Isn't church supposed to have nice people? Do you know any good people? Do you think that we should be tolerant of others? Does Christianity make your life easy?
Stay tuned for the answers.
I am amazed every day when people present the Gospel as if it is people being nice, to other people, for the sake of getting those people saved. The Gospel, or good news is not just getting saved! The Gospel is an eternal relationship with God; starting with receiving Jesus as our personal Savior and Lord. It is much more than the recognition of our sinfulness and need for a forgiver! That is simply the "door" to this spiritual and profound relationship with a supernatural God. The Bible speaks of this relationship as the deep calling deep! Salvation is living the Kingdom life here on earth and on into eternity.
Let me say that nice is not even in the Bible. So, if being nice is on your list of positive, personal attributes, it is no big deal to God. Yes, I know love is kind, but only when attached to grace, while acting in faith! It we teach our greeters and parishioner to be nice, we have done what Wal*Mart does for their greeters. And amazingly, the Wal*Mart greeters are not talking to their friends as newcomers mill about looking for the rest room.
I often hear that so and so is a good person, or someone will say, "I am a good person," when challenged with the question of personal sin. Yet, the Bible is clear that no one is good, not Hitler, and not Mother Theresa. God did not die on a cross to make bad people good, He did that so the dead people would live!
Christians get a bad rap when they come out against things like abortion and gay marriage. If they take a stand, then they are intolerant. There is movement in the church to be more tolerant. The difficult part of that is that tolerance is not in the Bible. Love is, but not tolerance. Love is not tolerant. It is a lot of other things, but tolerant is not one of them.
By the way, Christians don't make, nor enforce the rules. When Christians get legalistic about these types of things, they will come under fire for being insincere and hypocritical. Remember, no one is good. When we come off as not abiding by our own rules, then we are hypocritical. We need to live as humbly as we can, knowing that grace is the only reason that we even have a hope of Heaven. If our focus is serving and loving one another, the true Gospel will pour out of us.
I am not sure what you signed up for when you got saved, but a lot of folks are looking to have a spiritual bellhop now that they know Jesus. Life will be easier because Jesus will solve every problem! The is a dream that will never come to pass. The only place that the word easy is used in the Bible is here: Jesus said, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Can we stop just being nice, and love. Can we give up on being good and let the old man die, so that Christ can shine though us? Can we stop thinking in terms of tolerance, and think in terms of loving regardless of the actions or beliefs of another? Can we just get to work bringing the Kingdom, and stop looking for easy street? Can we?
3 comments:
AWESOME! BRILLIANT!
"God did not die on a cross to make bad people good, He did that so the dead people would live!" This is a killer quote that I will use.
Happy is another word that Christians throw around. God wants us to have JOY, not happiness.
I have a sequel to this that actually includes happiness and some other myths.
David, excellent blog, one that a lot of people need to read, especially Christians. And I agree, so that dead people will live. Very quotable line.
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