Christian Living

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That’s what the world has of Jesus and Christianity. Mention the latter, and they picture robes, ritual, a set of rules. Christians talking about the joy of salvation but their mournful faces denying it. People don’t see much evidence or proclamation of anything different.

Immediately it’s dismissed as “just religion”—Jesus being as important to them as the weather in Mongolia. The image they have of church is the media version they see on TV every Christmas and Easter.

The sadness of it is the cameras capture what they see. Meaningless chanting and priests in long gowns and weird headgear going through rituals—“having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. From such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:5). Befrocked choirs singing without passion hymns they’ve practised three times a week. So much precision, practice and repetition for “the show” they’ve forgotten the meaning.

No wonder the churches are generally so sparsely populated. Who would want to spend two hours in such surroundings. Is that the Christianity Jesus intended? Surely not. Why do believers tolerate that? It’s all icing and no cake. It makes no more impact on this world than an ant to a mountain.

We have to project a different image. The world wants to see Jesus in action, not “religion.” The Lord wants them to see Him through us.


The opposite of that Christmas/Easter image is almost as bad. We see TV ads showing crowds of believers in a church jumping up and down to drums and electric guitars, or people “trembling in the spirit” like a swimmer emerging from icy water. “Come to our ‘new’ church. Look how with-it we are,” the ads are saying.

That is another substitution for the real thing, and many Christians are too gullible to see through it. One wonders if saving souls is the aim, or bottoms on seats and dollars in the offering. If there are TV ads they should proclaim Jesus and gospel truth, not some church.

Real Christianity is what the world wants to see. It comes from within. It cannot be an artificial, pepped-up substitute manufactured by a platform “cheerleader.”

We need to be so connected to Christ that people can see it without us uttering a word. The Holy Spirit in us ought to be a glowing candle in the hopeless gloom of this world.

When the fruits of the Spirit show in our behaviour, they’ll want to know how to get it. We won’t need to stand on a soapbox—but don’t write that off, it will save some!

We need to have a smile on our face, scriptures in our memory, and a tract in our pocket. Ready at all times to speak the Word of our great God’s salvation passionately, boldly and unashamedly.

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