Sitting here in my family room. Stunned. Shocked. Feeling like many of us Christians have been tricked. Big time.
Have you ever had a moment when things you've been working on and learning crystalize for you a bit? I just had one of those. Here is a question:
Do you think it's possible that our enemy, Satan, has used "love" against us?
Now I'm gonna ramble a bit here. I'm sure clear writing will come in a later post. LOL. But here is what I mean....
The modern church has every innovation. We have buidlings. We have websites, blogs, and twitter. We have TV programs. We have programs and counseling centers and food banks and clothes closets and latte machines and rock-climbing walls. We have a zillion bible translations.
Yet look at the number of Evangelicals in my previous post. 4%. If if that number is 3 times wrong: 12%. What in the world is wrong?
I've been racking my brain and heart over this for months. Why aren't we able to reach lost people effectively? And here is the rub...I don't think there is a huge lack of "love." Most Christians are very loving. Most pastors are very loving. Most churches are very loving. Christians all over are taking people food, funding missions, encouraging people, tweeting kind thoughts, etc. What's wrong?
Here is what I've noticed. I could be wrong so check me. There is a LOT of "love," but it's only the love culture accepts. Love doesn't leave people in darkness and sin. Yet there is the problem. The church does just about everything BUT deal with the thing that TAKES THE MOST LOVE...the sinful heart. Everytime we see a cross, we are reminded of both the wrath and love of God! The Law required death for sin...that's why we needed a Savior. Jesus came to "save his people from their sins!" (That's in the bible somewhere.) LOL
In other words, Jesus came to heal broken hearts, bind up the wounded, and set captives free. We read that and say ok, we need to be loving like that. And we should!!! But in keeping with His mission "to seek and save" the lost, the healing, wound-fixing, and captive freeing was first and foremost from sin...the thing that separates man from God. Isn't the whole point eternal life?
So, back to my original question. Is it possible that our enemy has used our understandable desire to love broken people against us? Now...true love...the love that Jesus displayed....is considered UNLOVING. Calling people to repent, turn from sin and to God that they might be saved is actually considered a not-so-loving thing to do...even by the church! What? IT IS LOVE that compels a christian to minister the gospel!
So people come to our altars because of life's tough circumsances (one must never make light of those), but not necessarily because they see sin as exceedingly sinful. Why? Because we don't teach that anymore. No wrath, no coming judgment, etc. The problem is, brokeness over life's issues though painful, in and of itself doesn't save. One must truly repent! But if we don't love enough to lay down the therapy and address the reason that Christ came (to deal with man's sin), people are in danger of false conversion! That's even worse than just straight up being lost! I'm sitting here tripping at how pervasive this is! The VERY THING that sets captives free (the preaching of the whole Gospel) seems untenable to Christ's church! What? And then we wonder why our "decisions" fall away rate is 80-90%. Oh help Lord.
Help me out somebody. I'm not posting this in arrogance or like I know it all. And I'm not talking about yelling, spitting, accusing, or being a jerk. I'm talking about helping someone see WHY grace is GRACE! This issue REALLY hurts. Eternal punishment is no joke.
