The Fallen Church

The church today is a very interesting place. We live in a bubble, shunning the outside world. Sure we talk about it, sure we discuss how many temptations there are, and maybe even sometimes we share the struggles we have with the "world". How many times do we realize thought that our church is in that world? We never do. We are in denial of the fact that we live in a fallen world. In reality, our church is IN the world. We are all fallen. Therefore the church is a fallen place. Yet how often do we act like we don't have the same problems as the rest of the world? How often do we hear people talk about their problems and we think, "Well at least I'm not THAT bad. I'm a better Christian than that." What???? Have we forgotten that in the eyes of the Lord all sins are equal? When I swear in anger, when I gossip about a "friend", when I look at a girl lustfully, in God's eyes I might as well be murdering someone, raping someone or blaspheming His holy name. Sure, by human laws there are different degrees of sin. But why do we judge others based on humans opinions? We are not God. 1 Samuel 16:7 "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." If you notice, it is not his actions or appearance that matters, rather his heart. As humans, we can not read just anyone's heart. Those closest to us yes. Anyone else? No. So lets stop judging others and realize that we are all sinners chosen by the one true Lord of all creation to be his children, let us be happy in His arms, and let us rest in His embrace. As a church, we need to understand that God does not want us to judge others. He wants us to follow Him and become more like Christ. How do we do this? How do we become closer to God, more like Christ? Three things.

1. We all need to read our bible. We need to study it, to meditate over it, to memorize it. I'm not good at it. I don't know the last time I read my bible every day for a week, if I ever have. But it is necessary. God is showing me how important it is to my relationship with Him.

2. We need to be in constant prayer. Prayer isn't just sitting down before dinner and blessing the food. It's not just praying before a sermon, or after something bad happens. It is a constant conversation with our Lord. It is looking at a hard situation and saying, "Well crap God, this sucks. I really don't know what to do, and I don't even know what the right thing is. But I need your help." Praying unceasingly is key. When your at lunch with some friends, whether at work or school, it is saying, "Hey God, help me to be a good witness to my friends." Simple things. Looking at every situation and asking God, "Hey how do you feel about this? How should I feel about this?" You might not always get an answer, but you are putting the effort out there to do the right thing. Sometimes you'll still do the wrong thing. Big deal. God knows your heart, remember? He knows when you truly regret your actions.

3. Fellowship. This is the main problem with the church. There is hardly any true, Godly fellowship. We need to have people in our lives that know what problems we have, that know we struggle with pornography and lust, hatred and anger, greed and jealousy. We have to share our pains, our burdens, or loves, our passions, our dreams with others. In America we have this notion of the "rugged individual". The true American man is a self-made man, relying on only himself. The problem is, God made us to be relational creatures. Everything is about relationships. And when we try to "do it ourselves" with our spiritual walks, we fail. I know. When I don't have true discussions on my life with some of my best guy friends who know me best, I fail. I end up doing the very things I hate, and I fall into a depression of misery and self pity. If only the church would learn to stop being individuals and start being friends! Oh, how I long to see the day when churches start true fellowship, and they begin to learn how to share and listen to each other. God will do such a mighty work in them, I just know it!

I don't know exactly why I wrote this note. Part of it is because I know that I need to start doing these things myself. Part of it is because I want people to know what God's truth is for us. Most of all, I think it is because I love all of you so much that I want to see you succeed. I don't want to see you grow up and fall into a cycle of sin and misery. I love all of you, and I want to see God glorified in your lives.