This might be kind of long, but it’s been on my mind and I have to share…..
So. what’s up with Christianity and religion these days? Why has being a Christian become so un-cool? I have a couple of theories.
1. The way we represent Christ. Look at Christianity as a MLM scheme. Our job as Christians is to lead others to …Christ to stock up our rewards in Heaven, but some people have this concept all wrong. We chastise and judge in hopes of “scaring the ‘lost’ into submission”. We wear our faith proudly, then mis-represent Christianity. We tell others that we are Christians, then people expect us to be an example of what a Christian is, and we don’t fulfill these obligations. How can you sell something that you yourself don’t “use”.
Let’s examine the term Christian. The word Christian was originally intended as an insult, it is Greek for “Christ-like”, while intended as sarcasm the early believers wore the term with pride, so to be a Christian you must be striving to be like Christ, right?\
Who is Christ, well we all know He was God’s Son sent to earth, but let’s go even deeper…….We believe in the Trinity- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost if you’re Baptist lol. (The Pentecostal types say Holy Spirit because it sounds strange to say that they are “Ghost-filled” instead of “Spirit-filled”)Anyway, if we believe in the Trinity, then the three are one in the same. So in essence, being a Christian means striving to be like God. If you look in the Bible (1 John 4:16) you will find the best description of God “God is Love”. Think about that…How deep is that? Then you will find that there are descriptions of Love in 1 Cor. 13:1-13 (Love is patient, Love is kind,etc.) Try this—-substitute the word “Love” with “God”. Then you will find the true persona of God.
Putting this all together….Are you truly a Christian? Do you have an attitude of Love? Are you striving to be “God-Like”? Do you express Love for others?
It’s sad to say that many self-proclaimed Christians do not. They/we are more interested in their own self-righteousness, in showing others their down-falls. We judge others and hold them up to standards that they are unaware of.
Seriously, if you are trying to sell a vaccuum cleaner to someone, do you try to tell them how awful their vaccuum cleaner is or do you tell them how awesome yours is? There’s a big difference. Unfortunately, we often go for the approach of telling them how awful they are instead of how awesome their life can be. As the old saying goes ” You get more flies with sugar…..”
2. If we are proud enough to “witness” to others, then we have to be a living witness. If you ask people why they do not go to church, the most common answer is that their old church was full of hypocrites. I’m a PK, so I can see where they are coming from. I’ve seen it all. I’ve been to churches where they actually preach that all “Afro-Americans” are doomed to Hell because of the “Curse of Ham” (look it up- google it.)But, in the Sunday School class at the same church, they sing “red, and yellow, black and white, they’re all precious in His sight. It’s retarded. I have even been called a heretic for saying that this theory was rediculous.
3. Why so much dissention? While Christians all believe in The B-I-B-L-E, there are so many different religions and denominations. Most are seperated by the most trivial issues…..open communion vs. closed communion, reverance issues (does your church allow clapping or raising hands?lol) Infant baptism, whether or not you can lose your Salvation, wine or grape juice? gifts of the Holy Spirit (a huge one) and so on and so on. Non- Christians look at this as a sign that the Bible can be interpreted any way we want to fit our own needs, which evidently is true.
THEN, to top it all off, the many downfalls of our religious leaders. Whether it is drugs, embezzlement, and prostitution (Bakker’s and Swaggarts) or more recently the stupid comments that come out of their mouths in the name of God.( Falwell’s and Robertson’s) These are people saying, “Look at me, listen to me, I speak for Christianity, I am a religious leader.” Then they make fools of themselves, for the whole world to see.
Heck, if I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t want to be a Christian either. That would lump me in with these idiots.
Basically,if we as Christians are to win others to God’s kingdom, how about expressing Love to fellow man-kind. Don’t condemn people to Hell, tell them about Heaven.
AND don’t deprive yourself of any fun at all in the name of God. He wants us to enjoy our lives and worship HIM. Being bitter and rigid is not a good testimony, it actually has an opposite effect. Trust me, people are watching you to see if they want what you have. Take some time in study and prayer and discover what you really have, if you express it correctly…its INFECTUOUS!
FINAL THOUGHT—–It’s actually pretty easy to lead another to Christ, then we mess up. They get “SAVED”, then we give them a list of all the things they are no longer allowed to do, then we drop them (on to the next). We need to help them along, teach them to pray, to study. Their “limitations” will come to them as they grow. Maybe God hasn’t told them to abstain from all forms of alcohol yet, maybe God hasn’t convicted them for the shows they watch. Maybe those convictions are just for you personally, we all have a different walk or else there wouldn’t be soooo many different types of churches.
OK, that’s enough of my rant for today.
By the way, there are some very cool (and famous) people that are not afraid to share their faith. www.the316.info
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