From inside the cavernous big-city facilities in the pathway of major urban expansions to the smaller, rural churches heavily laden with our rich Mississippi Baptist history, we are amply reminded of who we are, whose we are, and from whence we came. It’s been quite a while now since Richard Curtis, the state’s first Baptist preacher, debarked his Mississippi River raft in the early 1800s and

In a state with nearly 2,200 Mississippi Baptist churches alone, many people have simply opted out of attending church. Others take their church attendance far too casually. Whether they realize it, many of these people have allowed their relationship to falter with Almighty God and his Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Learned people have made the argument, not entirely invalid, that one needn’t go to church to be an observant Christian. That may be so, but the difficulty of practicing a true faith without being a part of a body of believers is surely more than most people can overcome in this increasing materialistic and pagan world.

 

A church is an aptly-named sanctuary from the pressures of the world, and a refuge for the spiritually downtrodden. The mere hour that it takes to attend a modern worship service can do more to restore a person’s zest for life than many hours of psychotherapy. In addition, the Sunday Schools and Discipleship classes that surround a worship service gird us for the never-ending fight against the evil one.

 

Little ones begin the process of Scripture memorization that will serve them through a lifetime. Royal Ambassadors and Girls in Action learn of missions around the world and begin the process of finding their own place in Kingdom work. Church is a lighthouse beacon for the lost. Church is the solid anchor in the storms of life.

 

Church is the refilling station for the spiritually exhausted. Church is all those good things, and much more. Church is, above all, holy ground, but in our enlightened post-Christian culture, virtually nothing is considered holy. To the world’s ears, holy is nothing more than a meaningless word to be placed for dramatic effect in front of a variety of vulgarities and suggestive phrases. Certainly, the sociopaths who dominate the American entertainment industry seldom think of using the word in any other context.

 

Christians should not be deceived. Holiness is and al-ways will be important to God. Even the simplest reference materials list more than 654 biblical instances of the use of the words holy and holiness. The latter part of Hebrews 12:14 states, “…without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

 

When we enter church, we are standing on holy ground. However the world chooses (or not) to define holy, the word should have special meaning to us when we tread the precious soil on which our houses of worship are built. We must be circumspect. As the culture’s standards of conduct continue to devolve around us, we have to maintain our standards, We cannot allow just any activity to be pursued on holy ground. We cannot allow just any event to be held on holy ground. There are many legitimate uses for holy ground. Each of those purposes should be bathed in prayer, sanctified as holy, and given over to the glory of the Father.

Disregarding the ways of the world, let us live by the words of Hebrews 12:14, else the true meaning of the word holy be tragically explained to us on our day of reckoning.

William E. Perkins