Loving People into God's Kingdom

I think it’s interesting that many people want to be “spiritual”, but are hostile towards Christianity. I asked a friend of mine why he was enthralled with Deepak Chopra, and not the Bible.  His answer didn’t surprise me, but it made me sad.  He emphatically stated that he couldn’t stand the hypocrisy, greed and general condemnation that was rampant in the church.  It seemed to him that, “so called” Christians were following individual preachers whose doctrines vowed hell and damnation to anyone who thought other than they did. Their battle cry is; “Let’s round up all the sinners, humiliate, threaten, or frighten them into Heaven! Whatever it takes, in love, to clean up this world for Jesus!” I asked him to stop and think about Jesus for a moment.  Could he remember any scripture that showed Jesus acting in such a radical way?  His answer was no.

No indeed, Christ presented to us a life lived in obedience to God which included loving, healing and serving the unlovable, and yes, the sinners.  How did we get so far from that original model? Why are we not portraying him correctly to the world? Acts 2: 42-47 gives us this snapshot of what the  church was, and should be now. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”  

The churches that “man has created” are not, for the most part, in alignment with that picture.  We have decided to not only redefine Christ’s mission, but his entire character as well.  No longer are we “enjoying the favor of all the people”, instead we are alienating them.  Shame on the church! It breaks my heart, and it should break yours too. It’s not the easiest thing to love on people who stand for lifestyles contrary to our own beliefs, but please pray, asking God to give you that kind of heart…the heart of compassion that Jesus has! Let’s resolve to love, not demean people into His Kingdom!!