{"id":3454,"date":"2011-10-30T00:56:52","date_gmt":"2011-10-30T06:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/?p=3454"},"modified":"2011-10-29T06:03:13","modified_gmt":"2011-10-29T12:03:13","slug":"rules-for-church-attendance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/?p=3454","title":{"rendered":"Rules for Church Attendance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>&#8220;As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut&#8221;\u00a0 (Ecclesiastes 5:1 NLT).<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not a Greek scholar. \u00a0The only thing I know about the Hebrew language is how to spell it&#8230;H-E-B-R-E-W.\u00a0 I can only offer an opinion as to what God intended this verse to mean by sharing what He&#8217;s spoken to my heart.<\/p>\n<p><em>As you step inside the church open your ears to hear My voice. \u00a0Shut your mouth, you&#8217;ve said quite enough this week, it&#8217;s time to listen. \u00a0Bring a heart filled with a relationship with me\u2014not a heart your pastor must fill for the week with his wise words and well thought out three-point sermon. \u00a0Empty hands, please\u2014you&#8217;ve nothing to offer God. \u00a0You&#8217;ve done nothing worthy of His attention. You accomplished very little with your best efforts. \u00a0Come in with tired feet\u2014shoes worn from going about your Father&#8217;s business, rushing here and there to tell the Good News. \u00a0And as for your wallets? \u00a0Go ahead and leave them at home until you&#8217;ve mastered the above criteria and your heart&#8217;s in the right place for worshiping the Savior.<br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\nNo, I&#8217;m not adding anything to the Holy Scriptures. \u00a0If anything, I&#8217;m allowing them to do what they&#8217;re intended to do\u2014speak directly and intimately to my heart, mind and soul. \u00a0It&#8217;s just what happens when we take a piece of His love letter and we read, re-read and re-read it. \u00a0It&#8217;s what happens when we chew on it until it can be digested by our childlike systems. \u00a0It&#8217;s what happens when we take the Holy Bible and apply it like a salve to the afflicted parts of our lives. \u00a0It&#8217;s what happens when we realize this God-breathed Scripture is alive and well\u2014and it&#8217;s intended for each of us to take personally.<\/p>\n<p>What will you do with the Bible today?<\/p>\n<p>Malinda Edgell<br \/>\nIllinois<\/p>\n<p><strong>PRAY TOGETHER:<\/strong> Today is <strong>Day 20<\/strong> of <em>40 days of Prayer and Fasting with International Missions<\/em>. Pray for The Hanna Project and Free Will Baptists&#8217; efforts to bring help, hope, and healing through Jesus&#8217; name. Ask God to give wisdom to leaders, to provide opportunities to validate the ministry of overseas workers, and to truly make a difference in the lives of those with whom they come in contact.\u00a0\u00a0 <em><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward&#8221; <\/em>(Matthew 10:42).<em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut&#8221;\u00a0 (Ecclesiastes 5:1 NLT). I&#8217;m not a Greek scholar. \u00a0The only thing I know about the Hebrew language is how to spell it&#8230;H-E-B-R-E-W.\u00a0 I can only &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/?p=3454\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-devotional"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3454"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3456,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3454\/revisions\/3456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}