The Queen's Report

⁸ Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! ⁹ Blessed be the LORD your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD has loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness.” - 1 Kings 10:8-9

     In verses eight and nine we see the culmination of the queen of Sheba's visit to Solomon. She has tested him with difficult questions. She has examined his character and kingdom and found that they live up to the reputation that preceded him. She now states how impressed she is by the happiness of the people around him and praises the Lord for all that Solomon represents. Once again I must challenge myself and my fellow Christians. If the queen of Sheba visited our churches would she be impressed by the happiness of the members? Would she have any reason to bless the name of God? I know there are many times that she would not be impressed by the happiness, or lack thereof, that I am emanating. Often I seem to go to church out of some sense of duty or tradition rather than to praise, worship, and learn about my Savior. I'm frequently so consumed with my church family that I don't reach out to a visitor. What about her view of me and my church? Would she praise the Lord for what she found? There are times when I feel like the only thing a visitor would be able to praise is our social calendar. She might be impressed by our youth program or our choir or our after church socials or our softball team, but would she be impressed by our God? If Jesus Christ is not the focus of every Sunday, we are failing. The other aspects of church are important but not important enough to outshine Jesus. I wonder what the queen of Sheba would find. I know I have plenty of work to do before I would want to see her answer.