Bleed Between The Lines

Have you seen the surveys that say what percent Angel are you and what percent Devil are you? They are really popular with almost everyone. So what’s the apeal? Why is everyone so proud to be bad. I’m not talking about people who feel that their life style is OK. I’m talking about people who feel like partying is wrong and immoral but like to do it to be wild. I think that there’s a simple answer to why people act out and church is to blame. Sorry church, you know I support group worship but we’re failing in one major issue. Judgment is not the problem, no drinker, drug addict, or sinner of any sort left church because they felt judged or at least not most. Most people go to church to find moral guidance and so they expect a certain level of judging, they leave because church people pretend to be perfect.

If you ask someone outside of the church, where do people in church fall short, they might say “they’re fake, they gossip, they tip poorly, they get angry really easy” but if you ask the same question to a christian, Where do they fall short? you get a cop out answer like “I don’t read my bible enough, or I don’t give enough to the poor” We make mistakes too and if we don’t start admitting openly how wretched we are then we’re going to loose the world and some of our own to Hell.

So the next questions are important to solve the problem. What makes something Holy? Who is a Saint? Who’s a sinner? To understand all of this I need to go a lot deeper. When God created everything in the beginning he called all of it good. It all was designed to co-exist with God and exist forever. When man sinned in the garden of Eden (the story about the snake and the apple in the beginning of the bible), man did something that had a lot of repercussions. See God is perfect, before there were physics or time or matter or anything that makes up our world God was everything and so God is love. What we know as love is what looks like God. God is good so everything that exists with God is good, everything apart from God is bad. When Adam and Eve “sinned” they separated them selves from God and we know that anything not with God is bad. Now this world is apart from God and so it’s bad. This is how a person who gives everything they have to the poor and is nice to everyone can go to Hell. That person looks good because of the things they do but their heart isn’t good because it isn’t connected to God. God knows our hearts and so even if the persons actions seem to justify them that’s not the issue. The issue involves people sinning and separating themselves from God. Now we have to go to 1 Samuel chapter eight; in this chapter Gods people ask Samuel for an earthly king, now God tells Samuel that they’ve rejected him, not Samuel so God gets mad. (note to self don’t reject God, he doesn’t like it!) God knew the heart of man from the beginning of time and so the answer from the beginning was Jesus. So people separate themselves from God, then they demand an earthly king. God then sends them one, (many years later) Himself in human form! God was the answer all along. If you’re not connected to God then you die, people took there faith away from God and put it in worldly things and so God the father sent Jesus (God the son) to pay the penalty for our sins so we could be united with God and be good again. So if our sin separated us from God and Jesus died to reconnect us then how do I know if I’m a saint or a sinner? Have you been reconnected to God through the blood of Jesus? If you have then you’re connected to God and made Holy in God’s sight.

Now as followers of Christ we’re still human and still sin but most of us won’t admit it. Now please don’t use salvation as an excuse to sin, but if you’re connected to God you’re 100% saint because you’re connected to God and remember, God is the standard for good. I firmly believe that if we as a body of believers stand up and admit when we lie, cheat and steal then more people would be willing to walk in the doors and ask for forgiveness knowing that they’re with people who need help just like them. They could also give their shortcomings to God and they wouldn’t feel the need to justify them.