God’s Spirit through the author of Hebrews tells us that we need the local church more in dark days, not less: “all the more as we see the Day (of Christ’s return) drawing near” (Heb. 10:25). It may be that our local church fellowship may need to change, but our need for Christian community is heightened, not lessened, by the struggles with sin all around us. God expects all His people to be an active part of a local church. This basic reality is inescapable if we want to follow Christ.

I have met Christians that conclude that they don’t need the local church anymore. They might watch services online, listen to sermon podcasts, or read Christian books, and/or worship alone or as a family, but when it comes to being a part of local church life, they avoid it. You might be one of these.
There are various kinds of burnout that lead some to this conclusion. The church that they have been a part of might have been dominated by sharp contention. Strife over secondary issues wear people down. Professed believers in known sin may remain unconfronted by the leadership. The church where one has invested much time, energy, and resources has proved spiritually dead or has given in to cheap grace and worldliness. For these reasons and others, some may conclude that it is spiritually defeating to continue. Too many Christians have experienced this is two or more. They are weary from all of the struggles and unmet expectations.
In some cases, the believer who has left has done so because they were sinned against in a very painful way by another member. It is extremely difficult to worship and serve God alongside those who have really hurt you and broke your trust.
Too many have watched their spiritual leaders fall into sin and then even leave unrepentant. Greed, sexual sin, heavy-handed and abusive leadership, etc., are far too frequent even among those with solid credentials and sound doctrinal convictions. When a believer experiences this once in their Christian experience would be hard enough to process, but some have experienced it multiple times.
There is an intense struggle with sin and evil in these times.
These are dark days. It is grieving to learn through the news and social media of one Christian leader after another falling into serious sin. And we have not even begun to talk about the widespread apostasy (rejection of foundational truth about God), false doctrines, and heresies (deviations from sound doctrine and basic Christian living) rampant in at least a majority of professed Christian congregations. If we Christians focus on all these failures, it could easily lead to a spiritual depression or a dangerous cynicism that leads to a rejection of local church life altogether.
The fact that these evils have occurred, are occurring now, and will continue to occur, must not be allowed to justify or validate Christian living in isolation. I believe that God is not pleased with a rejection of the local church under any circumstances.
Truths that keep us engaged in local church life despite challenges
The local church is obviously God’s perfect plan for His people.
The whole New Testament communicates this. Upon baptism, every single believer becomes immediately attached to the local body of believers through whom he/she has come to Christ (Matt. 28:19-20).
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Our faith and obedience in the midst of suffering matters—a lot! It matters not just in regards to our own relationship with God, but because both unbelievers and fellow saints look on. When we respond in faith, as Mike did, we shine the light of the Gospel brightly. When we endure well in God’s grace, our example strengthens God’s people to do the same.

When someone passes into eternity it causes reflection. As people reflect on the life now departed, they are reminded about how that person influenced their lives. Often comforting surprises come to light as people begin to share their memories. When my father-in-law passed away recently, we were greatly blessed to hear of many stories of his impact for Christ in people’s lives.
Most knew my father-in-law as “Mike.” He was well-known for a life of strong faith in Jesus Christ along with much physical suffering and challenges. His testimony encouraged many. Mike served as a pastor in several churches, the last one for over thirty years in southeast Georgia. He served in the out-of-the-way places of little reputation in the wider world scene, but God used him. His faithfulness amidst severe trials served as a continual tool for both evangelism and encouragement of other believers, some who never even met him but just heard his story.
Their Deeds Follow Them
Revelation 14:12-13 speaks of many believers in Christ Jesus who remain faithful to Him in death and suffering during the horrors of the Tribulation. The apostle John says, “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.”[1]
John then quotes a voice from heaven in his vision saying, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” This is followed by a direct quote of the Holy Spirit’s response to these words: “Blessed indeed, that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”
God rewards, even honors, His people who endure hard things for His name’s sake and continue to serve Him faithfully in the midst of great trial and difficulty. Faithfulness to Christ in such times leads to fruitful testimony and ministry to others in life, ongoing blessing to others in their memories, and eternal reward from God. Praise the Lord for examples of men and women who endure in obedience and faith regardless of their circumstances!
Suffering with Patience Opens a Door
After his death, we received a note from a younger pastor friend of his.
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Care for our parents and grandparents is a fundamental life responsibility. Part of our worship of God is also to sacrificially care for widows in our close family. It should be a well-known fact around the globe that Christian families care for their own. This pleases Christ.

1 Timothy 5:3-16 is packed with implications for local churches and especially older saints but is rarely discussed. Economic prosperity often buries this rich and very practical passage. It may be that many churches that have not taken this passage seriously because of prosperity will soon do so.
I encourage you to take the time to read these verses carefully before continuing: 1 Timothy 5:3-16.[1]
As we take the time to understand this text and consider its implications, we find that it is relevant for every cultural context. We might also might find ourselves surprised that we have overlooked such valuable instruction.
Paul taught Timothy about how local churches are supposed to function. In doing this, he included a lengthy passage on the support of widows. In it Paul teaches us about the role of widows, how to support them, and also gives us principles that are applicable to all of God’s senior saints. We will spend the next several articles meditating on this passage together.  You might want to read the intro article to this series as well: https://rootedthinking.com/2022/12/20/still-fruitful-the-value-of-senior-saints/.
A continual need through the centuries.
Financial support for needy widows is something followers of God have taken seriously since the beginning. The Bible teaches us that those who are genuinely righteous protect and help care for the poor, particularly widows and orphans.[2] Local churches are responsible to financially assist impoverished widows and orphans within its membership.[3] Just after Pentecost, the church in Jerusalem was zealous in this regard.[4] There were political and cultural reasons why Jerusalem had so many widows at that time, so the Jerusalem church needed immediate guidelines about it (Acts 6).
Churches throughout history have supported widows, often as a part of their church budget. Though deacons were originally elected to oversee this kind of ministry in Jerusalem, churches have generally given this responsibility to certain women in the church.
In 1 Timothy 5, Paul answers this question in detail: How and when are local churches to financially support widows?
What it means to be a widow in much of the world.
Paul’s instructions to Timothy begin with the definition of a “true widow,” the kind of widow that local churches are responsible to help. Paul then shows us how to prioritize funds for this purpose.
Becoming a widow was a tragic event in New Testament times, a reality that is just as tragic for women in much of our world today. For many, to be widowed meant at least relative poverty, maybe even abject poverty. To survive, provide for their children, and avoid shame, women usually remarried as soon as possible. Jobs providing enough income to avoid poverty were unknown. Some cultures have not even allowed women to earn wages. Imagine being in this situation! But it is often worse than this.
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Choosing to sacrifice for others requires constant self-control. He compares it to the training an athlete maintains to remain at the top of his/her game. God’s Spirit here shows us that laying down our rights for the ministry of the Gospel requires a permanent and focused commitment to discipline.

1 Corinthians 8 showed us that love for Christ and His people determines how we use our “rights.” As applied to eating food offered to idols, we learned that even if we no longer fear demons or false gods ourselves, even if we have no conscience issues personally with eating offered food, we must abstain. Why? Eating food offered to idols emboldens weak believers to sin against their conscience, because that food is immediately associated with idol worship to which they recently were enslaved.
If, by exercising our “rights” we encourage our brethren to sin, we actually “sin against Christ” [1] (v.8:13). Our decisions affect others. Love for Christ and love for His people demand that we lay aside our rights for the sake of the Gospel.
In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul illustrates for us that he was not telling the Corinthian believers (and us!) to do something that he was not willing to do himself. He was a true apostle called by Christ (vv.1–2), not a self-proclaimed apostle motivated by selfish ambition such as some at Corinth who strove to discredit him. Paul was real. As proof, he often laid aside his rights, preferences, comfort, and sacrificed much to help unbelievers come to saving faith and for believers to be strengthened. The Corinthians knew this since they had experienced his life and ministry firsthand (v.2).
Paul delineates for us ways that he laid aside his rights for the Gospel. It is his “defense to those who would examine him” (v.3).
His Right to Financial Support
Paul was committed to a self-support model of ministry, particularly in a church plant. He doesn’t explain his reason here. It wasn’t because it was some kind of superior model of ministry or especially strategic. He declined support that people normally expected to give so that unbelievers and new disciples would not be confused about his motives or message. [2] He also did this to avoid being a burden upon the poor and to exemplify hard work where the example was desperately needed. [3] He chose this much more difficult path of self-support in most cases. He did this out of love to remove obstacles in making disciples. Enemies constantly challenged his motives as an apostle.
Paul knew and taught that God-sanctioned gospel workers were worthy of financial support. He knew and taught here that the norm was for gospel laborers to be supported by God’s people (vv.6–18). But he also knew that in his circumstances, it was important to be primarily self-supporting to protect his testimony and message. At great cost to himself, Paul “made no use of any of these rights” (v.15).
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Love for God and His people and the fear of God demand that we flee from idolatry. Paul sums up everything that went before in this discussion about food offered to idols with this one principle: “Do all to the glory of God” (v.10:31). Commitment to God’s glory above my own desires will lead me to follow Paul’s example and lay aside my rights for others. Paul simply followed the example of his Lord, the Suffering Servant, Jesus, and so must we.

Of the billions of people today who worship literal idols, spirits, the dead, and other spiritual powers, many will come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. When they do, they will need to know how to navigate the Christian life as an extreme minority believer under the threat of persecution. Disciples of Jesus need to know how to relate to idolatrous practices all around them.
In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul taught us that the love of Christ for other believers should motivate us to have nothing to do with idolatry and food offered to idols. In chapter 9, Paul uses himself as an example of love in laying aside our rights and preferences for the sake of the Gospel. He showed us that it takes focused purpose and self-discipline to maintain the servant love required to influence people for Christ.
Now in chapter 10, Paul continues his explanation of how believers are to relate to idolatry all around them.
The Danger of Idolatry
Israel was not careful about idolatry and thus fell away from God. When we read the Old Testament, we see that most of the people of Israel in the wilderness (and nearly every generation thereafter) fell into idolatry and demon worship. Even with seeing numerous miracles that illustrated plainly that Jehovah was the One True God, experiencing supernatural acts of judgment against their sin, and hearing the many strong warnings from God about idolatry and its consequences, they still turned to idolatry.
Paul urges us to take Israel’s failure seriously and “not desire evil as they did”[1] (v.6). Idolatry proved to be Israel’s downfall. Idolatry and spirit worship usually encourage sexual immorality, so we see the connection between the two in both the Old and New Testaments. This was true of idolatry in Corinth as well. False worship elevates ritual and religiosity and degrades God’s true standard of righteousness. Worship degenerates into obtaining our goals and desires and avoiding tragedy.
God’s Promise
Following this warning, God gives us a promise through Paul that He will never allow us to be tempted above what we can endure by His grace. We always have a way to escape temptation:
“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (v.13).
Remember, this promise is given specifically to believers who have come out of idolatry and demon worship, encouraging them that they can stay true to Christ.
Flee!
An accurate understanding about idolatry’s futility does not make us invulnerable to it.
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Pride has been called the origin of all sins. If that is so, humility is the answer for all sins. It begins with humility before God and leads to humility before others in our relationships. And the surprising fruit is the grace He gives as He blesses a marriage. 

Anniversary While in Quarantine
Jennifer and I are three days away from finishing our 14-day quarantine in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We have returned to the field amidst the COVID-19 epidemic. Today marks our 25th wedding anniversary, so we celebrate stuck in a hotel under heavy restrictions. Don’t worry—we often celebrate at a later time when circumstances crunch The Day. But being stuck has allowed time for musing, reflecting on what grace has brought us through twenty-five years, still so grateful to be sharing life together.
I have been married to Jennifer for more than half of my life now, two years more to be exact. It is hard to imagine life without her. If the Lord were to take her home before me, it would be extremely difficult.  We have learned so much about helping each other in daily joys and trials that our lives are now interconnected in a thousand ways.
But no marriage is perfect. That is impossible because each of us are sinners. Being in Christ and having God’s Word, His Spirit, and His Church should make a tremendous difference in our lives and marriages. But even if both husband and wife are godly believers growing and changing, there will still be conflict and difficulties at times. We may be saved sinners being sanctified, but we are sinners still.
Why the Conflict?
Why is it that some Christian homes with both husband and wife genuinely born-again believers still have poor marriages? Why does conflict and strife still dominate many Christian homes? How could it possibly be that Christians could defy God’s will for marriage and get divorced?
If we were to try to explain the difference between a godly Christian marriage and a failing or failed Christian marriage, what would that difference be? If we tried to “boil it down” to the most basic difference between them, what would that basic difference be?
What Saith the Scriptures?
The Scriptures don’t give us a statement that says, “The golden key to success in marriage is this one word or principle”. We do have lots of statements about marriage to draw on, however:

Believers are to leave their parents and cleave to one another as the most important person in life, to become “one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).
We are to view our marriage commitment as a covenant made in the eyes of God, one that He takes very seriously. God hates divorce (Mal. 2:13-16)!

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