Wake Up

Wake Up

I have been very troubled over the last few years when observing the decline of some Christian denominations. It’s not as if the churches are losing membership, it’s that some churches have succumb to fear. Instead of trusting God and holding to the ideals, values and teachings of Jesus Christ, certain religious leaders have chosen to promote fear within their congregations by doing exactly what the Pharisees did. Yet even Leviticus commanded the Jews to love the stranger.

We have to remember that churches are run like a business.  The mission of our lives turns from loving God and others, to serving the institution.  When we dedicate our lives to Christ, we want to please God.  It’s only natural to want to show our gratitude to God for giving us hope, peace of mind and direction in this crazy world of fear, shame and greed.

Here’s where we get cheated.  Well-meaning Christians go to seminary or bible college and are taught methods or recipes on how to grow a church.  The focus switches from loving the Devine, to learning how to guide or manipulate the congregation in order for guaranteed survival of the institution.

A lot of preachers willingly fall into the trap of using Old Testament scripture to manipulate their congregations.  They probably don’t even know they are doing it. After all, they start out with the best of intentions and end up promoting fear and guilt. We are told that in order to please God we must hate the sin but love the sinner.  What a sad testimony!

Our focus as Christians is to follow the greatest commandant by Loving God and loving our neighbors. We are not to fear the stranger.  We turn from our First Love and the result is fear based bigotry, all coming from the pulpit.  Our faith becomes compromised.  There is a reason that Jesus continues to guide us away from fear while some institutions tell us in order to please God we must dive head long into point fingers and spitting out hateful Old Testament scriptures.  We are not supposed to be living by fear but by faith.  We are not supposed to be focused on sin but on grace. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Man is saved by faith and not by works lest any man should boast.

The cure is to focus on love.  We read 1 Corinthians 13 over and over again and start to practice it, step by step. Love please God! Faith pleases God. We are commanded to love.

If you disagree with me, give me scriptural New Testament feedback.  Remember, we walk in grace, or should at least try.