I spoke to a lady recently who told me how much she
loves the Lord. When I met her the first time, I didn’t doubt that she loved
the Lord, or so it seemed. “Thank you
Lord!” occurs frequently during every conversation. It doesn’t matter if the
discussion was God/church related or not, she would often go “…oh thank you
Lord”. Her love for the Lord seemed very
obvious until I quizzed her further on “the things of the Lord” and boy, was I
shocked! Indeed, she was a clear example of people “…having a form of godliness
but denying the power…” How do you say
the “Spirit” told you who I am, but when I ask how you can support what I do
you reply “…I might have to pray for the Lord to tell me if I should support
your project”? If by divine revelation, you know I am a missionary, what else
do you need to know?
Why will people act very sanctimonious but have no
clue of what righteousness and godliness is!? I wonder why people go to church,
act very spiritual on Sundays and in church, yet do not live by the
instructions in the Holy Book. Why would you call yourself a believer in Christ
but do not act like Christ? If Christianity is all about Christ-likeness, then
are we not required to live and love like Christ? Do you not know that it is a
sign of the end time to love yourself more than you love the Lord? And do you
not know that you cannot say you love the Lord when all your concern is about
yourself and your “want”?
Driven
by greed
The church, as we have it today, has been overthrown
by greed, I’m sorry to say. From the pulpit, to the pew, the clergy and laity, the
church stinks of selfishness. Preachers
tell the people to come to church so they can be blessed; people go to church
looking for what the Lord would do for them.
It seems that the church has lost understanding of the purpose of her
existence. Did God call us out to come
ask for more blessings or are we called out to worship and be a blessing to our
world? Is it all about what we get or
what we give?
God promised to supply our need, but these days we
have allowed our greed to prevent us from being the light of the world. Many of
us are even bold enough to display our voracity by showing off our several
shoes, clothing, jewelries, and cars and don’t feel any form of shame or guilt.
We have become worldlier than the heathen and we portray more of our flesh and
less of God. Is godliness about feeding yourself fat when a brother is starving
to death? Or have we forgotten that to love God is to “…share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter”?
Why
are we here?
If you ask me why the church is still here, I will
tell you it is not so we can build more churches. We are not here to acquire
wealth and become more famous. The church is not here to prove that we can
survive. We are not here to be local noise makers; we are here to reach out and
bring healing to a sick world. The church is called to be dynamic and
missionary. That’s not to say that everyone in the church should leave their
local church and move to the mission field, no! What it simply means is that we
are to have a missionary mentality. We are to have a global mindset. Every one of us must be concerned about the
state of other believers around the world. If one is hungry, it should be our
concern. If one is sick, it should be our problem. We cannot afford to isolate ourselves from the
need of other members of the fold who are not near us.
Yes
we can!
I suspect that most of you reading this article have
your homes full. When I say full, I mean full. Many sisters have the challenge
of what to wear every day; your wardrobe/closet is full and over flowing, yet
you struggle to find something to wear. Your refrigerator is full of food and yet you
still go grocery shopping that you almost have nowhere to store them. Some of you are full of food that you are
almost about to, erm…do I say explode?! Do you have plenty to eat such that you
are sick from eating? Doesn’t that tell you something? Don’t you think it is time to buy and eat
what you need and send the rest to those in need? Don’t you think that your
over indulgence has become an obstacle to your life? Do you know that the price of your new
jewelry might just save a dying child or even a family, or maybe, a generation?
Instead of another suit, why don’t you send money to support a starving
family!? Yes you can be a solution giver, just cut down on your excess
purchases and send the extra to the needy.
Not all of us can go to the mission field, but all
of us can send what we have been blessed with to support mission. Every one of us can send support to those in
need and that makes us all missionaries. I pray that the good Lord will open
your eyes to see the millions of brethren who cry to heaven daily, hoping that
your hearts will be touched. I pray that the Lord, whom you love, will stimulate
your heart and make you remember those who are dying of hunger. I pray that as
you read this, you will be motivated to take action.
