In a world that devours its young, Christians protect the helpless.

In a world that hollows out the word god and fills it with whatever garbage pours out of the TV, Christians hallow His name – we wear his name with joy and compassion and humility.

In a world where "I" rule myself, or else an assortment of powers and deities and celebrities rule, Christians pray that God hurries up and makes the world just the way He always dreamed it would be.

In a world where people devour each other for MORE-MORE-MORE, Christians rejoice that they can depend on God for their daily bread and give away whatever else comes our way.

In a world where people's hearts are being savagely shredded by guilt, Christians forgive. Christians ask for forgiveness. Christians open the gate to the forgiveness of God. Most homosexuals know what we believe about their lifestyle. What they don't know, because we don't live it worth a damn, is that "hate the sin, love the sinner" is utterly backwards. They are created in the image of God and desperately need to see from our mouths and eyes and hands and feet how deeply God loves them.

In a world deluded by the powers to believe that things will go on just as they are, or that we're progressing towards some great point of evolutionary transformation… Christians are realists. We know evil is real – and we fight it with the only power that matters – selfsacrificial love and truth intertwined and inseparable. We know tribulation and testing is real. New Creation is coming, and the world is white unto harvest.

"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen."

That is not what the church is supposed to be.

The church should be a safehouse where believers worship together. We should be witnessing and spreading the gospel to everyone all the time where we see them. Not bringing them into the church where they bring all of their immoralities with them. Paul talkes about us asking our brothers will not turn from their sin to leave the church and we Americans ask all the unsaved to enter it.

I think a lot of the problems ya'll are all talking about would be a mute point if we corrected our view of what the church is supposed to be.

Feel free to disagree with me at colt45oncarthel@gmail.com

Pure Religion is defined in James 1:27

A Christian's walk can be judged by his/her (their Ministries' Fruit) found in Galatians 5 (and then read Galatians 6 for edification

God is a Holy God and no matter how we spin the idea of sin, we have to read: Romans 12, Colossians 3 and Hebrews 12 to understand that God is a Holy God and no matter how tolerant we should be, we have to put off the old self and allow the Holy Spirit the freedom to sanctify our bodies (our temples) in our new self.

Here is where "Christians", who we will define as those who profess Christ as savior, make the mistake in judging others. Jesus was very careful to tell us in Mathew not to judge others unless we deem to be judged by the same standard of hypocrisy. The real problem with this knock on Christianity is this – we sometimes forget to truly be the church (refer back to James 1:27 for guidance). Jesus said to his disciples (those who profess his name) that He is the child and person who needed help. The ones who we help and care for and love.

Sin is sin no matter how the "world" spins it. We do not have to accept the sin, but we do have to love the sinner. If we would truly love them and feed them (the Word and prayer) and scatter the seed, God would take care of the rest.

Holiness never means lowering Christ's standards to meet the worlds acceptance. Rather it means consistently sharpening our lives with the Word of God and praying continually in order to let the "light" that Jesus calls us to shine change the World.

Just my opinion, Trey.

Lord I hear so much, but I see so little in my own life. I pray that I will be more receptive to "YOUR WORD" and "YOUR SPIRIT" that will guide me through my life. Yes, Lord I know that people are there to help, but ultimately its YOU who I want to guide me, it's YOU I want to convict me and its YOU who I want to heal these sinful wounds.

Lord I love you from the bottom of my heart. I pray that my life can be more pleasing to you….. THROUGH MY ACTIONS. Lord allow me to practice what I preach… to not judge, but to love the sinner… You will convict them Lord, not me. Its only my job to love the lost and to pray for them. Lord I pray that we all come together as one body of Christ….. ONE GENUINE BODY OF CHRIST THAT WANTS TO LOVE YOU AND OTHERS LIKE WE NEVER HAVE BEFORE!!!!

Amen

When the world sees our humility and our willingness to help people of all kinds and ethnos, they will see Christ.

Secondly, we must also address our eagerness to look for answers in another program or an author's suggestions. When i look at the New Testament Church as demonstrated in Acts, i see people who are relying upon the power of the Holy Spirit, rather than the prevailing or popular ideas of the day.

Trey, thank you for openning the conversation. May i also suggest the book Why We're Not Emergent? Also a very good read!

I've read this several times, and am just finishing up walking another class through it.

L1 – Love God
L2 – Love Others

I have struggled with the corporate church's attitude towards many things over the years. I have been very angry at times and I have been very sad at times. But it still all comes down to following L1, L2. If I love God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind and love my neighbor as myself, the world will see Jesus in my life.

I will be the first to admit I don't fully understand why such broken vessels have been chosen by God to be the church. But the truth is we have been and even when we don't agree with everything, at the end of the day we are it. We are the church. We have been placed where we are, at the time we have been placed to glorify Him. So, everyday I begin by asking God to help me to POUR MYSELF out, to be totally surrendered and filled with Him. Then I can go out into the world and have some chance of living in a way that allows a broken world to see the Savior who died for them. And that means that I love the person that God created regardless of where they are at in their journey. Hopefully others see that it is not the building I worship in on Sunday or the name on the sign in front of that building that matters in my life. I hope the people God connects me to everyday can see that I genuinely love them, right where there are, exactly how they are. Because only if they can see that in my life will they ever want to believe that the Jesus who loves me and died for me also loves them and died for them.

Jesus disciples walked with him everyday and heard more teaching in intimate settings away from the crowds and yet they were selfish, power hungry, disobedient and faithless, just to name a few.

Our Bible is filled with ordinary bone heads that God used despite their character flaws.

Thanks for the post and the thoughts, Trey. Keep up the great work!

I have learned that My walk with Jesus is my walk. Not his,hers, or anyone else's. Reading about Jesus in the Bible, and prayer, are the communication I need to follow Jesus, not necessarily what a "Christian" is supposed to look like. Young people need to hear that message more in my opinion.

I normally just read but wanted to put my 2 bits worth in.

For me, the answer is to realize how much God has loved me (Luke 7:47). When I get those glimpses of his incredible love, I find that I am able to love others. But to love others, I must be around others…all sorts of others. I must be willing to serve my neighbor, to stop and talk, to see a need and work to fill that need, to see Jesus in them and then serve them as if they were Jesus.
Since I know me, I know that I am not capable of doing that alone. I need others to come alongside me and do the same. I need brothers and sisters whom I can encourage and who encourage me, whom I can inspire and who inspire me. I need them to see me struggle and have them help me up. I need the church and the church needs me. As flawed and un-Christian as we may be, we need each other. And it is only through learning to leave the pew and begin working together that we will discover what all of our centuries of studying, arguing, debating, and thinking have failed to illuminate – that Christianity is learned by experience not osmosis.
That's THE answer that I hope to discover…