Frosted Flakes Won't Cut It

People, we have a problem.

In our age, our place in space, our time – this time on earth (call it what you like) we have fallen into a dangerous state of ‘feel good Christianity’. People are hopping from church to church in hope of finding the ‘right’ one that suits them. Sadly, it’s often about programs, activities and appealing to their sense of being entertained more than the condition of their salvation and soul. People, we have a problem.

We have ‘cotton candy’ pastors oozing a high fructose version of Christianity to keep the pews and offering plates filled. Somewhere between the high voltage worship music and the pot luck dinner, people stopped being told they would go to hell if they did not accept Jesus as their savior. They are encouraged to be joyful and at peace as the flames shoot higher and higher. The Bible tells us of three young Hebrew youth that were able to do just that. However, and it’s a big however, they were able to do so because they were faithful to their faith, disciplined in their worship and refused to follow the ways of the indulged heathens around them. They were willing to die before they bow down to anything other than their God; the same God that lives and rules today.

Yet, we have churches with one eye on the Bible and the other on the clock because, heaven forbid, they should run a little over the usual service/sermon time. They have no inclination to follow the Holy Spirit in the service because, well….that would cut into lunch time and people just can not sit still and hear the Word of God if their little bellies are growling. Besides, sometimes they have to rush home for a football game where they will cheer, shout and enthusiastically sit for two – two and half hours engrossed in watching grown men run head long into one another. Can’t let that pesky church service get in the way of that, now can we? These are the same people that would faint and fall over before raising a shout or cheer for team Jesus. That’s unthinkable. People, we have a problem.

A woman told me she and her daughters changed churches because they needed a shorter service; they had other things to do. This professing Christian also believed in reincarnation. Maybe in her next lifetime she can find what she’s looking for.

One of my spiritual fathers goes to remotes places of the world to help encourage and train nationals as spiritual leaders to their people. He tells of one trip to India where traveling to the location was difficult for his team. Some of the ‘pastors’ coming to hear more about God and learn how to reach their own had walked for four days to get to this teaching seminar. Then they had to sit on the ground in the rain for the duration. Yet, they did not leave, nor complain. They sacrificed every personal comfort to learn more of God and Jesus. Here, in the land of plenty, we have people that will not sacrifice an hour of sleep to get up and dress in their multi-room homes so they can drive their comfy cars to church where they sit in the air conditioned/heated sanctuaries on padded pews and chairs unless they are being entertained and made to feel good about themselves for an hour or less, one day a week while their kids are catered to and fed snacks because that hour is just too long to expect them to act right. People, we have a problem

People are dying and going to hell all day every day everywhere you look. The God I read about in the Bible doesn’t come across as being too concerned about a sports team, or coddled kids or doing laundry or sleeping in. I do read about eternity. I do read about the depths of hell and the glory of heaven. The Bible isn’t sugar-coated so it will sit better in your mouth. If pastors, parents, grandparents, Sunday school teachers and TV preachers do not stop ignoring the basic teaching of Christianity where sin is sin no matter how you try to pretty it up, where we are to seek and worship God instead of waiting for some church-like entity to woo us to them when it’s convenient, we are perpetuating the problem. One day we will all stand before our maker and account for what we did and did not do to train up our families in the way of the Lord.

People, let’s be a part of the solution, not the problem!