When I was still at primary school, I chose to join a stamp club. In exchange for my membership fee, which was probably only about three pounds at the time, I received by return of post, a few small packets of stamps from overseas countries, a membership card and badge and a pair of tweezers, I presume, to prevent handling the delicate sticky pieces of paper and not for pulling hairs out of my chin or nose, since none had actually started to grow there yet. I stayed a member for a couple of years but the novelty wore off, probably about the same time as the hairs started to grow and the stamp album was packed away in a safe place.About the same time I also joined my first uniformed organisation and while most lads in my class were members of the Boys Brigade or the Scouts, it fell my lot to join the Campaigners, a group new to me and generally to the area but introduced to our church by a forward thinking minister of the time. The organisation had three age groups, Junos, basically for primary children, Inters for the early to mid teens and then Cratfsmen for the more senior adolescents who were meant to be approaching maturity and adulthood, though I have since found out that the two things don't always go hand in hand. Since almost all of the boys in our church were already embarking teenage life or within a stone's throw of it, Inters became our first port of call and there we remained until enough of us had reached the age where it was necessary to introduce a Craftsmen section. It was basically a Christian organisation with the motto Unto Him and while we did all the other things that most such groups did such as badge work, drill and games, central to the a whole evening was a section called Clan C when our 'chief' talked to us about something from the Bible.
By the time my teenage years were almost a memory, I joined a record club. It seemed a good deal at the time as you could buy records for about 49p each when they were costing about five pounds in the local shop. The only drawbacks were that you could only buy records featured in the club brochure and while initially this provided a wide selection for those first few cheap records, it became increasingly difficult to find albums that really appealed to the musical taste. This, coupled with the fact that part of the agreement was that I had to buy six records at full price over two years, put a certain amount of stress on the arrangement and I have to say I found it difficult to fulfill my part of the deal and ended up with more than one dodgy long player that I would not boast about in my collection. What added to the confusion was that on several occasions, the 'record of the month' was delivered because I had failed to return my 'no thanks' letter before the appointed date and ended up with a couple of even more undesirable records that no sane human should be forced to listen to, even in a moment of torture.
Since those halcyon days, I have joined a collection of clubs, though mostly on a part time basis and ones that I can walk away from without any strings attached or without money leaving my hands. And I guess that is probably the reason most clubs exist in the first place to offer me something in exchange for my hard earned pounds, which seem to be worth less every week. And while many derive much pleasure from such institutions such as sports clubs, music clubs and the like, I doubt if they would all remain in existence for long without that necessary financial input. Still, there are plenty of clubs of which I could never become a member unless someone vouched for me and helped me to gain entry.
After Saul had his Damascus experience, the book of Acts tells us that he tried to join the disciples, but his previous track record had gone before him and Luke records, 'but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.' It took the intervention of Barnabas to explain how he had changed and his testimony was enough to secure Saul's acceptance. Later, as Paul, he reminds the church at Philippi that 'I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus' and tells them to 'Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.'
But it is also clear to me that many who might read this have never yet started out on that road, have never become joined to God through salvation and yet there is one who can vouch for you, who can cleanse you from all sin and make you acceptable and presentable to God and that person is Jesus. May you find time to join those of us who believe on Jesus as the only way to make peace with God.
