{"id":1366,"date":"2018-04-21T14:28:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-21T14:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.actonschurch.com\/church\/?p=1366"},"modified":"2018-04-21T14:28:53","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T14:28:53","slug":"the-devils-delight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.actonschurch.com\/church\/the-devils-delight\/","title":{"rendered":"The devil&#8217;s delight&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was watching a christian film a few weeks ago, and heard someone say, &#8220;An empty church is the devil&#8217;s delight.&#8221; This phrase has been stuck in my mind ever since. It seems as if going to church is a decision a lot of people make for themselves, when in fact we know what God&#8217;s will is. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, <em>&#8220;And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some [is]; but exhorting [one another]: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.&#8221; <\/em>I know some may point out that this doesn&#8217;t specifically say Sunday services, but I would ask the question, &#8220;What other time do you assemble together to provoke unto love and good works?&#8221; For a church, this is the designated time that they have chosen to assemble; usually Sunday morning, evening, and the midweek service. Consider, not only does it have an impact on you, if you&#8217;re not here, but also on the lives of others. If you&#8217;re not at church, you&#8217;re not able to encourage others. Not only personally, but by just being present. I&#8217;m often encouraged just by seeing someone else at church, even if I don&#8217;t personally greet them, because I know that they are receiving God&#8217;s word manifest through preaching, which has the power to transform their life (Titus 1:3, 1 Corinthians 1:21). It&#8217;s an encouragement to see the church house full! In addition to missing encouragement and edification, not attending also exhibits a thoughtless attitude for the things of God. What could possibly be more important than what God tells us to NOT forsake? Oftentimes when we&#8217;re tempted to stay away from church that is usually the time we need it most. May I ask what in your life will bring you more joy, comfort, encouragement, pleasure, or peace than time spent in the Lord&#8217;s house with your eternal family studying the precious Word of God? That almost sounds like heaven on earth! Psa 122:1 <em>&#8220;I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If &#8220;an empty church is the devil&#8217;s delight,&#8221; come to church tomorrow, and let&#8217;s make the devil mad together!<\/p>\n<p>JGD<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was watching a christian film a few weeks ago, and heard someone say, &#8220;An empty church is the devil&#8217;s delight.&#8221; This phrase has been stuck in my mind ever since. It seems as if going to church is a decision a lot of people [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encouragment"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9ISQK-m2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actonschurch.com\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actonschurch.com\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actonschurch.com\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actonschurch.com\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actonschurch.com\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1366"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.actonschurch.com\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1369,"href":"https:\/\/www.actonschurch.com\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions\/1369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actonschurch.com\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actonschurch.com\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actonschurch.com\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}