I laugh when I hear people say, “Going to church no more makes you a Christian than standing in your garage makes you a car.”  While I understand what they are trying to say, it has some holes in it’s theory.

I could stand in a garage for a million years and I would not even begin to resemble a car.  I might collect a lot of dirt, but I won’t sprout a muffler or grow tires.  And yet, the human heart is similar to an engine block in a variety of ways.  Without it, neither the body nor the car will run.  Drain the oil or blood out and you have serious issues.   When we don’t tend to our hearts or a car’s engine, “things” just don’t seem to work properly.

On the contrary, if I went to church just once a week for a year, something would change.  No, I may not commit my life to Christ in that time, but I would change.  God’s Word has a way of permeating even the most damaged, hardened hearts.

I have owned a few cars in my time that I would beg to run properly.  I had one car that had plywood for a window, a screw to turn on the wipers, a marker cap that operated the turn signals and I had to connect two wires to turn the headlights on.  I tried all kinds of things to make some cars work.  I am not a mechanic and even though my brothers taught me a lot about changing the oil, a tire and a spark plug, I can’t fix a car.  I am not the one who designed it.  I haven’t studied it and I do not know it’s inner workings.

God knows my inner workings.  He created me.  Psalm 139:13 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”  (NIV)

God fearfully and wonderfully created Joe.  That is not his real name, but for his anonymity, that is what I shall call him.  Joe started coming to church for whatever reason.  Joe would show up drunk and angry.  He didn’t participate in worship other than to stand while others sang.  Joe was angry at God and had been hurt in the recent past by a church.

Joe kept coming to church every Sunday.  Joe’s wife gave her life to Christ the first Sunday they attended, but Joe stayed drunk.  As weeks turned into months something happened to Joe.  While Joe’s ears may have heard the Pastor’s message, Joe’s heart heard the love of God.  God miraculously delivered Joe from the addiction of alcohol.  Joe made friends and  started serving in everyway he could.  Joe eventually gave his life to Christ.  And what a glorious day as hundreds witnessed Joe and his wife get baptized.

In less than two years, Joe accepted Jesus as his personal Savior.  Joe changed.  He had quit drinking, lost his job of 25 years, joined a Life Group, came close to a nervous breakdown, volunteered for every church event.  Joe now works for the church and he shares his powerful testimony every chance he gets.  He shares it with the passion of a man who was snatched from the gates of hell by a loving, forgiving and faithful God.

I wonder if I left my Pontiac Vibe at a Mercedes dealership would it turn into a Mercedes?  We know the answer to that.  How blessed we are to have a God who loves us so much that He will love us where we are.  Better yet, He loves us so passionately, that He will not leave us the way we are.

As a broken-down car is often taken to the junkyard, broken-down people find their way to church.  The car becomes scrap metal and the human becomes a new creature in Christ.  God picks us up out of the garbage of our own lives, cleans us white as snow and loves us into a life beyond our wildest dreams.

If your heart is starting to look and smell like a garage, maybe it is time you allow the Creator of your heart to “clean” it out.  Let Him remove the stains, old hurts and harmful memories.  Let Him rebuild you from the inside out.