Today many people are sad, depressed, unhappy, discontent, miserable, lonely, unfulfilled, aimless, selfish, critical, and unproductive. If I meet someone like that, I encourage them to find a good church and attend faithfully. Once established, plugin and get involved in some small group. It can be a men’s or woman’s group, a prayer group, Bible study, or some ministry group. A small group becomes a spiritual family where you are encouraged, loved, prayed for, and coached. When I say good church, I mean one that believes the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God and our primary authority on living. In a good church, the Bible will be taught clearly and well in each service. In a good church, you will hear the words grace, faith, Bible, discipleship, forgiveness, and love used often. Good church worship will be a big deal to everyone, and your participation in it will inspire you and give you joy and a real sense of God’s presence.

The church gets a lot of bad press in today’s world. The reason is that the devil hates the church, and he is doing what he does best, which is working in people to start many bad churches that teach a false gospel and heresy. He is infiltrating good churches and leading them astray to become lukewarm and cold churches devoid of love and full of criticism and judgmental attitudes. Once you begin attending a church, it doesn’t take long to discern whether you are in a good church or a bad one. Keep looking until you find a good church. A good church is the “Body of Christ,” “The Bride of Christ,” “The Temple of the Holy Spirit,” and the “Hope of the World,” the only hope of the world.