What In The” Pew” Are We Here For?
Over the past year our world has changed in ways I could have never imagined. Anger, hatred, violence, racism, discrimination and evil seem to have taken over our streets and hearts like a plague cast on Egypt. The love for our fellow brothers and sisters seems to be at an all time low. For some reason my soul just simply can’t yet conform to the new days that now lay before us.
A few weeks ago a good friend and someone I really look up to stopped in the middle of town on a street corner and spoke to me. We began talking about things and the state of the world today. In talking he said to me “ we seem to have forgotten whom the church really is. We are the church each and every one of us that claims to believe and serve The True Living God.” Even a few weeks later his words continue to ring in my ears. I too had forgotten that I am a church. Oh how I need to clean up the windows of my soul and repaint my weather beaten steeple. My church bell seems to be out of order and in desperate need of repair I am sure. I can’t remember the last time someone actually listened to me when I rang my bell and reminded folks that someday Jesus would be returning. Clearly those around me are unable to hear the ring and clammer of my personal church anymore.
I have been struggling the past year waiting for fellow Christians to sound the alarm against the awful things that are currently going on in our world. I have waited for church groups, fellow church members to stand up and unite in prayer and hope for a better tomorrow. I waited for calls to the altar for prayers of unarmed shooting victims, children and teachers killed in school shootings, women abused and mistreated, deliverance and protection for desperate immigrants, drug addicts, loved ones without medical insurance and sanity and civility within our own government again. Yet all I have heard are crickets. Very few sermons are being preached and very few prayers are being offered amongst the pews of our country each and every Sunday. Yet if a policeman is shot in the line of duty I often will hear certain preachers mention that. Honestly I don’t see the difference, each one mentioned is just as awful as the other. Why on earth are the others never mentioned? Do we God’s people not care about all of that? Shouldn’t we care about all of this? Have we lost our will to show compassion towards our fellow man? Have we ever stopped to think about how God truly feels about all of that?
What if God today in this moment decided to shut His borders? What if because of the state of our world today God decided we were not His people. Our behavior or looks no longer resembled someone welcome in Heaven? What if God turned His back on our desperate cries? What if He began to snatch away our children without justification, compassion or care? What if God took the mirrors of our souls and used them as reflections of Him? What if God chose to run His Kingdom like we do here on earth? What shape would we all truly be in then?
Church attendance around this country is at an all time low. People like me are desperate for a compassionate world. We long for a world that God Himself would be so proud of. Yet we walk amongst fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and some act like they are spiritually and morally dead. Each Sunday folks are feeling like they are attending a funeral. Absolutely no compassion being preached in the majority of the world. Very few shouting “We Are The World.” People holding on more tightly to political views and political parties than the teachings of Jesus Christ. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthews 5:7-10.
Honestly people what and whom have we become? Have we forgotten to clean the windows of our souls that our little light might shine? Have we adorned our steeples with so much materialistic garbage that our steeples can no longer be identified or recognized? Have we unknowingly left our church within the pews of the thousands of building across our land? What in Jesus name are we doing? Why are we even bothering to attend church? Have we forgotten that we are the true and living church and not the brick and mortar? Has it just simply become a bad habit some type of twisted ritual? Seriously my fellow brothers and sister…… What In The “Pew” Are We Here For?
Blessings Upon Blessings
Fantastic! This is so right on. The churches that ARE flourishing are following your description of the church.