After Jesus rose from the dead, He needed to know if Peter, who denied Him earlier, still loved Him. Three times He asked the question, and every time Peter confessed His love for the Lord. His response to Peter’s answer is interesting: “Feed My lambs,” Tend My sheep,” “Feed My sheep.” Strange as it may sound, our love for the Lord goes through our love for one another. You cannot love and honour and respect the Lord without also loving, respecting and honouring those that He loves. He even says that when we visit those in prison, we visited Him! (Mathew 25:36). Look at what the Bible teaches:

What you do to others is what you do unto the Lord!

Paul also had some things to say about the way they behaved themselves at the Lord’s Supper at that church. Some were outright rude in the way they treated their brothers and sisters in the Lord. The rich had too much to eat and drink, some were even drunk, while the poor had nothing to eat and went home hungry. “What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.” (1 Corinthians 11:22)

These Corinthians, who were saved out of a pagan culture, brought some of their old habits into the church. Even when the gifts of the Spirit operated through them, they were disorderly and brought confusion into the services.

There is a line that must be drawn between the culture of the world and the culture of the Lord’s church. It is unimaginable to think that the Lord’s presence would be found in the kind of meetings that they had at Corinth. Every time the Lord revealed Himself, in both the Old and New Testaments, His presence was highly honoured and respected. Some removed their shoes or bowed down, others quickly prepared a sacrifice or fell on their faces before Him. The house of the Lord is an awesome place!

Our services are what we make them to be. Do you want our church to be the gate of heaven? I In faith, let’s await His presence with honour and respect – by honouring one another.

Like those Corinthians, we a live in a culture where respect, honour and discipline are at a deficit. There is very little respect for authority, parents, or even God Himself. It seems that some even perceive it as a personal humiliation to respect or honour someone else. Everybody wants to be at the top of the food chain. There is little respect for other people, their property or their time. These things come into our lives through our daily interaction with the world, the influence of television and movies, computer games, etc. It is the natural way of the world, and if we are not proactive in keeping it out of our hearts, it will find a place in our homes too. Worst of all, the spirit of the world will be brought into our services and rob it of the presence of the Lord.

How do we create a welcoming atmosphere for the presence of the Lord?

• Come to church hungry and ready to worship the Lord in spirit and truth
• Don’t be late – it is disrespectful toward the Lord and your brothers and sisters. Arriving on time - or even better - early, is a sign of your expectation to have an encounter with the living God. It disrupts the congregation’s drawing close to the Lord when people enter the sanctuary late
• Actively worship with the congregation – don’t just sing along or be a silent spectator; open your heart and pour out your adoration for the Lord
  • Once you’re in the sanctuary, stay there. It is OK to leave in an emergency, but to come and go is to treat the service lightly, it is distracting to others and it contributes to a bland experience in the meeting.
  • Be sure that everybody in the family visits the washroom at home, or at church before the service starts
  • Have your teens and children sit with you so that you can manage their behaviour
  • Eternity is at stake in every service, and love ensures that no hurdles are created for those who have come to seek the Lordo     
    
• Mothers with babies or small children have seats reserved for them from where they can leave and enter the sanctuary to attend to our little ones with minimal distraction. We believe that babies and toddlers should spend as much time as possible in the sanctuary so that they can grow up in the God-honouring culture of the church. Most people understand that babies or toddlers become fidgety or restless, and tolerate them without difficulty.