Is the Church Sending the RIGHT Message?

The World is So…um…Worldly

The world is the world. Is it any surprise when they act like the world?  Is it any surprise when they do worldly things?

But what about the people who call themselves Christians? The people who say God is their God? What about when Gods people treat God and everyone else poorly?   What about when Gods people have stopped being a good representation of Him in this earth?

The world is, well full of the world. But shouldn’t God’s people be full of, well, God for starters?  Sadly God’s people are usually full of everything they shouldn’t be full of.  God’s people tend to be just as full of the world as the world.  There’s not a lot of distinction other than the fact they call themselves Christians.  When Heaven looks down it doesn’t see much of a distinction. Christians tend to look a lot like the world and sometimes even worse.  

Where’s the Distinction?

The world is full of people who haven’t ever encountered God or don’t really know Him. There’s many people who have hurts and struggles, feel empty, or deal with stuff they wish they didn’t.  When Heaven looks down at the church, it tends to see the same thing. Struggling, hurting people who don’t necessarily even know God or have never truly encountered Him, and full of stuff they shouldn’t be full of. 

The two look very similar.  There must be more distinction. When we look at the church, we should see lives that used to be broken, hurting, or empty, but have been transformed by God’s power. And that transformation should be extremely evident to everyone around them. We should see REAL transformation not just self effort and self righteousness. The church should be able to offer much more than what they are.

But instead, we get mad at the world like they are suppose to play by our rules.  We get upset because they do dumb worldly things that go against our super-spiritual Christian ideals. And it’s our responsibility as good Christians to let them know what terrible sinners they are and how God is going to punish them.  We are like the self-appointed spiritual police. 

We can’t be mad at the world when it acts worldly, but we should be mad at the church when it acts worldly.  We need to start pointing our spiritual wrath at ourselves for calling ourselves Christians, but acting contrary to what it actually means to be one.  We should be mad at the church for being so full of the world, while it looks down its nose on everyone else. It’s not our job to prove how wrong everyone else is. It’s our job to show how RIGHT God is.  It’s our job to properly reflect God, so there will be a distinction.

The World Isn’t the Problem

The problem isn’t the world.  The problem is the world has hardly any good and accurate examples of God.  The church offers very little of God.  The church offers the world very little, other then saying, “Come be like us or else.”  The world doesn’t want to be like you.  It sees right through hypocrisy. They see that you don’t even treat your God that great.  That you are angry and full of junk.  Why should they bother, they have that already. They are looking for something better than what we are offering. 

We don’t let God do much in our church. We put His name on the bulletin. But that’s about it.  He has very little power or say in anything.  We make sure of that. If we allowed God to truly be God and allowed Him to change us, then maybe the world would look at us differently. Maybe even Heaven would actually recognize us as God’s people.

Let’s just be straight.  We do a poor job at being Christians.  We aren’t always the best representation of God to the world.  The church is the issue. Not movie companies, not politicians, not all those heathens who are doing so many heathen things… “the nerve of those heathens.”  We think God is sending judgment on all those terrible worldly people, but maybe, God is sending judgement on His own church.  Or maybe the world is experiencing judgement, but only because of the lack of effectiveness of God’s church.

The church needs to stop worrying about the world and start focusing on what God desires. What he truly wants.  We must focus on being a better representation to the world of how great God really is. We need to allow God to truly change us and transform our lives, so we have something worthwhile to offer those around us.  Isn’t it time for the church to start looking like God?  

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