Those close to me know that I have embarked on a spiritual journey that is fully exploring the outer limits and boundaries of my theology. For those that are worried, no I am not becoming one of the pseudo-religious weirdos that believe the God is an mysterious mystic entity that is individually expressed through whatever form or way I deem fit but more on the issue and condition of my heart.
I was sitting down enjoying a wonderful Venti coffee with a shot of caramel mixed in when I had a sudden realization or epiphany. It had occurred to me that in my personal spiritual walk with God I had missed something vitally important. Somehow cloaked in the mirage of graduating Bible School and having invested both willingly and unwillingly 25 years in the Apostolic-Pentecostal movement that somewhere along this journey I have missed Christ and His message. Crazy, huh? To think that Christianity actually goes beyond Acts 2:38? But to actually love people and care for them and how they feel and what they are experiencing...
I wonder how we so blatantly ignore the message of love presented by Christ? How could we treat our brothers and sisters in the world and church with such disregard? Slander, malice, hatred, jealousy, envy, racism and the list could go on and on. We are so guilty of letting the self-imposed title "Christian" roll off our tongue as we so easily profess Christ in our lives yet we live so diametrically opposite of Him. Christ-like?? I think not.
Sometimes it's ignorance or faulty teaching that leads to this condition but other times its just easier to live a life devoted to Christ with just mere words. I was in conversation with someone who is a life long Christian and they made a claim that the scripture speaking of being unequally yoked refers to inter-racial marriages and my parents (Dad-white, Mom-Korean) are not in the will of God and despite the fact that they are good people...they just didn't have the knowledge of what the scripture really meant and married before coming to Christ.
What ignorance! What faulty teaching?! We sing the song "Jesus loves All the Little Children," but really deep in our hearts we know (think) that He only loves kids of no color.
Folks...if we are to love people and reach people, racism and ignorance must be abolished. Twisting scripture to fit what ever bias or cultural preference you have is dead wrong! Life long traditions and mental blocks must be broken and destroyed. We will not reach this world and touch people's life with archaic attitudes.
True love requires intense sacrifice of traditions, preferences, and attitudes. Serving people will always demand your energy, money, and time. The question is are we willing to change to culture of the Church and shed the label "Christian" until we actually reach a point in our spiritual walk where we really do mirror Jesus and His ministry?
Or will we wander fruitlessly, blind, ignorant, and eventually irrelevant?
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Great blog. It is crazy that we go through years of sunday school and sit through hours of church services and then we miss the whole point. A good question to ask is what are we teaching in church that is causing us to stray from the whole point of Christianity.
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