It Was on a Sunday...

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (Rev. 3:20). There was an old chorus we would sing in the Rio Grande Conference churches at events and gatherings, "It was on a Sunday, when Somebody touched me..." and the song would go on to the different days of the week and one was supposed to stand on the day that God had touched us. I always stood on Sunday because I knew it had been during a Sunday morning worship service when I was about eight years old that I heard our preacher talk about Jesus wanting to have a relationship with us. He may have used the above text as his text, but all I know was that I was paying attention and I heard that we should invite Him in to our hearts, and I did. I cannot remember who my pastor was, nor the date of that event; all I knew was that it happened - Jesus came into my heart.

I did not fly home, for wings did not sprout out my shoulders. And the family slept well that night, the house was not brightly lit with the afterglow of that experience; and my cap still fit me for there was not a halo to contend with. I was still a shy boy, and I don't remember standing on a street corner shouting out sermons calling for Kingsville to repent. I can say my attitude towards all things God changed. No longer did I fuss about going to church and it reached the point where I asked my parents why we couldn't have Sunday school five days a week and public school once a week; I figured the importance of God in my life at that point outweighed whatever they were trying to teach me at Flato Elementary. My Bible became important to me. My prayers became important too. I began to sense a purpose to my life, which made me sense a value in God's eyes that I found in very little other places.

The interesting thing as I reflect back on that day is that in 1960 or thereabouts, when this event occurred, the churches were filled with people. Texas was under Blue Laws, and that meant pretty much every thing was closed on Sunday, and those stores which were open were limited by law as to what they could sell. Wednesdays on school nights, were homework free; there were not practices of the football team nor the band, and it was expected that Wednesday was a church night. We had mid-week service, as well as a Sunday night service; but still the invitation to come to Christ was being offered pretty often. Pastors did not take it for granted that all were in a relationship with Jesus and so invitations through sermons and altar calls were being made, or at least in the Spanish language services of the Río Grande Conference. All events of the church offered that opportunity as well, and even on television Billy Graham had regularly televised crusades that called to my attention and to many. His was a straightforward message and very little was said about money, and nothing flashy was being shone to drum up contributions. Yes, Katherine Kuhlman was on during that time and I saw her as being spooky; and Oral Roberts also made an occasional appearance; but the main driving place for Jesus was the local church.

Has it been on a Sunday that you have been touched by the message heard in your church? Has it been on a Sunday that your message has touched someone in a way that invites him or her to come to Christ? I believe that now more than ever, the local church should be the arena in which disciples are made, strengthened, and deployed to go and make more disciples.