The 20th Century has ushered in a perverse dilution of tangible Christianity. God has been limited in what we “See” happening around us or in what we are told is happening. What happened to hearing things or smelling them? What happened to touch? When did we have to start proving to ourselves that God is real? Christians like to talk about doing the right things. I like to talk like I’m doing it right all the time. But I am not. There is a malicious pursuit of self-pleasure that has permeated our churches with their musicals and productions and their programmed selfish delusions. They have become a “safe” place in the most dangerous sense. There is no spine left…. Or it is barely hanging on. Where has the will to stand up for the right things gone? We turned it into F*&king WWJD bracelets! Come on! We turned it into the Christian Music industry and Christina Book Stores. Stop trying to apologize for having a relationship with God. Stop trying to veil your life by quarantining all your actions into the “safety” of a church building where you and your friends go to stop thinking. We serve a living God and he is mighty to save! We need unapologetic apostles in this new world. Do yourself and everyone else around you a favor… start being honest with yourself. Once you are honest with yourself then you can try and be honest with someone else. Honesty.
There is reason for us Christians to be harsh on ourselves. We know. We believe. That is heavy. We cannot hide who we are from God and since we are all part of the same body we cannot hide who we are from each other and still recognize each other as partners of the same body. Where does this leave us? This leaves us with a responsibility to be transparent with each other. This leaves us to grow and mature and not be satisfied with the baby formula we received when we first believed… as we grow we need to move on from these things and continue building the base… not dwell on the base that was first laid when we were younger. I am not speaking about age. Age is not useless but it is also not a mandate of wisdom or a warrant of entitlement.
I have one last sentiment. Why do so many of you claim to be teachers or pastors? Don’t you realize that you are held to a higher standard and that responsibility is not so generously bestowed upon the masses? So many of you that I have met should not be pasturing a church. You would do fine to lead a small group of believers and would actually be well suited for that. Unfortunately there are too many of you getting degrees from Christian Universities and then assuming that now you can be a pastor. What happened to spiritual gifts? It is so painfully obvious that there are too many people practicing pastoring or teaching that are neither. Can you not see it?? The point is not that I want to sit here and bash you it’s that I want you to consider the word of God. Stop trying to convince your-self the Word says something it doesn’t. I am by no means the author of right and wrong and I lump myself together with you in my criticism. Our challenge is to love the Lord thy God with all our hearts and obey his commands. Stop with the confusion and purposeful ignorance and move… just start moving toward being honest.
