Friday, 10 July 2009

• Christian Churches: A Place of Healing or a Masquerade Ball?

  

  

  One of the biggest problems with Christian churches today is that some of them are not places where you go to get help. They are not a place for you to bring your real self. The truth is that in some churches, you are expected to put on your happy face and leave the sad face at the house. Didn't Jesus say that a physician is for the sick and not the well? So how come everyone in the church always looks so happy?

  Not all churches are filled with fake people like that, but I've been to my fair share of masquerade ball services. At these services, you come in smiling. You don't dare share your true inner feelings because the truth is that NO ONE REALLY CARES HOW YOU REALLY FEEL! When the greeters greet you at the door smiling, they don't really want to know your life story. They don't even want to hear, "Not to well actually." They want to hear the usual, sometimes falsely felt, "I'm blessed and highly favored of the Lord!" Sure, you're blessed and highly favored all the time, but were you that excited at the house or in the car? Or were you crying or feeling depressed? It's perfectly okay to say the truth about how you feel. Christians should be honest. Shouldn't they?

  At these grand masquerade ball services at church, you come looking your best. You wear your finest clothes, your biggest bling, your mask/makeup, and you DANCE! You hear the drums and the organ and you dance. You get out in the aisles depending on how pretty you can dance. And then when the music stops, it's like musical chairs. Everyone stops and sits down and waits for the music to start up again.

  Now of course, everyone is not faking their "dance". I'd even dare to say that MOST people are not faking it. BUT some people are. I've seen one older lady who's the best dancer, but she'll go to sleep as soon as she sits down and the pastor gets up. Maybe she's tired, or maybe she's faking the funk...

  But I'm not writing this to insult people who dance in church. I get excited in church too! I love to show the Lord how I feel about Him. I love to praise Him in the "timbrel and dance". But I praise Him because I know Him very well and love Him very much. I do the same stuff in church that I do alone in my front room and bedroom and car. I'm actually more hype solo than I am in public! But anyways, the purpose of this post is to talk about why we can't be our REAL selves in church.

  There are some churches where it's not okay to bring your issues to the altar. There are some churches where it's not okay to come as you are as a sinner. There are some churches where you are expected to put on your mask and dance. No one knows who you really are. And to be honest, no one WANTS to know who you really are. No one wants to know if you're a homosexual. No one wants to know if you have pedophilic tendencies. No one wants to know if you have a drug addiction. You know why? Because it's not pretty. If you DO tell them, they'll just think, "I wish s/he'd put back on his/her mask! This is not looking pretty!"

  If you fail to bring your real self into relationship, then you'll never get fixed. Smiling does not at all cure issues. Jesus does. But what if in your church, it's not okay to bring issues to the altar? Imagine going to a clinic where the doctors and nurses were grossed out by illnesses and ailments. They frowned upon it, they talked bad about those who had it, and they refused to acknowledge it. How beneficial would those doctor visits be?

  The same goes for church. What use is there going to a church where issues are frowned upon, the people with the issues are slandered, and the pastors, deacons, missionaries, mothers, and parishioners refused to address the issues? You would get as much help as you would at the aforementioned type of clinic.

  We have to be careful that we are not the whitewashed tombs Jesus was speaking of. Notice how Jesus never really insulted people EXCEPT hypocrites! He called them vipers and fools and sons of the devil. He said that they made people TWICE the sons of hell as they themselves were! Jesus was a gentle person, but one thing He could not stand were hypocrites.

  I define hypocrisy as the act of someone who proclaims to be against a certain thing even though they do that very thing themselves. There's a lot of hypocrisy in the church. We are supposed to love people as Jesus did. Jesus never accepted sin, but He always accepted the sinner.

  Why do we expect people to be an alcoholic on one Sunday and then TOTALLY delivered on the next? Don't get me wrong. It is possible. I've heard of spontaneous deliverance from the strongest of drugs and addictions with the power and blood of Jesus. But that is not usually the case. It takes awhile for people to be "perfect". Justification is an act. Sanctification is a PROCESS. And if we're honest, us Holy Ghost-filled Saints had our process. We all didn't quit fornicating, drinking, clubbing, gambling, fighting, cursing, etc. the very day we gave our lives to Christ. So why are we being hypocrites and placing this burden on the backs of others?

  One of my favorite passages in the bible is John 8:3-11 which is the one about the woman who was caught in the act of adultery. The religious men wanted her stoned to death, but Jesus said, "Do any of these men condemn you? Neither do I. Go and sin no more."

  This woman was not going to get any better just because people threw stones at her. You won't get any long-term improvement just because a bunch of mean people are throwing insults and condemnation at you. You get better when you are accepted by Jesus just as you are. When you experience His acceptance, love, and forgiveness of you. When you feel that wonderful acceptance and love, you WANT to do better. You allow Jesus' power to work in your and make long-term changes. Notice the order Jesus did things in. First, the no condemnation. THEN, the life instruction. "Go and sin no more." Notice that He didn't call this woman a dirty whore. He didn't say, "I wish you'd burn in hell for all eternity!" He defended her, he loved and accepted her, and then he helped her. Not a mean thing was done or said.

  We think that people can stop being gay because we say, "Gay is wrong! It's nasty! You'll burn for that!" But that's not the answer. Throwing stones is not the answer. 100% truth with 100% grace and love is the answer. The truth is that sexual perversion of any kind is a sin. If you will condemn a homosexual, you'll first have to condemn a lot of your family members and friends who fornicate, commit adultery, watch pornography, masturbate, etc. THEN AND ONLY THEN, can you cast the first stone. The men in the bible passage weren't able to do it, so neither will you. Why would you want someone to be dead when you can want them to be saved? Why would you want someone to be condemned to hell when you can want them to be delivered and go to heaven instead?

  Back to the topic of being real in the church, I'm not saying that we should just let people prance around in their sins in the church. I don't think men should get married to men in the church! I don't think adulterers should bring their mistresses to the church! I don't think prostitutes and strippers should wear their "work clothes" to the church! I don't think people should flaunt their sins because church is not the place to glorify your sins. It's the place to glorify God. It is a holy place. Yes, the people are the church and not the building. But the building is where God's spirit visits us at times. Everyone should feel welcome in the church just like everyone should feel welcome in a clinic. If anyone should be kicked out of the church, it should be a witch who's causing trouble or a hypocrite, but definitely not the sick. They are the ones who need the physician!

  If you have no idea what kind of people I'm talking about, here's a few things you might hear them say:

  "She know she wrong for wearing that short mess of a skirt. She got saved last week, and she still in the world."

  or

  "He's going to hell for that!"

  The first one shows that the person speaking this thing has no idea that sanctification is a process. You can be granted heaven as your eternal home in one second, and yet need a lifetime of sanctification. Also, the person speaking these two sentences wants the FRUIT to change before the TREE has even had time to change. You don't change the fruits first. You get the tree fixed first! Then and only then will the fruit change!

  The second statement shows that the person immediately casts people into hell (as if he were God Almighty Judge Dude) based on what he sees at that particular moment. You don't know WHO is going to heaven or hell. I thoroughly believe that when we get to heaven, we'll be SHOCKED by who IS there and even MORE SHOCKED by who's not! The same will go for people in hell perhaps! God judges the heart, but man judges the outward appearance. We think that because women wear long skirts they must not be whores. We think that because a man wears a cleric collar, he must not be a practicing homosexual. God judges the inner man. WE judge the outer man.

  Also, that second statement shows that the person saying it must have been saved ALL their life which we know is impossible. Does he not remember when he was in the clubs drinking, in the bed fornicating, and/or at the store stealing? Well, if he's not in hell for that, then the other dude doesn't have to go either. Sin alone does not send you to hell; UNREPENTANT sin is what sends you to hell. We all sin on the regular, but only people who have died without repenting of their sins end up in hell.

  A personal example I'll use is that in college, I used to party a lot. I partied A LOT. Most people who knew me my freshmen year knows that about me. I stayed drinking at a club and tempting men with dance. How many people looked at me and said, "She's going to hell for that!"? All of them would be counted as liars because I'm saved now, and I'm going to heaven for that! You'd be a fool to judge me based on that very moment at the club because that moment changed. I got saved. And this happens with every currently saved person. All people don't stay sinners forever. So if I didn't stay a sinner forever, then neither does everyone else have to stay a sinner forever.

  In summary, Christian churches should be a place where sinners, believers, and unbelievers get 100% truth with 100% love and grace. That's the way Jesus loves us. He doesn't condemn us; He says, "Go and sin no more." Also, Christian churches should not be a place where we put on our happy faces if we're really feeling like crap. We should be able to tell our fellowman how we need a shoulder to cry on or a listening ear or a helping hand. The Bible says enter His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. But I feel that we should also feel comfortable showing our true inner feelings and thoughts and issues so that they can be addressed just as we would tell a doctor that we had a lump or a pain or a rash. Only the addressed issues can be healed.

  John 8:3-11

  The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said unto him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” . . . But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus looked up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.”

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