Friday, 23 October 2009
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Bring Your Bibles, But Not Your Problems?
There is a cancer happening in churches across the country today, and it has to do with morality--the same disease that controlled the Pharisees and teachers of the law in Jesus’ time. It’s the idea that you have to "do" this or "do" that to be accepted by God. It’s the idea that you must go to church, but don’t you dare say anything that could ever show that you’re not a “good” Christian or that you aren’t following all the rules. And problems? Oh no, don’t bring those. Those don’t exist.
Well it’s a crazy thing, isn’t it? And it’s far from the true gospel. It causes people to never want to step foot in the church again. I’ve seen it happen.
The truth is that Jesus came to heal us of our problems, but He didn’t ask us to clean up before hand. He never asked the church to put on their pretty faces and hide their issues with lust, greed, adultery, murder, or jealousy from each other. He said to confess them so that they could be healed and find life again (James 5:16).
He asks us to bring our sin to him.
The Pharisees and teachers of the law were so blinded by their good works that they couldn’t see their hypocrisy. Jesus said to them, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to” (Matt. 23:13).
The Pharisees had it so wrong that people were kept from entering the kingdom of God. A lot of us have it wrong today, including myself at times. Morality is not our motive.
The gospel is. The cross is our motive. It’s about broken people receiving the free, unmerited gift of salvation--not because of anything good we have done.
As I grow in my faith, I’m reminded to be careful of those who preach a message of morality alone, that there is something I can do to earn favor with God. (This isn’t to say that when I grow closer to Him, I won’t want to “do” those things.) My motive isn’t for morality’s sake alone, but to embrace Christ for all that he is and to let him do the changing he needs to do in my areas of brokenness.
Have you ever felt like you could bring your Bible to church, but not your problems?
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- From: samantha
- Name: samantha
- About Me: I'm a writer in Dallas, Texas. Check out my site at www.samanthakrieger.com
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Comments (22)
I bring my problems to church, quite honestly I don't really understand the abundance of this in today's time; in other words, is it really getting as bad as you say? I mean, we our encouraged to bring our sins every Sunday and lay them in front of God. I am about as compassionate as the day is long, but I do not see the comparison between how the Pharisees were and how the heads of the churches today act. Please somebody point out what I am not seeing, if anything.
Good post.
@westernsoul - We tend to get so caught up in impressing others in how much we know, or how spiritual we are, that we don't dare reveal our "problems", because that would indicate that we are not as "good" of a Christian than we want others to think we are. I have been guilty of that myself, and the Lord corrected me on it. I have also found that many will keep there problems to themselves because of the "gossips", there are those in every body that will take our weakness and use it for gossip, or any other sort of "evil", in the name of compassion or "I'm just saying"....
But it's an ongoing battle, as is everything that draws us and seperates us for being in the presence of our Lord and King.
We need to constantly compare ourself to the life of Christ Jesus; not the preacher, not the decon, nor the choir director, and definately not ANYONE who does not know Christ; but compare our self to Christ alone. He is our example. He set THE example that we must follow IF we are to overcome and stand before Him without spot or wrinkle.
Peace be upon you brother; may the Lord keep you in the palm of Him mighty hand, building you up daily in love and faith. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen
@westernsoul - Your seeing it quite clearly. Why would you doubt yourself?
I'm not sure I fully understand the point of this post to be honest; was it to say simply that the gift of God to us while we were still sinners was free? If so, I agree! I've not heard anyone preach anything today in "mainstream" christianity other than that. But was your point including something bigger?
You see, while the gift to us was given while we were yet still enedmies of God (Rom 5:10), it was also by that gift that we died to our sins so that we would live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24).
In fact, Paul writes an entire chapter in Galatians (ch 5) which has one purpose, to warn those who have now received the Gift not to then turn back to slavery and bondage to the old system and into sin. In fact, in the later half of the chapter Paul writes that it is impossible for one to walk in the spirit and still gratify the lusts of the flesh.
In my experience the Church is actually lacking more in sound teaching against sinful living (not based out of merriting salvation, but based in obedience) than it is about teaching the gift as a free gift.
Jesus himself said in John 14 and 15 that those who love him are those who obey him.
So while I think it is an admirable thing to teach that salvation is, indeed, a free gift, that is also an elementary principle; as the Hebrew author said in Hebrews 5:12, we should be teachers but are still lacking in the basic elementary oracles of God.
So I write all this to both encourage you not to allow someone to pursuade you that because the gift has been given freely, it therefore requires no further action; in fact that is far from the Scriptural teaching. And also I say that, again, I may have read more into this article than you intended to convey.
In my ministry I face a great many souls who have listend to this kind of message, assumed that a free gift means free from responsibility, and they were lost once again to the world because they refused to die to their sin so that they could live in Christ.
Because I am a human being like everyone else. I just like to keep myself in check by asking people how they interpret time, since it is not so easy to live dead to an ego.
@westernsoul - Not all ego is bad. Just the boneheaded ego you are experiencing from those who are "claiming" humility. Glad they have you under there control with there ego (false humility).
Independent strong minded individuals who have the ability to think for themselves is a danger to any form of collectivism.
@ChevalierSeingal@datingish - LIES, ALL LIES!
@westernsoul - Words just words!
@westernsoul - Paranoia will Destroya!
yes
Christianity is best described as a people gathered around a person, Jesus. Jesus says go and sin no more; morality says something about how we act, not about who we are.
I feel some churches would rather have people bring their wallets instead of their problems.
@monobeam@xanga - Christmas is best described as a people
gathered around a person, Santa Claus. You can also find morality from the teachings of Buddha and you will find much less ego.
@LightningRichy@xanga -Amen!
Somewhere around 87% of all money given to churches goes to
administration (electric, salaries, etc etc), practically none goes to
the poor, and if it does there is ALWAYS an ulterior motive.
@ChevalierSeingal@datingish - "...morality from the teachings of Buddha..."
Yes, there are many places where we can find morality taught. That is why I made the point that what distinguishes us Christians is that we gather around a person, not just a given teaching.
Your comment about Santa was rude. Christmas is about Jesus, and Santa does shows a model of giving, in the spirit of Jesus.
Jesus is the Person without ego, our model. Buddha teaches people to devalue the world -- there is escapism here.
@deepestrecesses - I have to agree with you.
Like the post said, we bring our problems/sinfulness to church to receive forgiveness, healing, acceptance from God but not so that we can just persist in sinful living but have real, Spirit-driven, grace-driven motivation to "put to death the sinful nature" (romans 8) and allow God conform us to the image of Christ (also romans 8).
somehow, people get the two messages (salvation & acceptance by grace and obedience out of love & gratitude) mixed up so that it somehow becomes salvation & acceptance by obedience - probably because we're so immersed in a culture that is performance driven already...
Very well written post...
Yes, we need to seek Christ on our OWN, cling to Him on our OWN, pray to Him on our OWN & walk with Him, on, yes, on our own !
Gods Blessings to you, for such good sharing...
@monobeam@xanga - Yes and I have to agree that Jesus gives one hell of a Rim Job with a simultaneous Reach Around. Damn he's good!
@Svehwa@xanga - Indeed there is a mix up, partly because of our culture, and partly because the line is so fine. I think when someone gets real close with a magnifine glass looking for that "line", they usually end up crossing it. God set up a system that was intended for people to be looking forwards towards him, the pure love, and absolute submission to him; instead many people are busy getting down on their hands and knees looking backwards trying to find that line (supposedly not tot cross it, but sometimes to walk very near to it).
Like I said though, I've never seen a Church that was like the post described. Typically most Churches are more likely to error in their preaching of Grace-enabled-sin than they are of works-based-salvation. As the post did mention, sometimes you'll see the Church membership hide its sin because of trust issues or trying to put up a false perception. But that's a issue of Church unity and trust. lol
@SheilaJoyce - I'm sorry, but for discussions sake I will just through out this; I disagree with the notion of seeking Christ "on our own" and then following him on our own. I've always considered it to be teh reversal, actually. We come to Christ, not on our own, but when God prepares our hearts, prepares the messenger, and then sends the messenger to us. Then, God incorporates us (as his Child) into the Body of Christ as a "member" of the body, inextricably connected to the other members. So as we "continue" to cling, walk, and even sometimes pray to him, it's not you secluded by yourself, its you connected to the Body of Christ.
Although individual christianity has become popular, it doesn't seem biblical to me, or even realistic.
Just my thoughts.
@LightningRichy@xanga - now that was clever!
Great comments everyone. Thanks for your thoughts.