Wouldn’t it be amazing if we treated the church as our primary jobs? Imagine the good we could accomplish… This world would be completely different if we gave first to God and saved ourselves for last.
I had this thought while standing for the worship portion of service yesterday morning. I wondered if poverty, and homelessness would still exist if our primary jobs focused on strengthening the church to be in a position to truly give to the world and be the light it needs.
Most of us work our jobs from 9am to 5pm, or some sort of eight hour configuration to equate to a 40 hour work week, and leave everything else as leftovers. Our family, friends, pets, hobbies, etc get whatever time remains providing that we have enough energy or time to give.
Ironically, we give the most time and our best energy to the thing which is temporal and doesn’t produce an eternal effect. Our souls and the souls of those around us are eternal, yet are neglected and overlooked constantly – not to mention the Creator of those souls.
Romans 12:5 states that we are the body of Christ. The Church, with its various parts, represent Christ on this earth. We’re supposed to be his hand and his heart. We have a job to do here for God to further His eternal objective. But we haven’t been very effective.
In 1962 prayer was removed from school. Later, in 1973 aborion was made available. Today, statistics of divorce, poverty, disease and murder are staggering. And where’s the church?
The church is fighting so hard just to get it’s own members back in the door that the communities around us are often neglected. The light is dimming. When Jesus returns will he find a church at all?
Church was never meant to be a building to be frequented once or twice a week. The church is a lifestyle. It’s buying the homeless man you see on your way to work breakfast in the morning. It’s visiting the sick person in the hospital to show love. It’s bringing food and clothes to the family in need and standing up for biblical principles and standards when our goverment tries to overstep. It’s voting for the man who aligns himself with the Bible, not the one with the best economic plan.
But we’re too busy… We “don’t have time”… “I’m so busy with work”… Some of us are too busy to even go to Church much less be the Church.
Meanwhile, the mouth of hell is being made larger just to accomodate all the lost souls who will spend eternity there (Isaiah 5:14).
Wouldn’t it be great if the church was seen as a powerhouse and not the laughing stock of this country? Wouldn’t it be awesome if Christians were seen as good and strong and not weak, unable to handle their own faith? Instead, we fight with people when they don’t agree with us and judge those that we have no place judging. We don’t have enough confidence in ourselves to truly stand up for what we believe and slip away into the shadows because we’re afraid to look foolish if we fight and actually share our faith.
Many of us don’t even read our Bible much less understand it’s scripture and the weight of its doctrine. So how could we ever fight the evolutionists or the scientist who tell us a baby being formed in the womb is just a series of cells and not actual life yet. 2 Timothy 2:15 says to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”.
I guess we stopped studying. Or maybe we’re just waiting for the other guy to “fight the good fight” so we can sit back and take credit for it. It’s our pastors job to do all the fighting, right? No, he’s too busy trying to help you with the same issue you’ve been dealing with for the past twenty years and he can’t really focus on that.
Christ loves the church and He’s coming back for a church without spot or wrinkle (Ephesians 5:25-27). I don’t intend to be a spot or a wrinkle. I’m trying to forget what I “need” and putting the things of God first. I didn’t become a Christian because it’s fun, I’m not doing this just to “get to heaven”. I believe my faith is the truth of God and I really don’t like having to go to Church on Sunday mornings, but I do it because God is bigger than me and He said to do it.
It’s hard to read my Bible when I have twenty other things I need to do. It’s not fun being called weak because of my faith, or being the brunt of all the jokes. I’m not keeping up appearances because I don’t care about my appearance. I’m not perfect and I have a ways to go, but God needs some people to step up and carry the burden. God needs light back in this world and I don’t want to be giving an account of my life to Him on the day of judgement and say “Sorry, my job kept me too busy to help your church.”
There’s still time to change things. There’s still time to turn this around. It’s not about Liberals, Democrats or Republicans. It’s not about the economy or the President. It’s about God and His people. It’s about His plan and the mandate he has on us to be a representation of who He is. It’s not about playing church and having the good music and the feel good message. It’s about being the body of Christ. It’s about being the Church that God envisioned to show his love. It’s about changing my mindset from “I’m going to Church” to “I am the Church”.
Becoming Invincible 