I wrote “outsider looking in” after a discussion with a good
friend yesterday. She brought a friend who was not a Christian to church on
Sunday. His comment to my friend made me laugh for he said, “while the pastor
was praying I looked at the girl who played the piano, she was moving her lips
and it looked like she was saying the same thing over and over again. What is
that all about?”
I laughed because I was the one who was leading that Sunday
and I was praying in tongues, but how do you explain that one to a
non-Christian. Hmm, well we Christian’s have a heavenly language given to us,
so we can talk to God. It sounds crazy!!!
Most of our Christian things we do must look mighty strange
for an outsider looking in. If I did not grow up in a Christian home, I would
be turned off.
enough! We must be so radically different that is shifts the mindsets of men
with one utter of Jesus name. We are living in a time and age where the gospel
is lost on North American’s. The cross has lost the meaning in our culture.
overseas then in our own country! We have everything we need, so why do we need
God? This is our culture! There is no room for Jesus because we are gorging on
our wealth.
So how must we live as Christians in order to engage with
our world?
Mark 2:13-17
New Living
Translation (NLT)
again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. As he walked
along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth.
“Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed
him.
Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along
with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many
people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) 1 But when the
teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they
asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?“
When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor-sick
people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but
those who know they are sinners.”
Here is a man who did not care about social status. He said
very plainly I did not come for those who think they are already “good enough”
for me. I came for those who are in desperate need for me.
Jesus alone is this passage was reaching out to the very
worst of human kind. He loves sinners, he calls sinners and He saves sinners.
No one is too bad to be saved. No one is too good to be saved. Romans 3:23
(GNT) “Everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence.”
I believe Jesus wants His followers to live in an
uncomfortable tension: to live a holy life, while relating to an unholy world.
Look how the “righteous” complained about Jesus, “But
the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious
sinner,” they grumbled. -Luke 19:7
You have to laugh; Jesus was supposed to be on their side.
To be their king, the one who will overthrow the Roman government? Instead he
ate with tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners of much kind.
If Jesus were walking on earth today in the 21st
century how would he look like or behave?
On Friday night whom would he be hanging out with? On Sunday
would He actually be in church sitting in the forth pew on the right?
doing today! From what I read of the scriptures and can tell, my Jesus was
a radical to the core. He came to shake up lives and it was accomplished
through the cross.
If we Christians neglect the teachings of Jesus and choose
to live a life contradicting the scriptures, then we might as well give up and
let the devil have our way with us.
We are not doing any good twiddling our thumbs and staying
silent. We are called to be just like Jesus, to walk the walk and talk the
talk. What did Jesus command
before He went to His Father?
“Go into all the world and preach the good news to all
creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not
believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe; In
my name they will drive out demons; they will speak new tongues; they will pick
up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt
them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get
well.” Mark 16:15-1
In conclusion, it matters after Sunday how you live your
life. Are you willing to join the radical/transforming adventure of seeking and
saving the lost?
Hear the word and do what it says! Be life to everyone you
meet. Love deeply and give abundantly. May peace and grace be upon your shoulders as you live out a life that
is radical!
“You must see yourself as lost before you can be
saved. You must know you are spiritually sick before you can be spiritually
healed. You must know that you are spiritually dead in sin, before you can be
made spiritually alive by a Savior!”-Makingchristknown.com
