Christian Living

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I am desperately afraid that sometimes we look irrelevant to a dark world. We look too good, smell too good, and seem too good for scarlet sinners to relate to our message.

Too often we try to outshine each other instead of taking our feeble (and it is feeble!) light to a darkened world. We have so much incandescence among ourselves that we have blinded eath other to the needs of the world that God loves.

Yeast won't leaven until it gets into the bowl with the dough. It is the world that needs the Light, and that's where we need to carry it by the way we live our lives. We won't get it done in a group. We must do it one by one. The Day of Pentecost has come and gone. We sheathe the Sword of the Spirit and hamper its effectiveness when we refuse to relate to the common needs of people right where they live.

As we practice Christianity among ourselves, we portray gentleness, kindness and light--which certainly is the way it should be. But Christianity is so much more than that. It's God's power to save the dirty, sin-sick, socially-unacceptable sinner. (We may think of ourselves as "socially-acceptable" sinners, but I doubt God sees a difference.) Jesus came to seek and save that which is lost--really lost, off in the far country and close to home as well. No one is too far away or too sinful for Jesus' love to reach, and we are soldiers of the Cross, so that is, of necessity, our battle plan also.

Dear Christian friends, we have not arrived--nor will we while we are in this world. We are just passing through; we are pilgrims on a journey seeking a city not made with hands. The world needs to see us as joyful searchers following a loving Shepherd--not as a flock of sheep safely home and disinterested in the poor lost sheep out on the mountain. That does not advertise a loving, compassionate, seeking Savior.

When Jesus was here on earth, the crowds that thronged Him knew that He cared for them by the way He dealt with them: he was gentle, kind and approachable. He was never disdainful of them or their needs. He never made them feel hopeless about their condition. He never saw a sinner He didn't die for.

Christianity is not an added dimension to an already ordered life. It is the very reason for being; it is the hope (and there is no other) of the world. It is the lifesaver to doomed humanity. Let's not pretty it up, dull its power, and limit it by letting the world think it exists only in beautiful church buildings and squeaky clean people. Let's admit we also desperately need a Savior, and let the world see our vulnerability and then share Him at common clay level. Christianity ought not isolate us from the world. We'll never be the world's light and salt if we hold ourselves apart from it. And that's our assignment here. Let's not limit His mighty power and message by practicing stained glass religion.

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