My father refuses to go to church. Save for a wedding, he will not step foot into a church. He doesn't hate God. He is not the real definition of a Christian. You can see it in what he does.
The problem is the way my dad looks. He has long hair, keeps a scraggly goatee and mustache. He wears an earring. He doesn't wear nice clothes. He honestly can't afford to. He looks like an alcoholic. That's what he is, but recovering. When he talks, he has a speech impediment that causes him to slur his words.
And when he goes to church, people stare. People look at him like they look at bums on the street--with disdain. "What is he doing here?"
He got turned off by the reactions of "Christians" to the way he looks, and the person he is. He decided if that is what Christians act like, he doesn't want to be one.
What's sad is the fact that even if I tell my father that's not the way it is, he won't believe me, because those are the people who fill pews every Sunday. But the sad part is, some people just don't get the Christian life. They think that going to church on Sundays make them sanctified. Some think it's doing nothing but listening to Christian music, reading Christian literature, associating with only Christians, working in a Christian environment, and going to only Christian events. But what did Christ himself have to say on this subject?
There's quite a bit that doesn't correlate when you look at what Christ said and did during his time on earth.
Does this sound familiar?
Once again, I'm seeing some difference between what Jesus said and "how a Christian should consort."
It is no coincidence that these people end up in a church, because if these types of unruly people end up in a church, God has started to deal with their hearts. How then, can they continue to listen to what God's trying to tell them, when they enter His house of worship, and see people that proclaim to be His people snub their noses at them? If God's servants do that, then clearly God doesn't want them either. I'm not saying that as a truth, but more as what they begin to think after a church service where they feel downcast by everybody in the church.
Moreover, this kind of treatment is also the reason you see people who fall into sin fall further away. They face the shame of having to admit deep wrongdoings in a church where they will be looked down upon for doing so.
Have you forgotten where you came from? Because I know I haven't. I was an unruly teenager. I acted without regard to anything. Even after I became a Christian, I fell away, became a degenerate gambler, and lost all focus on God. But praise God for his mercy, because I might not still be alive had it not been for that.
And yet, because of that mercy, while it does set me apart in the spiritual realm as one whom is on God's side, it does not make me anything different here in the earthly realm. I'm still human. I still have problems. I still have to deal with sin and temptation daily. And whether you would admit it in public yourself, you still do too. And so does everyone else in this world. So how does that make us, as Christians, exempt from trying to show the love of Christ to the people who struggle with it the worst, the ones whose souls hang in the balance between damnation and salvation? Is it because we dress better on Sundays? I just can't understand it.
These people, like my own father, are the people who we need to be showing God's love to. And, believe it or not, we are not showing it by pretending they are not part of their congregation, or waving our hands up and down, and beating our chests, trying to proclaim how righteous we are. We don't do it by singing through worship without messing up, or by showing us how obedient we are by bowing our heads when the pastor prays. We do it by going up to them, shaking their hands, welcoming them to our church, introducing ourselves to them, saying we're happy we're there, and just getting to know them.
How is that so difficult? We, being the social beings we are, can do the same thing readily to other people who look Christian. Yet we can't do that to the people who need it most.
If I could challenge you, the reader, to do one thing on Sunday, it would be to find the person who looks most like a sinner in your church, walk up to them, and thank them for being there, and show them the real love of God. In fact, I pray that you will. It's not just their fate that hangs in the balance.
The problem is the way my dad looks. He has long hair, keeps a scraggly goatee and mustache. He wears an earring. He doesn't wear nice clothes. He honestly can't afford to. He looks like an alcoholic. That's what he is, but recovering. When he talks, he has a speech impediment that causes him to slur his words.
And when he goes to church, people stare. People look at him like they look at bums on the street--with disdain. "What is he doing here?"
He got turned off by the reactions of "Christians" to the way he looks, and the person he is. He decided if that is what Christians act like, he doesn't want to be one.
What's sad is the fact that even if I tell my father that's not the way it is, he won't believe me, because those are the people who fill pews every Sunday. But the sad part is, some people just don't get the Christian life. They think that going to church on Sundays make them sanctified. Some think it's doing nothing but listening to Christian music, reading Christian literature, associating with only Christians, working in a Christian environment, and going to only Christian events. But what did Christ himself have to say on this subject?
There's quite a bit that doesn't correlate when you look at what Christ said and did during his time on earth.
He entered and was passing through Jericho. There was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.>He was trying to see who Jesus was, and couldn’t because of the crowd, because he was short.He ran on ahead, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way.When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”He hurried, came down, and received him joyfully.When they saw it, they all murmured, saying, “He has gone in to lodge with a man who is a sinner.”
Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.”Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham.For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:1-10; WEB Translation)
Does this sound familiar?
After these things he went out, and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and said to him, “Follow me!”
He left everything, and rose up and followed him.Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them.Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”Jesus answered them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:27-31; WEB Translation)
Once again, I'm seeing some difference between what Jesus said and "how a Christian should consort."
"He spoke also this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all othersTo be a Christian is defined as "one who follows Christ." To follow Christ, he has commissioned us to do the things that he did. I don't understand how we went so askew from that definition to believe that we don't have to welcome the sinners, and try to bring them to the grace of Christ Jesus, but somehow, that notion has become embedded in the vast majority of churches in the world today, and is the #1 deal breaker in a sinner's call to repentance. It even trumps the desire to continue in sin.
“Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: ‘God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14; WEB Translation)
It is no coincidence that these people end up in a church, because if these types of unruly people end up in a church, God has started to deal with their hearts. How then, can they continue to listen to what God's trying to tell them, when they enter His house of worship, and see people that proclaim to be His people snub their noses at them? If God's servants do that, then clearly God doesn't want them either. I'm not saying that as a truth, but more as what they begin to think after a church service where they feel downcast by everybody in the church.
Moreover, this kind of treatment is also the reason you see people who fall into sin fall further away. They face the shame of having to admit deep wrongdoings in a church where they will be looked down upon for doing so.
Have you forgotten where you came from? Because I know I haven't. I was an unruly teenager. I acted without regard to anything. Even after I became a Christian, I fell away, became a degenerate gambler, and lost all focus on God. But praise God for his mercy, because I might not still be alive had it not been for that.
And yet, because of that mercy, while it does set me apart in the spiritual realm as one whom is on God's side, it does not make me anything different here in the earthly realm. I'm still human. I still have problems. I still have to deal with sin and temptation daily. And whether you would admit it in public yourself, you still do too. And so does everyone else in this world. So how does that make us, as Christians, exempt from trying to show the love of Christ to the people who struggle with it the worst, the ones whose souls hang in the balance between damnation and salvation? Is it because we dress better on Sundays? I just can't understand it.
These people, like my own father, are the people who we need to be showing God's love to. And, believe it or not, we are not showing it by pretending they are not part of their congregation, or waving our hands up and down, and beating our chests, trying to proclaim how righteous we are. We don't do it by singing through worship without messing up, or by showing us how obedient we are by bowing our heads when the pastor prays. We do it by going up to them, shaking their hands, welcoming them to our church, introducing ourselves to them, saying we're happy we're there, and just getting to know them.
How is that so difficult? We, being the social beings we are, can do the same thing readily to other people who look Christian. Yet we can't do that to the people who need it most.
If I could challenge you, the reader, to do one thing on Sunday, it would be to find the person who looks most like a sinner in your church, walk up to them, and thank them for being there, and show them the real love of God. In fact, I pray that you will. It's not just their fate that hangs in the balance.
“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left
Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in;naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.'
“Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?’
“The King will answer them, ‘Most assuredly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
“Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’
“Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most assuredly I tell you, inasmuch as you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
