Another Recent Email to a Friend

(Edited excerpt to keep this person anonymous)

...The Holy Bible says there is only one reason to flee from the proper worship of the sacrifice of praise, and this is to go beg forgiveness of a brother or sister for being angry with them or angering them. I quote this from Matthew 5:22-24:

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'vain,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. So if you are standing before the altar in the Temple, offering a sacrifice to God, and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there beside the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.

In fact, we are told not to go to bed angry at anyone. From Ephesians 4:26:

In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.

And from 1 Peter 4:8:

Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.

But what is this love we should have for one another? From 1 Corinthians 13:4-7:

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

If this is true for our brothers and sisters in Christ, how much more true is this for our brothers and sisters that we worship, not to mention, our God-appointed spouses that God says something strongly about in Mark 10:9:

What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

But right now, I want to focus on skipping the Divine Liturgy. A jealousy or anger that makes one argue on the Lord's Day and makes you skip church and tries to make others skip church, this truly must be anger and jealousy of the Devil, and not a righteous jealousy from God, right? God does not seek to separate his flock, see them angry, see them make the Lord's Day unclean with such actions, feelings, and words, does He? No. But does Satan? Yes, yes, he does, so please, I ask you to return to your nightly confessional prayers out loud, begging forgiveness for your sins, as we ALL are sinners and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). None of us are truly good, if we will measure ourselves up to the yardstick of the Lord (Matthew 19:17) -- and we should do this, as even many who proclaim to be good and preach in Jesus' name are condemned to Hell for all of eternity (Matthew 7:1-29) and so all of us must work out our salvation daily, with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). ...