I’ve been seeing more and more articles online about
Christians being persecuted in other countries. In fact, I just saw one where a
Hindu mob drove Christians from their home demanding that they renounce Christ.
Then there’s one about Christian genocide in Nigeria.
One of the worst has to be “Snitching on Christians in China
Now Pays Big Money”
While these things are heartbreaking, they are part of end
time events as foretold in the Bible. Even Jesus said, in Luke 11:49; 21:12,
and John 15:20 that his followers would be persecuted. I know there are more
scriptures regarding Christians being persecuted for the sake of being
Christians, but I don’t want to fill this up with just scriptures.
So, I believe we’re living in end times. Persecution is
happening in other countries and will eventually happen in this country. Now,
having said that, I also believe that some of us bring that persecution on
ourselves. Yes, I think we bring it on ourselves.
Too many of us are pointing at the world and saying “The
Bible says you’re going to hell for …” or “The Bible says (insert problem here)
is a sin.”
Now I’ll admit a lot of what Christians are claiming as sin
is just that by Bible standards. The problem is that we’re overlooking some very
important things.
One, we can’t apply Biblical principles/ideology to a world
that doesn’t want it and in a lot of cases just plain rejects it. Just as we
don’t want them forcing their views on us, we shouldn’t be forcing our views on
them.
Remember, God gave everyone free will. That means they all
have the right to make choices about their lives and how to live them.
I also had a very wise pastor who said once “that a person
who is convinced against their will isn’t really convinced at all.” We need to
respect people’s rights to choose how they live; whether we agree with them or
not.
Two, in John 3:16 we read, “For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten son so that whomsoever may believe in him should have
everlasting life.” KJV*
Too many Christians are spitting hellfire at the world,
instead of showing them God’s love. I’ve seen too many articles in the last few
years about Christians showing up at events where they didn’t belong and trying
to disrupt whatever was happening. In some cases, other groups have shown up to
protect the first group’s right to do whatever in peace. We as Christians
should never show that kind of disrespect to anyone.
Three, when you spit hellfire at someone, you’re pointing
your bony finger at them and judging them based on what you see on the surface.
Only God knows why they’re doing what they’re doing in the first place.
Remember when God sent Samuel to Jesse to choose one of his
sons to be the next king of Israel in place of Saul’s son? At one point Samuel
looked at one of Jesse’s sons and thought to himself, “surely this is the one.”
God spoke to Samuel and said, “Man looks at the outward. I
look at the heart.” (paraphrased) I Samuel 16:1-7
In Matthew 7:1 we read, “Judge not, that ye be not judged -
. . . Rotherham’s Empasized Bible. I could go on, but if you’ve read the Bible,
you probably know the rest or can certainly look it up for yourself. I know
that somewhere in the Bible it reads, “… if you do judge, judge righteously.”
I personally believe that “judging righteously” means
looking beyond the behavior and asking “why.” Why is that person behaving that
way? But even if we tried to do that, we’d fail. Too many of us are looking at
others with a beam in our eye. We can’t see clearly till we clean our own house
first. By that, I don’t mean be legalistic about living your life before God. I
mean go before God and ask for His help. Ask Him what you need to do to have a good,
righteous relationship with Him. That’s the start of cleaning our own house.
Four, last but not least, we’re failing to look at ourselves
first. We’re failing to look at the sins of the church and to deal with those
before we go out into the world. How many articles have you seen online
recently about pastors sexually abusing children? In one case I saw, it was his
own daughter and because “he was a good man,” he got a light sentence. I don’t
know about you, but when I read that my blood boiled with anger. “A good man”
would not have sexually abused his own daughter in the first place.
We as a church, as Christians are failing to look at our own
lives and our own problems and to deal with those things before we go out into
the world. If you really read the Bible, you’ll find that God always cleans His
house first, before He tries to deal
with the world. Even then, He allows people choices. He gave us free will, so
He will not violate that.
When the church as we know it starts worrying more about
having a relationship with God more than judging the world, things will change.
Persecution for being a Christian is coming no matter what
we do, but let’s not bring it on ourselves with our behavior.
While writing this blog, I did a search on Yahoo to see if I
could find any of the articles I mentioned about Christians disrupting events
they had no business being at. I typed in “Christians showing hate” and got a
list of articles about why we’re hated so much. Is it any wonder people are
turning away from God when they have so many reasons to hate His earthly
representatives?
Here’s a link to my search:
One final thought. There was a picture on Facebook recently
of a sign in front of a church. I wish I could share it here, but it can’t be
copied. However, it read:
“Just love everyone. I’ll sort them out later. – God”
*KJV – King James Version
No comments:
Post a Comment