Misunderstanding Church and the "Christian Life"

Dear YM:

I'm so sorry you have been confused and hurt by ideas about what church is and should be.  This whole "Christian life" is not a set of rules, where going to church is one of the required tasks.  You're not a better Christian because you go to a building whenever programming is offered, because you carry a Bible that is underlined and highlighted, because of how you dress, because of how you clap and move during the music.

Intuitively you know that something isn't right, so you're just digging your heels in and refusing to go.  I get that.  There is a desire in you to see authentic faith--where people who profess Jesus as their Lord also act like that Monday through Saturday.  That longing to see integrity is not a bad thing.  It will drive you to seek that integrity for yourself.  But for now, it's just driving you away.  You are believing the lie that because the church is filled with hypocrites, everything else associated with it is not valid.

I'm sorry that you've been taught poor doctrine.  That the Church the Bible speaks of is a specific congregation--that unless people go to this one place, they are in rebellion and in sin.  That you can lose your salvation.  That the things that we have freedom to disagree on are instead major reasons by which to distinguish a "real Christian."

But you have also been taught that God came down to this earth to rescue.  That His love is so great that He made a way for us to be brought into His forever family.  You understood this at a young age and accepted the gift of Jesus.  You knew that without Him, you deserved to be separated from a Holy God.

Of course, because you didn't understand that you are forever secure in Him, you think that the sin of each week has cost you the salvation Jesus provided.  So, you need to pray AGAIN, and accept AGAIN, and plead AGAIN that God would keep you from sinning.

Dear, YM, this life is a process--you will battle the sin that has become habit for many years.  It cannot control you, but you will default to behavior that is not godly.  That does not mean you are any less a child of God.  In fact, you have angst about the mistakes you make and the choices that grieve God.  That fact is PROOF that you are being made new.  There is a battle within.  (Romans 7)  Those who do not have the Spirit of God in them do not have a conflict.   They do what they see as right in their own eyes.

I'm sorry you are throwing the baby out with the bath water.  I'm grateful that you will be open again to searching for that Church the Bible teaches about.  It is not a building or a congregation or a denomination.  The Church is people.  Those who love and believe in Jesus, who are being transformed day by day.

Yes, there are still "hypocrites" that attend Sunday services.  But that is not your concern.  God is a big God and and He's got this.

--Cristina

**Click here for index of other posts in this #write31days series.