Now and then I surf blogs and read what others have to say about faith, God, Jesus, church, Christianity and the like. I try to encourage the seeming discouraged. I pray for some of those that request it or those that weigh on my heart and I bring them to the Lord in prayer.
In writing to one blogger recently about her desperate need to get to church because she hadn’t been in a few weeks (she definitely needed the ‘fix’), I tried to express the Father’s heart that He is yet closer than her next breath, she doesn’t need to wait or go somewhere else, He is with her and will provide for her all that she needs.
In response she said it was one thing to have God in her heart and have Him to pray to, but she still needs to hear a sermon now and then and be around other believers.
My first thought was “What for?” Now, I certainly don’t mean that meeting with ‘the Body’ isn’t important, even required at times and I enjoy it very much myself as well, but my thought stemmed from thinking she didn’t really want to be around believers for the sake of furthering to greater empower her spiritual life by the Spirit, she just wanted to ‘have a good time’, in the churchy/good-little-christian sense. That made me both frustrated and grieved. It grieves the Holy Spirit when we lack interest in Him, His nature, His character, His All. For her, it was all about her, not Him. Praying to God is also not to be some sort of ‘Dear diary’ daily prayer, but a submitting of ourselves for His life and loving power to transform us.
Then I wondered what she thought having ‘God in her heart’ meant. Obviously it didn’t mean the power to overcome anything and it isn’t Christ in her the hope of glory. I know before I really got this through my own head, I didn’t have much hope of being set free from my sin. I thought I may just have to find a way to ‘deal with it’ my whole life all the while being repentant in my heart. I wasn’t believing in a very powerful God. Maybe the same with this lady. Which is one of the saddest things in Christianity today.
Christianity is actually supposed to be about Jesus saving us from our sinful, human condition, here and now in this lifetime. This is GOOD NEWS. Not later when we ‘go to heaven’, but NOW. So where’s the hope if we think we can’t ever overcome our sin? Or that we need to get to a church to hear a sermon, sing some songs, and ‘feel’ Christian again? Is that what Christianity is?? Then it’s no different than a drug addict needing their heroin fix.
I hate what I see in the church buildings where the broken people that populate the pews think this IS what Christianity is, and what it has to offer. NO, IT ISN’T! Because true Christianity isn’t the building, tithes, songs, pastoral ship, the board, etc. IT IS JESUS CHRIST!
If you don’t believe Jesus and ‘God in your heart’ have the power to save you from sin and bring you to overcome, than you don’t really believe in God at all. You just believe Bible stories.
It is my prayer that many, many more professing Christians would become BELIEVERS in Christ, His death and the power of His resurrection, that the Father may be glorified in Him and in those whom the Father has given Him.
