| Listening to: As Cities Burn, "Bloodsucker Pt. II"
This one will be long. Also, as my computer is messing up a lot, I may have to post in fragemnts so I don't lose it all.
On Amercian Christianity and the American Church...
It has come to my attention quite dramatically in the last week or so the true nature of the church and Christianity in America. In no particular order:
1. We are endlessly materialistic. The things we think we need, and the focus we place on money is disgusting. We have multi-million dollar buildings, right next to the small, ill-kept dwellings of low income families, none of which we will ever talk to. At the most, we might make a church visit, to see if they would like to attend. They can see our parking lots stacked with cars far more expensive than we need, our designer clothes, and our general excess. And we wonder and shake our heads sadly at the fact that they don't go to church. If only they would find God, He could lift them our of the state they're in, we say. I say the same for us. We also place so much thought and worry into our lives and financial situations. With Jonathan and I quitting school to play music, we have had innumerable conversations about how we won't be able to provide for a family, or what if this happens, or that, and it was dramatically illustrated to us that the church has this idea that we need buildings to hold services, or nice houses, or clothes, or whatever. FALSE!!!! The more I do this music thing, in that not making much (or any) money, I realize that happiness comes from the love of God, not from material things, even if they are blessings from God. We are so uncontent with even our excesses. Our worries about food are what restuarant we will eat at this sunday.Elsewhere, even here in America, people wonder if they will eat at all. And we look down on them, because they're not as "blessed" as we are. We build our million-dollar glass houses for God, while across the street, someone goes hungry. If your church building burned down today, how many people would think God was punishing them? How many wouldn't come back to church? Would the church still exist? People would be devastated....at the loss of a building that is no more holy than my kitchen, or a bar. Indeed, there are more demons in your church building, and I've had better connection with God, more oneness and fellowship with the body, sitting in my kitchen, and at Vino's at As Cities Burn. God was more present there than at the the biggest, most "blessed", "successful" church in this city. We have had everything handed to us...there's no need to be saved when you have verything you need.
2. We ignore the lost world, and focus on our own affairs. It never ceases to amze me how we make blanket statements about lost people, when the majority of us have no lost friends at all. Or if we do, they're circumstantial, in that we have to be around them anyway, so we befriend them so the situation will be comfortable. And even if we reach out to them because we don't want them to go Hell, or because we know we're supposed to, that still isn't loving them. We go on kission trips, and build relationships for the sole purpose of evangelism. We don't reach out because were actually interested in them as a person, we reach out so they'll escape judgement. Almost right, sounds great, but so very, very wrong. A friend of min once said to me, while on mission trip, "So you're being friends with him just so he'll get saved?" He was joking, partially, but it made me think. Real love doesn't behave that way. People aren't numbers, or a good story in group time after a hard day of witnessing. In addition to this, we riducule each other, and are incredibly unforgiving. The school I graduated from, while it has some great people there, on the whole is completely backwards. There are multiple people who were turned away because of their appearance. Eiither they had tatoos, piercings, or whatever. Also, if their past was marked by sin, they were put on "probation". On wrong move at you're screwed. Their excuse - "Well, we have an image to protect." The idea that we can't accept people because we must have a holy image is a lie straight from the pits of Hell. Satan himself devised that line I just quoted. They might as well drop the Christian from their name and start an exclusive club, because that's exactly what they have. "Let it be known, no one wins against the machine... this is what you get for stepping out of line..." I don't mean to say that all they do is worthless, or that there aren't God-fearing people there. I am addrsssing the things that require change. There are some truly compassionate people there, which make sit all the more strange how they could endorse such ideas. Jonathan and I can't eat lunch at our school because of our piercings. We aren't accepted because of our appearance. Also a lie. Some of the most evil, ideologically disruptive men in the history of the world ( i.e., Hitler, Stalin, Freud, etc.) wore suits and ties, spoke well, and were highly intelligent, educated, and well groomed professionalls. And yet millions lie dead, or are forever damned because of them. If any of you has ever been to a high-school party, you know who was too drunk to stand up, and indulging in every kind of excess. It was many wealthy, popular kids. You might have seen them the next Sunday. Some of them lead small groups. Some of them are coaches. Some of them are pastors now. And, on the other side of the coin, the people with lip rings and tatoos, many of them engage in the same. In either case, it is shown that apearance doesn't have anything to do with the heart, and we ostracize the world and each other for how we look. Some say, well that looks worldy. Show me what a worldy person looks like? can you? Can you pick them out from your church? Or can you tell me who is saved? Can you? Is it the people in suits and ties? Is it the people who have little? Who is greatest? Can you tell? We tear each other apart, over music, appearance, and nonessentials. It really makes me sad.
3. We agree, but we don't believe. It's interesting how we can affirm a truth our entire lives, but when crunch time comes, we find that we really never thought it was true, or it would have made our lives and responses different somehow. Once again, when Jonathan and I were considering quitting school, we realized that something we had said all of our lives... that God would take care of and provide for us...was tested. Did we really believe Him enough to give up everything we knew to follow Him? And after our decision was made, we encountered many who had every reason in the world why what we were doing did;'t nme sense, and that we should think about all the what if's. It was dramatically shown to us after we initially saw the problem of "I agree but I don't believe", we realized it was the cause of almost all of the lesser problems in Christianity and the church. People being taught so many things that are nothing more than tradition, it is not suprising that, in our subculture that we created and perpetuate, that we find many who don't believe. They've never needed to. "How dare you question my salvation!" we say. That's the closest they'll come to the real thing unless they're broken. Why do you think that so many people stop going to church after high school? they never wanted to be there to begin with. Why do they start living for themselves. Because they never believed what they were taught, Just reading the lines they were given from the pulpit. We have intellectually assented to the Gospel, which is why there has been no reall life change in many...we as the church have made it possible for a person to speak the lingo, go to the services, serve on the committees, go on the misson trips, lead the small groups, lead the worship songs, and pastor the flock without ever knowing the Person that it was all because of...Jesus. How many "Christians": have never known the love of God because they never believed that it existed? they only agreed that it was a good system to live by, but never met its Author? What a poverty it is that I have friends that are going to Hell because they grew up in church! Or that, if they are saved, they're so ingrained into works-based, legalistic theology that they will never let God work in their lives? How many people will get to heaven, proud of a long life of service, only to meet the sad eyes of Jesus, as He says..."Depart, for I don't know you." That tears me up, even as I write this. To think that some of my close friends, or my family, will be greeted with that end is heartbreaking, in the truest sense of the word. And all because we the church have made it easy for there to be those among us who agree but don't believe.
4. We do not know Love. And here is the root issue. Jesus said in one of the Gospels, I forget which, " They will know you are my disciples because of your love".It's interesting that we're taught all of our lives that there's no way to know if a person is saved or not, and that it's only between them and God. But, if they truly have met the Savior, the there will be evidence. The evidence is a genuine love, inexplainable life change that can only come from a source other than oneself. If there is no love....there is no salvation. And I'm not talking about loving your family, or other church members only...but the lost. As I said before, truly caring about them as human beings, not just so they'll get saved or whatever else. I know people who are professing Christains, and at times they will do something, and I think... if the love of God was in you, you would not have just done that. And I'm not talking about struggling with something, because I stab God in the back every day, and it kills me. I'm talking about certain responses in situations, how they handle things, etc. You will know by the love that is (or isn't) present in their lives. Also, those who do things to get closer to God, but don't love Him.... they're bound for a frustrating cycle. Works-based Christianity is killing thousands. Our good intentions are sending people to Hell. Our good intentions are the death of our souls. How many times have you prayed or read your bible because someone told you that would fix your problems, or get you and God closer? If you don't love God to begin with, neither will do you any good. If you want to love Him more, those things can help, if you start with that intention. But the love must be there. it's very eagerly confused with duty, that intellectual assention to God and the Gospel. It's worse than being lost outright, because it's so much harder to be pulled out of. in Romans 10:1-4, Paul tells the Romans, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes." This also ties in to "I agree but I don't believe". There must be belief, and for there to be true belief, true love for God must be present. Then and only then, will all of the "religious" things we do have any meaning, or bring any happiness at all . Otherwise, it is a waste of our time, and we should just forsake our false Christianity and live like we want to. It would be better than living a religion with no power to save us, and what's more, we would be being honest.
But the fact is, there is a Savior that loves us, and has given us a way out of the hell we've created for ourselves. Christianity and the church, as a whole, have become so much that Jesus is not. But, He offers His grace to us, and gives us His Spirit so we can know what true Love is, and identify the lies that our world hasd become entangled with. I encourage you, if you've been living in the realm that I've described, there is way out, and it's not a program, it's not reading your bible, and it's not going to church. It is the love of a God who died for every time you made a mockery of His perfect plan, and perverted the things that He set up for His glory. It is the love of a God who offers you forgiveness, and offer hope and freedom in the midst of all your rituals. It is the love of a God who gives us but one commandement...to love.
Love is everything.
If you have questions, or would just like to come to church in my kitchen, or anything else, you can call my house, or leave a comment. (501)336-0771.
If you love God, tell Him tonight. If you don't, go look at the stars, and know the He that hung them there hung on a cross so you could be free of all but love.
Love is everything. |
