Saturday 30 August 2008

And she came later

If you are probably like me,you will wonder who actually came later.Well ,it is actually a little story in the book of Acts 5 I have decided to talk about today.
It's perhaps a story we might be familiar with, remembering it for the fact that a couple died in the presence of the Lord because they lied in the church.

The wonderful story of Ananias and his wife Sapphira.We all know how they agreed to lie about the amount they sold the portion of land ...lies.........how sometimes they are told to make us look good,impress ,feel among the crowd.

But if a lie killed Ananias,what actually killed his wife?

I have read that story over and over again and I am amazed at the fact that she actually went to that service 3 hours later.

The same service ,hmm I will call that megalate.Perhaps her life would have been saved if she was around as at the time her hubby was asked the question.Who knows but I really see a slim chance of her being present and hearing her husband face immediately the consequences of lying and still go ahead to do the same.I would not do that and I bet you would not.

But I see that the habit of latecoming to church is actually very alarming these days.

We seem to find time to do every other thing on time until it is time to go to the place of fellowship.Or perhaps a meeting in church...a music rehearsal,committee meeting,something that we are not really at the helm of affairs and then we just take it with laxity.I tell you,when we are the leaders,we seem to make it early to those meetings and wonder why brethen do not turn up on time.

I am not talking about going late once in a while when you have done everything to leave for a meeting and last minute something goes wrong and we cannot but help but be late.I am talking of being late on a regular basis that you can even be counted for now as one of the people who will be late.You know there are some committees you will serve in and when you do not see one member ,you are not bothered because late coming is the person's trademark...hmmm.

I sincerely believe that turning up late for church or meetings is another way of saying this does not matter really.The value you place on something is shown by how seriously you take it.Whenever something goes wrong and I am running late for work,I make a call to explain I might just be in late and the same thing goes with me with any other meeting.

I believe it is part of integrity to say" I will be late or am running late".You know how we do not want God to be late (in our eyes) in answering our prayers and so we should strive to be early for meetings.Treat people with respect .If you have a meeting and you turn up late,do not just stroll in and sit down like nothing happened ,apologise for your lateness.

That gives you as a leader(we all are) more credibilty in the eyes of the followers.Have you noticed how easily contagious the spirit of late coming is?When people discover the meeting never starts on time ,they are encouraged to stay and turn up at anytime.

So in essence,and just for the last quarter of the year,I will like your resolution to be ON TIME ,for any and every meeting.