There is considerable misunderstanding about the meaning of this Scripture passage. Unfortunately I got hit by a church bus in 1992, which consequently caused a medical condition known medically as: Cervical Degenerative Disk Disease. Basically that means my neck is deteriorating over time as I grow older. It feels like the entire right side of my body feeling half asleep all the time. In 2004 I was diagnosed with herniated disks in my neck (i.e., stenosis, displaced disks and radiculitis). I fell down a 15-foot high mailslide at work in 2005, which worsened my medical condition. I underwent two neck surgeries in 2099 and 2010. The first helped fix one problem, but I still suffered from agonizing neck pain. The second surgery made me 100% worse, leaving both arms feeling filled 24 hours a day with air.
I was depressed after the second surgery for a year, with both arms feelings inflated with air, and the agonizing neck pain still present with no relief. The discomfort eventually became the new “norm” and I became used to it. I have suffered with these permanent afflictions ever since. Today in 2024 nothing has changed. My pain is intolerable at times and always irritating.
The prescription 40 mg Oxycontin and two Percocet 10/325 pills daily do help alleviate some of my pain, but it's simply not enough medication. I had taken between 80 to 140 mg daily of Oxycontin for 11 years, but since I moved to Pensacola, Florida in 2021, no doctor will prescribe more than 40 mg a day, which is not enough. The problem is that government bureaucrats juts don't know what they are doing.
In 2023 there were 100,000 deaths due to pain drugs in the United States. However, most of those needless deaths were caused by illegal recreational abuse of the drugs; namely, the dangerous drug Fentanyl. It is wrong, injurious and sinful for the government to punish legitimate pain sufferers because of criminals who abuse the drugs. I said these things as an introduction for my blog. When I lived on the island of Guam for 17 years, for one year I attended the Harvest Baptist Church in 2014. Once each month the church sponsored Watchcare Meetings at staff member's houses. I loved being around the folks at church so much that I attended two different meetings, which were held at different times on Sunday.
I hadn't been at church the previous Sunday because my neck was hurting badly. I made mention of my neck pain and explained to one of the church members why I hadn't been at church the previous Sunday. I was cut to the heart when he quoted a portion of our text verse from Hebrews 10:25b, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” My feelings were deeply hurt. I told him that it's not that easy, when you're suffering in horrible agonizing pain and can't think straight. He said that no matter what we should always be in church. I then realized that I was speaking with a fool. He was a younger guy, so I dismissed his calloused cruelty as the foolishness's and ignorance of youth. People can be so heartless and cruel with their words. I'm sure you've experienced the same cruelty from Pharisaical religious people.
I cannot express in words how much my chronic relentless neck pain since 2004 has caused me misery, sadness and a lack of ambition to go anywhere or do anything. To make matters worse, I have experienced inexplicable emotional pain since 2006 when my former wife abandoned and divorced me. I have never remarried, simply because I have never met anybody. The loneliness has been extremely difficult for me to cope with. It is only by God's grace that I have made it this far. I have attended various Baptist churches to fill the gap over the years, but I have had the misfortunate of being forced out, ostracised and banned by multiple neo-evangelical churches that masquerade as fundamentalist Baptist churches. Sad to say, but truthfully, 99% of churches today are spiritually dead!
Let me ask you dear reader: What do you think the Bible means in Hebrews 10:25b, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”? Is God saying that we ought not stay home from church when we are sick, suffering in agonizing pain, or we are incapacitated in some way? No, that is not what the Bible is saying at all. It means that we ought not devalue the importance of the church. God wants every believer to attend a local church. That is, we need to assemble with other believers. We need each other's comfort, encouragement and help. The purpose of the local church is to build families.
The Purpose Of A Church Is Not To Worship God
One of my favorite sermons by Pastor Jack Hyles is titled, "The Gift Of Prophecy." I humbly think the title is misleading; not in a bad way, but it just doesn't convey what the sermon is about. I would have titled it, "The Purpose Of The Church." The basic gist of the sermon is that 1st Corinthians 12-14 teach that the greatest gift of the Spirit is prophecy, which means to “speak forth,” and the greatest things to speak forth are building homes, lifting up the fallen and encouraging the brethren. I love that! The purpose of church is not to worship God, which is what 99% of churches claim is their purpose. We are supposed to worship God continually.
God is exhorting us in Hebrews 10:25 to place importance upon attending church. You might only show up half of the time, like I do because of my adverse health issues. There are many Sundays were I have force myself to go to church. Several months ago I didn't feel like going to church. My body didn't feel up to it, but I made myself go. I bathed, shaved, got dressed and drove toward the church (which is about 10 minutes from me). As I arrived about a block away from the church, I decided to turn around and go back home. I felt so relieved that I made that decision, because in my horrible pain I just didn't feel like being around people.
It's Okay To Miss Church When You Need To
It's not just a matter of deciding whether I want to go to church or stay home. I have to take other things into consideration. My neck pain is relentless, being right next to my head, never easing off to give me a break. I can't tell my pain to take a rest; and not only pain, but I also feel horrible constant tension in my neck 24/7. My neck feels like I have a balloon filled with air inside. A neurologist on Guam performed an EMG test years ago on my neck, shoulders and arms, which showed that I have no involuntary muscle contractions. The doctor said that pinched nerves in my neck are causing my relentless tension.
As you can imagine, having constant toothache-like pain and tension in the bony area of the back of my neck is a burden; it irritates me, I have little patience to wait for a long time, or sit in traffic waiting. If traffic backs up on my way somewhere, I always turn around and go home (unless it is a doctor's appointment). Living with constant relentless chronic pain is more like surviving than living. Having said that, people don't cut me any slack, they expect me to be nice, polite, considerate and agreeable at all times (and they have that right). This is one reason why I sometimes stay home from church, because if I feel irritated before I have even left home, I don't want to risk getting upset or mistreat a church member. I know myself.
Since I am the one who suffers with my health afflictions, I need to be responsible. I need to know when it is advisable for me to just stay home, rather than force myself to go to church and risk hurting someone's feelings, offend someone or being unkind. Plus I need to avoid driving when I don't feel at my best. Our church doesn't have any van or bus service.
Religious Pharisees Will Condemn You For Missing Church
Dear reader, don't ever allow anyone to put a guilt-trip on you, trying to make you feel bad for missing church. I heard a Baptist preacher scold his members who are in pain but don't smile. Are you kidding me? Evidently that pastor has never truly suffered in agonizing relentless pain. God knows that I try to smile at everyone. I am a loving and friendly person. The last thing I would ever want to do is hurt someone's feelings. There have been times when I go to church that someone asks me why I didn't greet them when I passed by.
Then I immediately greet them, apologize and explain that I am in horrible pain. I have learned that when you are in constant pain, you live in a world all by yourself; a world that only someone else suffering in constant chronic pain could understand. There are Sundays when I would rather stay home than have to apologize to people for being distant and less then friendly. I know God understands.
I know that some people will disagree with me. I love going to a growing, soulwinning, King James Bible only, sin-fighting, people-loving, free grace Gospel, local church. Unfortunately, they are hard to find nowadays. Most churches uses the Devil's Bible revisions. The demonic "turn from your sins" to get to Heaven heresy has crept into most churches today. Very few (less than 1% of) churches have a scheduled time for church members to meet to go soulwinning. Today's churches are pathetic! The pathetic Bible colleges that train pastors are mostly to blame.
I know that some people will condemn me for what I am teaching, but it is biblical. Not one verse in the inspired Word of God forbids missing church at times. One elderly woman at church last year scolded me for missing church on particular Sunday. She asked where I was the week before. I kindly explained that I was at home in pain. She stroked her finger downward on her other forefinger, signifying: "Shame on you." I replied, "What shame is there in being in pain?," and then I stayed home the following 3 Sundays. I didn't stay home to send her a message (although I think it did), I stayed home because she was getting on my nerves and I'm already in horrible pain, so I didn't want to tell her off. It is unfortunate that foolish people with their big mouths actually cause people to miss church and stay home, when they should just shut up, or encourage you when you do come to church. People... arrggh!
Remember, five minutes of praise will do more for a person than a lifetime of criticism.
God Knows Your Heart
My agonizing pain is already getting on my nerves (literally), so when people do it too, I need to back off and take a break from church. The church services are recorded each week, so I can see them during the week if I want. God knows that I listen regularly to preaching at home. I work on my website and blog ministry day and night. I know that nothing can substitute for going to church and fellowshipping with our Christian brothers and sisters in the Lord, but everybody is uniquely different and we need to respect that fact.
When I attend church, sometimes people stand up and walk out during the middle of the preaching. They walk out the door leading to the parking lot, and they don't come back. They are regularly church members. I never judge any of them, because it is not my business in the first place, and I don't know the reason why they left. I think in general that it is rude to walk out in the middle of a service. That is why I always sit in back of the church auditorium, just in case I need to leave during the preaching. There is nothing wrong with that.
You Can Attend Church Every Sunday And Still Forsake It
Some of the biggest ungodly religious hypocrites attend church every Sunday. Matthew 15:7-9, “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Just because you are faithful to show up at church every time the doors open doesn't mean you are right with God. Churches today are filled with hellbound tares!
You are not right with God just because you go to church, sing in a choir, read your Bible, pray and go through all the superficial motions. That is all window dressing. How you treat people speaks volumes about your walk with God. Do you pay your bills on time? Are you regularly late for appointments? What do your neighbours have to say about you? How about your former employer? How about your former husband or wife? But most importantly, what does God know about you right now? Have you grown in your faith and maturity in Christ?
You Can Attend Church Every Sunday And Still Forsake It
Some of the biggest ungodly religious hypocrites attend church every Sunday. Matthew 15:7-9, “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Just because you are faithful to show up at church every time the doors open doesn't mean you are right with God. Churches today are filled with hellbound tares!
Corrupt institutions like Pensacola Christian College (PCC) and Bob Jones University (BJU) preach a false plan of salvation of partial faith in Christ PLUS turning away from your sinful bad habits to get to Heaven, which is another gospel. God's curse is upon them according to Galatians 1:6-7. They forsake the church even when they are there! In fact, these corrupt institutions are cults, not churches! A sore evil in Christendom today is that 99% of professed Christians are okay with embellishing the Gospel, having different variations of how to be saved. It is apostasy!!! Tragically, 99% of churchgoers today don't care about right doctrine.
I may not be at church every week because of my health problems, but my heart is with the Lord all the time. I have not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together just because I stay home here and there. God understands my situation. I don't like when religious hypocrites put others down who miss church. What we all need to do is encourage others when they do come to church, not criticize them when they don't come.
Matthew 15:6-8 says there are people who draw nigh unto God with their lips (singing and testifying praises to God), but their heart is far from Him. That sadly describes 99% of churchgoers today! Churches are filled with people who haven't a clue what they believe, they just follow whatever their pastor tells them. That is why there are 16,663,663 hellbound Mormons in the world! That is why there are 22,234,406 hellbound Seventh-Day Adventists! That is why there are 8,625,042 hellbound Jehovah's Witnesses! That's nearly 50 million hellbound sinners who have been deceived by Satan (Matthew 7:13-15). You can attend church every Sunday and yet still forsake it. We have become a nation of churches gone wild!
Some of the worst Christians never miss church! Some of the most horrible, unforgiving, terrible, hateful, grudge holding, jerks I have known in my lifetime were religious people. As I type, I am not allowed to attend Pensacola Christian College's Campus Church. Their ungodly pastors have formally banned in writing as of August 2022 from returning to Campus Church, because I criticized them on social media. It didn't matter that I sincerely apologized and was willing to remove all my criticisms, they refused to forgive and permit me to come back to church. That is hatred, not God's love. Everyone has a God-given right to attend a church. Shame on PCC!
At Campus Church thousands of cult members sing their sycophantism songs, idolizing their wicked leaders, showing creepy allegiance to the cult system. In hindsight I am thankful that PCC leaders refused to let me come back to church, because I have learned in recent months that PCC are preaching a counterfeit gospel. Beware of PCC and Campus Church!!! They have forsaken the true church of the New Testament, instead preaching a false plan of salvation. God's curse is upon the PCC camp (Galatians 1:6-9).
A Wife Who Files For Divorce, Refuses To Reconcile, Is Not Right With God
I know a professed Christian woman who religiously dots her i's and cross her t's. She is blinded by her religious piety. She is blinded to how carnally-minded she really is. The Devil is a beautiful liar. She cruelly broke her marriage vows and divorced her husband many years ago. From the day she abandoned her former husband and divorced him, she has no respect for him. She patronizes him in conversations, tells him off, and has a sinful bad attitude. Her former husband is the man whom she disrespects the most in her life, even though he has forgiven her and done everything in his power to help her financially.
Sadly, in her mind she errantly thinks she is a good Christian because she has all the window dressing. She dresses modestly. She attends church and tithes with what little money she has. But this makes her devoutly religious, not a good Christian. Her husband is lonely and struggling without a wife because she wickedly quit and abandoned him to go her own way. Divorce is always a sin! Her husband wants her back, as horrible as she is, but she doesn't want to submit to him as his wife. She likes her new found independence as a rebel, being her own man, so to speak. That woman is a spiritual failure in God's sight. She destroyed her own marriage and still refuses to do the right thing. She is attempting to compensate for her sin failures by being devoutly religious, thinking that will patch things over, but it cannot.
That would be like a man committing murder and evading the police for decades. He got away with murder for now, until he falls into the hands of God in eternity (Hebrews 10:31). That man may join a church, drive a church bus, tithe most of his money to God, love everyone around him and do many good works to be seen of men, so that everyone praises his name as a good man; but this does not excuse his sin of murder years earlier, for which he has never been brought to justice. Likewise, the man or woman who files for divorce won't be brought to justice in this wicked world, but I assure you that in eternity God will hold them accountable. Woe unto anyone who files for divorce, helps nurture a divorce, or partakes in a divorce. God hates the sin of divorce, and so do I (Jeremiah 3:20).
The Golden Rule
In Matthew 7:12 Jesus gives us The Golden Rule, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” True Christianity 101 is treating other people the way you'd like to be treated. The ungodly hypocritical pastor who refuses to allow a hurting man to attend church is violating The Golden Rule. Would you want a pastor to ban you from attending church, when you have apologized and have sincerely tried to make reconciliation? No, you would want to be forgiven and given a path of restoration. God's severest judgment is reserved for the wicked pastor who refuses to allow someone to return to church. God forgave us for Christ's sake, and you're not going to forgive your brother? Woe unto such a wicked pastor!
I am not perfect, but by God's grace I have treated others the way I want to be treated. I have been financially cheated by several crooks in my life, but I was honest with them. They have my blood on their hands, I don't have their blood on mine. I can live with that, knowing that I did the right thing, but they didn't. I have been robbed by a pastor. Woe unto him on judgment day. Some thief (thieves) stole my Bible and radios from my car last year. God will punish them for their crimes. I am glad that I did not steal from them, they stole from me. They stole the things for which I worked to pay for. Whenever you sin, you are hanging yourself with the rope of freedom of choice which God has entrusted to you. Please don't make the mistake of thinking that there are small sins for which God doesn't punish people. I assure you that you will face your sins someday, even as a Christians (1st Thessalonians 4:6). There is no condemnation for the believer, but there will be shame, loss of rewards and tears in Heaven.
Attending church doesn't make you a good Christian, or even a Christian for that matter, it just means that you go to church.
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