shout unto God with the
voice of triumph” (Psalm 47:1)Uh not in some churches. Of course I also use “Sure”. Remember
the line? – “Raise your hands if you’re sure!” If we’re going to sing
“Blessed Assurance” we ought to be sure about our sureness! We are definitely
blessed,but not totally sure. Peter warned us to “make our calling and election
sure”. That is one reason why people in churches today don't lift their hands
in praise; their not sure. Of course some get embarrassed, just like the
commercial used to say, “Sure, not sure; sure, not sure…” Undecided today?
You can also go to Walmart and purchase “Dove”'Cheer",
“Icy-Hot”…now there’s an oxymoron. The Christ in the midst of The Revelation
Candlesticks demands that we be “cold or hot” (Revelation 3:15). He promises to
spew loose, lazy, lethargic, lackluster Laodicean lukewarmness out
of His mouth! Try saying that 10 times! Next, you can find “Bounty” down the
Super Center aisle. “Bounty”, you know, is the “quicker picker-upper” and boy
we could sure use a pick-me-up in church? I'm not talking about a beer summit
after service,some might consider that an "Obamination".How about a
"Cheer" party during worship? Some outreach programs could
use some "Miracle Gro" and "Gain" Walmart or
K-Mart,Target, any of those one-stop-shopping-sources, beam with religion.
So Walmart or Church? Well Walmart has
great parking, but so does the church; great prices and great products. We too
have all these things going for us, but there’s one problem, the parking lot at Walmart is
always jammed while the parking lot at some churches is usually disgracefully
empty. Why don’t we attract more traffic? Do we lack “Joy”? Where is your
joy, under the kitchen sink? Nehemiah voiced that “the joy of the Lord is
your strength”. Joy attracts. Oh, and I can’t forget that Walmart has
those fabric softener sheets; you know the ones, they call ‘em, “Bounce”! We
bounce when we shop. Why do some have to sit like wooden statues at
church? Gotta close. I noticed there is one product missing at Walmart that
we used to use on wood furniture at the Shiflett house, “Glory”. The
corporate giant has no Glory! That is the one product we have sole rights over
– “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, saith
the Lord…” (Haggai 2:9) So where is the Glory? Joy? Bounce? Cheer? Are
we consumers that would rather be entertained than truly give our "All"?? As
the world turns we need to get with it because we only have One life to
live and The days of our lives seem to be too young and
restless for God's Guiding light into Another World but
that's a sermon for another day.....
PB-
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