In a town with a population of nearly 200,000，outsiders making up about one-third, there are two registered churches, respectively located in two densely-populated communities. The two churches are at least 5 kilometers away from each other.
The biggest church of the town is near the government and there is no most believers. It is said that up to one thousand native believers will celebrate Christmas every year in the church. At Christmas, the church can't hold so many people. At the front of the church, there will be many cars and believers.
However, fewer than 50 believers would gather in the church for parties or activities on weekdays. Around 100 people would go to the church on Sunday. Even in the Eucharist week, you can hardly see over two hundred people in the church.
What's worse, most of the believers who often go to the church are outsiders of the town. Compared with the noise and excitement at Christmas, the church is so lonely after Christmas.
The main reason is that so many Christians only appear in the church at Christmas and they rarely go to the church except at Christmas. We call them Christmas-and-Easter Christians.
These Christmas-and-Easter Christians always make a lot of excuses for their absence from the church activities. They say they are busy with job, children and so on. They would never rethink their behavior.
Can a real Christian refuse to attend the activities of the church for these reasons? Absolutely not!
God requires us to celebrate the holy day even though we are busy with working in order to honor the creator.
During the Old Testament Era, God required all Israel to celebrate the holy day in the name of Moses. In the New Testament Era, Christians were also required to celebrate the holy day.
The Bible tell that believers shall not stop parties. Now the doomsday is coming, Christians should encourage each other to keep this habit.
So, we can't choose whether to go to the party because it's our obligation. We can't escape from the party just due to the temptation in the secular world.
The rules will inevitably bring some pressure to believers. Some of them say the rules are beneath the human character. Some of them argue that the rules are based on formalism and have ignored the essence of Christianity.
Therefore, the parties shall allow brothers and sisters to ask for leave due to the job, illness and so on.
The Bible has set some rule for the universe. These rules don't allow revising. There will be some exceptions. However, we can't take these exceptions as an excuse for escaping from our obligations on the holy day.
We Christians should achieve a balance between life and the church. We should follow the example of Abraham, who always worshiped and honored God first wherever he went and whatever he was doing.
A believer who doesn't fulfill his obligation on the holy day is not a serious or responsible Christian in God's opinion. The behavior would be severely punished during the Old Testament Era and the violator would pay a great price.
"So you shall work on the other six days. The seventh day is to honor God. Whoever works on the holy day shall be put to death."
In the Old Testament Era, the result of ignoring the hold day was terrible. In the New Testament Era, the severe punishment has been replaced by losing grace. At the same time, we have entered the era of free religious belief instead of theocracy.
This is not to say that the requirements on Christians during the Old Testament Era have been abandoned. We Christians should know that the essence and principles of the Old Testament are still worth learning.
Christmas-and-Easter Christians should take Christmas as an opportunity to revive the spiritual life instead of a day to muddle through their religious duty. They should never be apart from the church.
As a Christian, church-attending is an essential part of our life. If a man refuses to go to the church, he is refusing the grace of God. Keeping yourself away from grace will lead to the disappearance of spiritual life.
Translated by Emma
