I absolutely love the church. I have been in the church and around the church pretty much my entire life. I gave my life to Christ living in Japan around the age of 9 and became a part of the “big C” church at that time. I love Sundays when we gather together corporately to worship God. I love being reminded of God’s power and majesty through the songs we sing. I love songs about the cross and I love songs about the resurrection. I love the power of God’s word when it is preached. I love how it encourages us in difficult times and convicts us when we are not living like Jesus. I love baptisms. I cry every time I see a new believer being brought back up out of the water committed to live a new life as a follower of Jesus. I love the opportunities we have to encourage each other in the faith at church and in our small group meetings. I love the various gifts God has given the church. It is the most beautiful thing in the world to me to see what God can accomplish through the church when we all apply our individual gifts to the work of the ministry.
However, there are a lot of things about the church that absolutely grieve me, like the reputation we have with the unchurched. I am grieved that we are known more for all the things we are against and known little for all the things we support. I am grieved that we are known more for being hypocrites, and judges more than we are friends and neighbors. I am grieved by our self-righteousness at times and our legalistic attitude towards others when we don’t have it all figured out either. It grieves me that we have lost our voice in a lost world because we have done so much talking at and not enough listening to.
at the heart of the mistreatment of others inside and outside the church is a dire misunderstanding of the grace of God
And I know how the world feels because I have experienced so many of the same things from within the church. I have seen the hypocrisy. We say we believe one way but act another way. I have been hypocritical myself at times. I have seen ridiculous infighting and bickering in the church over everything from carpet and paint colors to the type of music we sing on Sunday mornings. I have seen people turn up their noses at the type of clothes someone is wearing or not wearing. I have seen my family and friends hurt. I have seen racism. I have been lied to and lied about.
I could tell you stories that would make you wonder why I even keep coming to church. Yet, I keep coming because of the grace God has extended to me. I am in desperate need of his grace daily. And it is only by his grace that I am still living and breathing and serving him today. And the same grace that he gave to me, is available to all. So, what right do I have to hold others in judgment and condemnation when God through the blood of Jesus Christ doesn’t hold me that way? Simply put by the Apostle John,
He loved us first. That is grace. Grace is not just our motivation for serving God, it is our motivation for loving others. In my opinion, at the heart of the mistreatment of others inside and outside the church is a dire misunderstanding of the grace of God. I don’t think many Christians fully understand the character of God and how incomprehensible it is that he would extend grace to us as sinful human beings. It’s only when you truly come to terms with your own depravity and sinfulness that you can appreciate how beautiful the grace of God is. Every breath we breathe and every beat of our heart is allowed by the grace of God. We did nothing to earn it, we can only accept it and give it away to others in kind.
I could tell you stories that would make you wonder why I even keep coming to church. Yet, I keep coming because of the grace God has extended to me. I am in desperate need of his grace daily. And it is only by his grace that I am still living and breathing and serving him today. And the same grace that he gave to me, is available to all. So, what right do I have to hold others in judgment and condemnation when God through the blood of Jesus Christ doesn’t hold me that way? Simply put by the Apostle John,
I John 4:19
19 We love each other because he loved us first.
He loved us first. That is grace. Grace is not just our motivation for serving God, it is our motivation for loving others. In my opinion, at the heart of the mistreatment of others inside and outside the church is a dire misunderstanding of the grace of God. I don’t think many Christians fully understand the character of God and how incomprehensible it is that he would extend grace to us as sinful human beings. It’s only when you truly come to terms with your own depravity and sinfulness that you can appreciate how beautiful the grace of God is. Every breath we breathe and every beat of our heart is allowed by the grace of God. We did nothing to earn it, we can only accept it and give it away to others in kind.
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