{"id":1054,"date":"2012-01-24T15:50:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T20:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=1054"},"modified":"2012-01-24T15:50:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-24T20:50:00","slug":"why-i-keep-going-to-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=1054","title":{"rendered":"Why I Keep Going to Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

My friend John Stumbo<\/a> has written a wonderful book entitled An Honest Look at a Mysterious Journey<\/em>. You can purchase it here<\/a>. It is a must read for anyone experiencing pain and confusion over the ways of God.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is a great quote (pp.120-121) from John on why he continued to attend church even when, because of pain and confusion in his life, he did not feel the desire to do so.<\/p>\n

“Looking back over the last few months, I realize that by attending church …<\/p>\n

…I think thoughts I would not otherwise think<\/p>\n

… I hear truths I would not otherwise hear<\/p>\n

… I sing songs I would not otherwise sing<\/p>\n

… I meet people I would not otherwise meet<\/p>\n

… I give offerings I may not otherwise give<\/p>\n

… I rejoice in missions’ efforts and in new followers of Jesus that I would not otherwise know about<\/p>\n

… I receive encouragement and challenge I would not otherwise receive<\/p>\n

… I she tears I would not have otherwise shed<\/p>\n

… I receive a blessing I would not otherwise have received<\/p>\n

… I pray prayers I would not otherwise have thought to pray<\/p>\n

… I meet God in a way that I would not have met Him had I stayed home in my chair<\/p>\n

… And, perhaps, my attendance is an encouragement or testimony to someone else.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend John Stumbo has written a wonderful book entitled An Honest Look at a Mysterious Journey. You can purchase it here. It is a must read for anyone experiencing pain and confusion over the ways of God. Here is a great quote (pp.120-121) from John on why he continued to attend church even when, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","category-suffering","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-h0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1054"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1057,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054\/revisions\/1057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}