Brown. I run the floors of the church with an iron fist.
“Ms. Arletha, do you ever smile?” one of those little fast teenagers, Sister Penny’s oldest daughter, asked me a few weeks back.
Who’s got time to be smiling? “I’ll have plenty of time to smile once I get to heaven,” I said. “Ain’t a thing to smile about down here. The devil is busy and he wants nothing more than for me to miss getting into heaven. I’m on my job, little girl, and I expect Jesus will smile when He sees me coming. Now, y’all go on somewhere and set down,” I said as I gave her and her little friends my best frown, “like I done told you to. And don’t be over there talking during service, ’cause I will escort you out if I have to.”
Them children started laughing like something was funny. Ain’t a thing funny about going to hell. A lot of folks are gonna miss heaven and bust hell wide open! Just watch and see. And them same folks who think I’m some kind of a religious fanatic gonna be the main ones begging me to dip my finger in water and cool their parching tongues. Well, they can forget about that. ’Cause I’m working too hard now, trying to make it into heaven myself while they’re laughing and carrying on like tomorrow is promised. If folks want to stroll past those pearly gates and walk on streets paved with gold, they best be trying to follow in my footsteps.
Six days a week, you’ll find me working the church door, manning the aisles, or sitting reverently on a pew with my Bible in tow every one of those days. On the seventh day, I rest, just like God did. I only hope I’ll have done enough to make it in.
Folks around here be treating their salvation like it’s a game or something. Well, my eternal life ain’t no plaything.
I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I ain’t never done or even tried to do drugs. In fact I’m so committed, I won’t even take aspirins for my headaches. I don’t cuss. I ain’t never gambled a day in my life. I don’t lie; I tell folks the truth and I don’t care whether it hurts their feelings or not. I don’t overeat. In fact, I do some type of fasting at least once a month. Most times I do a three-day, no food fast. But I have done the Daniel Fast (ten days in a row) where you eat fruits, vegetables, and nuts; no meat, sugar, or caffeine.
When I pray, I get down on both my knees, and I pray for at least an hour. My head does not hit the pillow until I have read my Bible a minimum of one hour, every single night. I give money to the poor. I pay my tithes. I give offerings. Well, at least I did pay tithes and offerings up until a few weeks ago when I decided to leave where my church membership has been for the past forty-six years in search of a new church home.
I confess: I don’t agree with my soon to be ex-pastor and his decision to start allowing them young people to be doing that dancing and junk in the Lord’s house like all these other churches have begun to do here lately. I tried talking to Pastor Rainey and the deacons, but they seem bent on following the popular, worldly ways of late—trying to get more people to come to church and fill up some of those empty pews. Just selling out.
I figure if folks don’t want to come…too bad. We shouldn’t change the type of songs we sing just because the attendance has fallen off and folks are flocking to all these other churches. Contemporary gospel, hip-hop gospel, gospel rap, praise dancing: whoever heard of such nonsense! When will folks get it? Church is supposed to be dull and boring. I figure that’s how the Lord can tell who’s sincere and who’s not. People want to start changing everything, liven things up. Cutting out testimony service. Talking about folks holding too long just because they want to get out of church earlier. Wake up, people! These are the last days.
I contend if it was good enough for my mother, good enough for my father, then it’s good enough for me. The only person I can do anything about is me. And I’m just trying to make sure if nobody else does, I’m gonna make it to heaven. I ain’t got time for folks who don’t care about their own soul. Folks reading all kinds of filthy magazines and books, sleeping with any and everybody, smoking, doping, lying, cheating—sinning like there’s no tomorrow. You can’t hardly walk into a store these days without half-naked men and women jumping out at you off the covers of stuff. And the TV, Lord, you talk about an idle mind being the devil’s workshop. I have to protect my eye and ear gates.
Then I heard it. This Pastor Landris fellow said it, while the devil (I know it was him) tried—for a minute there anyway—to tell me this long-haired, ungodly man was talking to me.
“And some of you sitting here today are plagued by a stronghold of religion. You think you’re going to make it into heaven based on what you do here. You think you can live right enough and good enough to get in,” Pastor Landris said. “Well, let me tell you something. You cannot live good enough to make it into heaven. You don’t get into heaven based upon your works. Church, none of us are good enough. That’s why Jesus had to come. We are saved by grace. When you brag about what you’re doing that’s going to get you into heaven, it’s equivalent to saying: ‘What Jesus did on the cross, and God raising Him from the dead, was of no effect. I’m good enough to make it in on what I do and not what Jesus has already done.’ That just doesn’t line up with scripture.”
I watched Pastor Landris as he seemed, for one minute, almost to peer into my very soul. Then he said, “Break the stronghold of religion, legalism, and tradition. Just because you’ve always done something one way or believed in something all your life, doesn’t make you right. There’s a big difference in religious dogma and a relationship with Jesus the Christ. If religion has a stronghold on you, it’s highly likely you don’t truly know Jesus. And if you know about Jesus and don’t know Him—if you haven’t truthfully accepted Him as Lord and Savior—then you’re no better off than a sinner who has never accepted Jesus. Don’t deceive yourself. Ultimately, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.” He nodded his head several times.
“When you get to heaven, you won’t be asked: What’s your religion?” Pastor Landris continued. “Don’t be deceived. You don’t want to be standing there trying to say what you did in God’s name, and have Him tell you He never knew you merely because you failed to confess your sins, accept Jesus and all He did on the cross, and believe that God raised Him from the dead.” Pastor Landris’s voice began to wind down. He scanned the sanctuary. “Joining a ‘church’ is not equivalent to being saved. And that’s what some of you unknowingly did at the time—you joined a group, but not the body of Christ.”
Blasphemy! That’s what I thought of Pastor Landris and his sermon. Blasphemy! Oh yes, I rebuked that. And I fully intended, after I got out of this place, to never darken this church’s doors again. But then Pastor Landris said words I’ve heard myself say to so many people over the past years of my life.
“If you died today, do you know—with certainty—where you’ll spend eternity? Because you are going to die, if you’re not caught up during the rapture; and you will spend an eternity somewhere. If you died today, do you know—with assurance—where you’ll spend your eternity? Salvation is not based on works, lest any man or woman should boast. If you’ve been living under the strongholds of merely a religious disguise, don’t gamble with your eternal life. Come…sign up for Abundant Life Assurance and make sure you’re not just covered against fire, but that you receive all you’re entitled to: full life coverage that includes among its many benefits theft protection with complete and full restoration. People, this is too important.” He held out his arms. “Won’t you come now? If you’re not sure, you can change things today. Let’s pull down some strongholds today.”
Before I knew anything, I found myself standing with a crowd of people who I’m sure, have boo-coo problems. I then heard a voice deep inside of me whisper, “Get the plank out of your own eye, before you worry about removing the splinter from someone else’s.”
I can’t help but wonder:
