Note to those who don’t yet know Jesus: this post might be a little hard for you to follow…but I trust that God’s word will not go out thru me and return void to Him. I believe if you are reading this, that the Lord wants you to know that there are people within the American church who are frustrated and disenfranchised with the current state of affairs. There are those of us that believe Jesus is moving people throughout this great nation, that revival is on its way and that there is something big about to happen. That we will get outside our walls and bring the church to those seekers who need it most…I believe in my heart of hearts this is what this message is about and hope that you see a different side of Christ through this message.
Note to all: There is definitely some very hard material in this post…and I am not lightening it with humor this time around. I feel urgently that God is calling the church to clean, to purge His house of all kinds of people…and I deal specifically with one of them here. He is calling us to do away with our idols; that we have “defiled (His) sanctuary with all (our) vile images and detestable practices” (Ezekiel 5:11). People inside the church are dying a slow but real death while others are sucking the resources away from those that really need help. In the meantime there is a sick and dying world that we can’t even begin to minister to because we are not following the Bible in order to deal with our own church. Will we wake up in time? Will we be able to purge His house of those that don’t truly belong there – unleashing the Holy Spirit on those that do so they can in turn go out and help the world? My God, I pray so with all my heart, all the passion I can muster up…will you join me? Will you be a rebel for the Almighty God, no matter what the cost?
To those who consider themselves followers of Christ:
A dear brother in Christ called me today who I haven’t heard from for a while. I LOVE my conversations with this brother as we challenge each other’s walks, bring new thoughts to light and try to understand what is going on in the church. We have one joint frustration we share: the state of the church in America today. While I continue to plug away at the church thing, knowing there is much wrong with our church (and when I say church…I mean the state of the followers of Christ in America…not one specific building or denomination of Christianity), he is one of those true believers that has become extremely disenfranchised with church and has a hard time going on a Sunday morning.
As we talked and discussed, he said something that struck me. That we all have our different views on scripture (that is the Bible) and because of this it is really hard to get to the bottom of situations and bring about healing and change.
I have to TOTALLY disagree with this. The closer I draw to God and learn how to truly hear His voice, the scriptures become more and more clear. We have written down for us in very practical terms how to run a church, how to keep it functioning in a healthy manner and how to proceed forth with church discipline. We just don’t follow it. We as humans make it confusing and discombobulated with all our “additions” to what we think the scriptures mean or allow our culture to influence how we use scripture.
For example, we allow the message of grace and mercy to trump God’s call for us to account for our sins – all because talking about evil, sinful behavior isn’t politically correct. Our culture has taught us that tolerance is key…and while I know many church goers fight this trend, I do believe it has still infiltrated our midst to a high degree – and we don’t even know it. Instead of holding people accountable and telling them what they did is wrong, unbiblical and sinful – we try to understand why they did it, help the other person to understand why they did it, and try to restore a broken relationship with a band-aid – getting both people to take equal responsibility for the others actions.
Does any one get the idea of how awful sin is in our day and age? Does anyone understand that ALL of us are on the same page here, that we are ALL truly “exceedingly wicked” in our hearts – both in and outside the church? That none of us is righteous…none of us seeks God and seeks what is holy? Even people that claim to be followers of Christ, I would have to say in my experience, aren’t really even convinced or live like they know these facts the Bible makes plaining clear. We can’t begin to experience God’s true power of grace and mercy in our healing if we don’t FIRST bring people’s attention to the fact that they have sin – a disease that separates them from a very HOLY God. Sin and Holiness are like oil and water…and in my experience, they never mix — but always seek to separate from each other. This is how much our sin allows us to mix with God’s holiness.
We try to normalize sinful behavior – and yes I am talking about people within the church. Here are some examples:
“Tolerate the fact he/she yells at you, hits you…you just need to love him/her more, show them more grace, sacrifice for them. This is normal behavior in a marriage or relationship.”
“Tolerate the fact that he/she has a different view on what happened that led to the above behavior, but know that he/she really loves you.”
“Tolerate the fact that he/she said he is sorry, and get on with your life as best as you can.” (Even though the apology is just words…never any action backing up those words to change the sinful, yucky, hurtful and deceitful behavior that led to the above break down of relationship; that behavior should be “tolerated” because it can be explained away and you show your unconditional love when you can understand why they treated you the way they did.)
Please remember, I am talking directly to those inside the church here:
Basically – our culture’s political correctness has seeped into the very foundation of our church – and is crushing us under the oppression of deceit, lies and partial truths. Within the walls of our church, we are killing the Spirit and His ability to move amongst our midst because we are not willing to call sin what it is, to hold the one that sinned accountable and to set the one sinned against free. We are rendered useless to the Lord because we are not calling the spade a spade…we are not telling people that they are wrapped up in a bad life because they have allowed sin into their lives, that they have a life dominating sin…and then SHOWING them how to constructively and practically get rid of that sin. We are not acting as the church is called to act, and our entire culture is suffering. We would rather slap someone on the hand and tell them to try better next time rather than ask them to do the hard work, calling them to be accountable for their sin; not just asking them to change – but walking with them, showing them how to change and then telling them if they don’t change their behavior for real, they won’t have the benefit of the church.
For whether we choose to believe it our not, there are wolves disguised as sheep within our midst. They do the right thing, say the right thing, be the right person…but behind closed doors, they are unrecognizable. True, this could be said of all of us for we all live to some extent with a mask on to the rest of the world. Yet, while a lot of us will grudgingly admit to our faults and ask for help and healing and work toward restoration…there is another deadly cycle that plays out in families right next door to us, and we often have no idea until it is too late.
We (and I include myself in this group until recently) don’t get involved in people’s lives because we are afraid to be considered nosey and rude. We don’t want to really know them – because then they would get to really “see” us as – and “see” us well. And while I believe all of us desire more than anything else “to be seen” by others in the deepest part of our soul…we are terrified that they will hate what they see and run the other way. But let’s get real people – me included: if we are ALL truly “exceptionally wicked” at heart…than what can you say or I say that would shock the other? Honestly, there should be nothing that shocks us if we know the state of the human heart according to the bible.
Yet, imagine if the people in the church did this? Imagine if we would stop blaming our pastors that Sunday after Sunday preach their hearts out to us; if we stop blaming the people that run the church and the volunteers that give their time; if we started taking personal responsibility for ourselves and our friends and neighbors and start learning together how to live this Christian life. What would this look like? Would we possibly see situations like a huge “cleaning house” in the church? Where people would be exposed for who they are, where they would be called to repent and turn of their ways or be told to stop draining the precious resources of the church according to Matthew 18: 15-20? Why aren’t people who have life-dominating sin when brought to the church and not found to do the things they need to do to get rid of their sin cast out of the church?
…not without the Holy Spirits prompting and us submitting to that prompting.
I have another amazing friend and her husband
