Preface: This post is straightforward and relentless. It may be too abrasive for some people’s taste in reading. If you’re easily offended, hit the back button now. If you’re willing to be challenged to leave the comfort zone you currently find yourself in, continue reading.
I believe there are 2 types of people in this world: those who at some point have burned people with Christianity, and those who have at some point been burned by Christianity.
Type 1
The zealous missionaries and judgmental religious leaders
Where the church has gone radically wrong is believing that Christ came to call the upright, not the sinners. (Matthew 9:9-13)
Church leaders and Christians: are we walking the earth as Christ did — dining among the street people, gamblers, prostitutes, and addicts — in “full awareness of the raised eyebrows of religious bureaucrats who hold up their robes and insignia of their authority to justify their condemnation of truth and their rejection of the gospel of grace?” – The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
We’re not here to save the world. Christ has already done that. He’s called us to love the world.
Let’s take our noses out of the air and feet off the pedestals and get our hands and feet dirty. Let’s start admitting our faults, more than forgetting to hold the door open for a stranger, so those who don’t believe can see we’re not so different from them.
Our church attendance
The price of our clothes
The type of car we drive
The number of bible studies we lead
The amount of mission trips we go on
The amount of hours spent in prayer and quiet time
The number of people you’ve healed or led to Christ
Our avoidance of alcohol, cursing, and sex outside of marriage
The amount of money you tithe or give to missions
Breaking news: These things aren’t being tallied next to our names in the Lambs book Life. We’re not getting stars next to our names or passing each other on the way to becoming teacher’s pet.
So why do we act as if we’re so much more deserving of God’s love than the homosexual, welfare dependent, or churchless person?
Christ hung on the cross just as many hours for your closet drinking, addiction to pornography, abuse of your wife, lust, greed, envy, stagnation, and self-righteousness as he did for theirs.
One of the biggest lessons I’m learning on the World Race is as missionaries, our haughty attitudes set out in belief that people need what we need: microwaves, 2 car garages, and air conditioning. The fact is that they don’t need what we need. They are perfectly content with their dirt floors, floor mats as beds, and open roofs for ventilation. They need what we have: the earth shattering, incomprehensible understanding of the love and constant pursuit from the creator of the universe.
I believe the biggest hindrance of the Gospel isn’t the inability to reach every people group but is our delivery. The hindrance is us.
Type 2
The “not religious” and “one-time decision Christians”
Unreligious
For those of you whose eyes have landed upon these words that view Christianity as a religion full of snooty better-than-you critics, or even worse, hypocrites: this is not what Christ or every Christian looks like. You’ve seen a group of humans who, no matter their efforts, aren’t perfect. They don’t get it right 100% of the time.
For those who don’t want to be bound by laws or unrealistic rules: the goal of Christianity is to look like Christ. Secret: no one is meeting this goal. So why try?
It’s not really about what we do but what He’s already done. The audacity of what Jesus Christ accomplished compels us towards not only a relationship with Him, but also eager zeal to be like Him.
So, who really is this Christ then? THE God of the universe, in great desperation to intimately know his people, sent himself (his son) in the form of man to show the world
1. His ONLY ability to walk a perfect and blameless life in a sinful world
2. The selfless act of death for crimes He did not commit to demonstrate his payment for our sins.
3. The tearing of the veil that separated people from the presence of God.
“One-time decision Christians”
These are those who accepted Christ, mostly at a young age, one time. You walked down the isle of a church or agreed to pray the sinners prayer. Maybe your reasoning was to to secure your spot in heaven. Maybe you received your “stay out of hell for free” card and put it in your wallet. Maybe you truly meant your decision and had a real encounter with the Holy Spirit but somewhere along the way you fell off the wagon.
The fact about real Christianity: it isn’t a one-time decision; it’s a daily decision. One time-decisions don’t get us to heaven.
Just because God gives abundant grace to cover our sins doesn’t give us permission to abuse it. We want to reap the benefits of following God but we don’t want to be obedient to receive it.
It’s a daily dying to self. “His mercies are new each morning.” Daily, we choose to commune in a two-way relationship with God, just as we do in any other relationship. There is give and take. We give up our need to always be right, our control to do it your way, and we take the outpouring of love and grace that He offers us. We commit to being pulled out of our comfort zone daily because the truth is if you’re not growing you’re dying.
The basis of all of this ramble is that Christ came to meet you where you are. You don’t need to clean up for Him. You’ll never be perfect enough to earn His love, but you don’t need to be. You just need to accept it. He sees you in your desperation, your exhaustion, your blatant rebellion, and he STILL chooses you. Right now and every single day.
He is waiting. What is your decision?
As always,
KP
