I was lost in thought one day and had a hard time finding my way back home from my journey.
I began thinking about the possibility of a culture that had no knowledge about God. No knowledge about Christ and had never discovered the massive sacrifice that He had made, even for them, who knew nothing of Him.
And I wondered and supposed that a lone missionary traveled to their land equipped with only the Bible. And all he did was present them with the book and its contents. Suppose this missionary only read scripture to them, without any agenda, without any personal opinion, without any tradition, without any exterior regulations. Suppose the only doctrine that was formed was what came to life from inside the covers of the Bible.
What if this culture's only vision of Christ came from scripture and simply from that they were able to clearly and concisely see how to be saved, how to develop as believers and grow in their faith.
Suppose the Holy Spirit taught them from the inside and the love of Christ naturally manifested itself on the outside because of the change in their hearts.
Can you see why I was lost in thought? I have a feeling that the resulting church that would erupt out of such a pure education of God's word and would look nothing like our American Christian Church.
According to Christianity Today there are over 41,000 Christian denominations worldwide. Forty-one thousand. So many divisions from a faith that is supposed to bring unity. Why?
I think I have found the answer--it is inside of me and my own attitudes toward worship and service. In America especially, we are power-hungry and self-centered. We want what WE want--even from the church. That describes me. I feel certain I am not the only one, especially as a listen to my fellow believers devour each other with their tongues and attitudes. We can be mean in the name of God. And although I do believe there are times for flat truth-telling no matter what the consequence--it needs to be based on scripture--not opinion, not tradition, not personal agenda to maneuver a more favorable climate for our climb to the top.
And we all want different things--which is why we have so many different denominations arguing about who is right concerning the things of God.
Whether it is a legalistic congregation that has a set of rules that are implied for one to fit within the boundaries of righteousness or a group of believers who are free and unbound and imply that God has given them something that He has not given me--making them a little better than me. I do not believe anyone has it 100 percent right--especially me.
We are more worried about appearances in our pseudo worship and our pseudo serving of the poor. Our motivation is not altruistic. If we serve God because we want praise, or because we want to be well thought of among our Christian peers, or because we think our works will earn us our salvation or out of guilt, or because we think it makes us better than our brothers (spiritual pride) --our motivation makes our work dead. We need faith to breathe life into it.
The only motivation that matters is for the love of God. That is the only thing that should make us get up and go to Sunday school. Not guilt or duress. Adoration and appreciation are the only things that should move us to worship--not because we like the song. A desire to see a lost and dying found by our loving Saviour should be what prompts us to preach and serve and live a live of sacrifice--not having the most in VBS or high attendance Sunday.
You cannot change anyone from the outside in. The change must come from the inside--and humans do not possess the ability to impress this kind of change on anyone--we can't even change our own hearts. Christ and Christ alone is the one who changes the heart. And when the heart changes--the rest will follow.
In John 12:32 Jesus said that when He is lifted up (on the cross) that He will draw all men to Him. The only thing that we need to do is lift up Christ to His place of honor and glory in all our attitudes, work and worship and He will handle the drawing, the changing, the conversion of the lost. How simple is that for us? Lift up Jesus and He will draw all men to Him.
