A man who had not attended one service of the church in four years told me he had never thought of "quitting" the church. I reminded him that he had:

1. Withdrawn his presence from the worship services. He had failed to sing, pray with fellow-Christians, partake of the Lord’s memorial supper and the fellowship of the saints.

2. He had refused to give his moral support to the activities of the congregation.

3. He had withdrawn his financial support, for he had not given one dime to help carry on the Lord’s work.

Then I asked, "What else would you have to do in order to ‘quit’ the church? In case you ever decide that you no longer desire to be a member, what other steps will be necessary to ‘quit’ the church?"

As the true status dawned upon him, his expression reflected his sober thoughts. He replied, "Why, Brother Nichols, I have quit already, haven’t I? Well, I surely didn’t mean to! And I don’t know when I did it…but I’ve quit the Lord and His church! I’ll tell you right now…I’m coming back." He did, too. At the next service, he was restored and three years late, he was still faithful.

Dear reader, how about you? Have you quit the Lord and His church without resolving to do so? Perhaps no one deliberately decides to quit, but many carelessly drift into backsliding.

If you quit attending services, quit boosting the program of activities planned by the elders and quit giving as God has prospered you to enable the congregation to meet its budget, you need to be restored.

The above article was written by the late Gus Nichols, a faithful gospel preacher for many years. It presents a very sobering thought to us because I know of many people who have "quit" the church. They may be like the man in the article and not be aware of it. They may have "quit" the church intentionally. Either way, they are in a lost condition (II Peter 2:20-22) and need to return to the service of the Lord while they have time and opportunity. I saw a one-liner recently that said, "Christians are like a gasoline engine…they begin to miss and sputter before they die!" I hope we never become unfaithful to the Lord, but if you have "quit" the church, you are unfaithful already! Let us remember I Cor. 15:58, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord."

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