The Easiest Place for Satan to Hide.

So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.

—Hebrews 2:1

You know them, that person who goes to church on Sunday, smiles, listens intently to what the minister says, sings the songs, maybe even serves in the nursery, hospitality or some other area of the church.  But then they go home, back to their life of SIN, they continue the adulterous relationship, the backstabbing at work, ‘shacking up’, betraying their family by seeking a divorce, shoplifting from the local grocery store, slandering their neighbor, the church is full of them… you know the Christian, who ‘feels’ forgiven without repenting, who ’feels’ God love, believes but does not follow.   Those who think that simply going to church and going through a little ritual will bring them closer to God are in for a big surprise.  Because the easiest place to get a hardened heart is in the church. It is the easiest place in the world for Satan to hide those who he has a firm grasp on.  As I have said before, the same sun that softens the wax hardens the clay.

As the Word of God goes out, some people are impacted by it, some people are changed by it, and others are hardened by it, because they have no intention of believing it or they believe it, but refuse to follow it.  Continual exposure to God's Word is actually doing more harm than good and in the very place where they could be transformed; they will be worse off than ever. You know them.

Am I saying that some people shouldn't go to church?  Yes . . . if they have no intention of applying what they are hearing.  We can see miracles and hear truth, but if we don't have a desire to apply it, then our hearts will get hardened. You know them.

Someone who is living a double life like Judas Iscariot will experience an increasingly hardened heart. Judas walked and talked with Jesus for three-and-a-half years.  He was hand-chosen by the Lord.  He had heard Christ give His greatest sermons.  Judas heard the Sermon on the Mount and the Olivet Discourse with his own ears.  He saw Lazarus rise from the dead. He saw blind men receive their sight.  He saw deaf men receive their hearing.  Judas saw miracle after miracle, yet his heart grew harder. You know them, those just like Judas.

And even though Jesus knew what would take place, Judas, of his own volition, deliberately betrayed the Lord, reminding us that the foreknowledge of God does not change the responsibility of man.  You know them.  

So the answer is not to stop going to church; it is to go with a desire to know God.

You know them; in fact one of them may be the very one who stares back at you in the mirror every morning – the 'Judases'