If you live in the same world I do, you've noticed that the
church as a whole (and we as individual Christians) doesn't get a
lot of respect from the world around us. In fact, we seem to be the
worst group of people out there, if you believe the statements made
in and by the media. NO! Don't shake your head and say, "what they
say doesn't matter". The world's perception of us may be based on
lies, misunderstandings and half truths, but their perception of us
MOST DEFINITELY matters.
Folks, we are suppose to be God's light to a dying world. We have to
show them who we really are, and help them understand that we are
here to help them meet Christ, before they will listen to why they
need Christ. How do you stand on your convictions and still manage
to draw them to God? Actually, it's not as hard as you think. Let me
give you an analogy. My son D'Mitri is not quite 2 years old. He had
2 ear infections and pink eye recently. We had to give him medicine,
if he was going to get better. Problem was, he hated the taste of
the medicine. It was chalky and disgusting. We had three choices:
1) Don't bother to give it to him and hope that he got better on his
own. All the while watching him suffer from the viruses inside his
body. 2) Jam it down his throat and hope that he got enough of it
into his system (before spitting it back out) for him to get better.
3) Assure him that this was going to make his boo-boos go away if he
took it like a big boy and then reward him with something special to
eat or drink when he did take it
I realize that analogies are never perfect. You can always find
loopholes and contradictory pieces within an analogy, but the basics
of this analogy are accurate. If we want to spread God's Word to the
people around us, we have to demonstrate the power of it within our
own lives and then show them how much they need it too. We cannot
continue to curse and abandon the world around us for sins that they
are caught up in. We will never break Satan's grip on folks if we
merely stand arrogantly in front of people and declare that
homosexuality, drugs, fornication, greed and the like are sins and
that God hates these practices. Yes, all of these are clearly
designated as sins within the Bible, but so is arrogance, hatred,
and a host of other things that you and I struggle with. We have to
stop looking down on folks and start helping them get up.
In closing, If we don't lead to people to the feet of Jesus, Satan
will drag them away. You may be a retail clerk or a construction
worker. You might be a school teacher or a stay at home parent. You
might be a truck driver or a factory worker. Whatever your job is
doesn't matter. If you are a Christian, you're career is a
missionary. We live in a fallen world, let's start picking it up
instead of stomping it further down.
