That Old Time Religion
An elderly man of the church asked for a few minutes to speak to the church during a
business meeting. He said to the small group in attendance: I’ve been a member here
ever since 1937 and have I seen a lot of changes, not all of them have been good.
I remember when we had to open the windows of this church, so the people standing
outside could hear what the preacher was saying, because there wasn’t enough room
inside for everybody that showed up. Now we get excited if the church is even partially
filled on Christmas or Easter.
During W.W.II, it was not uncommon for people to get up in the middle of the night and
come here to pray. For overseas in a fox hole somewhere was a loved one, a brother, son,
a husband maybe, and they sure needed as many prayers as they could possibly get. That
was before the doors of any church knew what a lock was. I’ve never understood locking
people out of church, we all know that locks don’t stop thieves. How much can you get
for a Bible or a few song books in a pawn shop now days?
Back then, you visited people when they got sick and prayed for them in their home or at
the side of their bed. Even if that meant spending 2-3 hours on the back of a wagon
wrapped up with a blanket and traveling on a road covered by a foot or more of snow.
Now days we just add their name on a prayer list, and these prayers are always said in
short form. God may even call them “generic prayers. ” But then, we must make sure
church is over with by noon at any cost.
We’ve had some preachers here that could really preach the Bible on Hell. After a good
sermon on Hell, people would come up front and literally fall to their knees in tears.
We’ve had other preachers that preached about 10 sermons in a row on tithes, but never
once paid a penny in tithes themselves. Somehow over the years we have lost that old
time religion that Jesus laid down for us and replaced it with a bunch of church rules.
Now, I’ll sit down and shut up, so we can vote on the very important matter of whether to
allow lipstick to be worn in church or not.
Ask yourselves ........... How would Jesus vote?
