Encouragement

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I address this open letter to fellow Christians within the reach of our paper today. If you are not a believer, talk amongst yourselves, or take a peek into my heart as I share some opinions with fellow fish bumper-sticker on the car folks.
There are two things on my mind today. I am sorry for using a dubious analogy an old friend used, but it fits. He said once that “it is time to put down the Sears catalog if we aren’t going to use the outhouse!” He wasn’t using this pearl of Solomonian satire for Christian reasons but it fits. We as the “Body of Christ” need an extreme body makeover. We are flabby, disease ridden, and wasting away our influence in society to the point of looking like either pointless Pharisees or saltless spice cabinet floor scrapings.
What 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NASB) (2 times 7=14...nice way of remembering it) says about Christians says it all. It pleads if “My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” We are flabby and ineffective because of our take on this verse. We, through our actions, rewrite it “If sinners humbled themselves, pray, seek church membership, and stop that nasty sinning thing so foreign to us, God will maybe, just maybe, fix’em!” We need a deep, spring cleaning. We need to evaluate ourselves, not our Christian Brother or unchurched friend. Until we make a focused effort to get our personal house in order, we will continue to flail in the wind. Join me on this one...I am the King of sinners on this stuff. I am not pointing at you, I am pointing at the whole Body of Christ. Each part of the 2 Chronicles verse is a wakeup call for us both. Hardly “humbling myself”, I would replace the word with exalt or love, but not the H word. I pray... kind of like I brush my teeth, around meals and sandwiching when I sleep. Seldom do I pray with urgency, except when I need my Santa God to fill up the ole stocking. Seek His face...see the last two sentences. Turn from my wicked ways...more like turn back to my old wicked ways. We are losing ground, today in Missouri, in America, and in the world. The time is now to act, starting with just us two.
The second issue out of the playbook is this whole sharing our faith thing. Let me start by saying very loudly and clearly... I fail in this area. Sure, I write a semi-anonymous article in our paper (who the heck is Mark Applegate anyway...sounds like a penname!) Sure I go to church whenever the lights are on. Sure I talk the churchy talk with the best of them. Bottom line...I am a chicken when it comes to telling people about Jesus face to face. I read books about it, I pray about it (right after blessing my tuna helper and Doritoes), and I think about it (mostly after the fact), I just don’t do it. God got my attention recently on this one. I had an acquaintance I do business with fairly often in one of my stores pass away within the last year. This customer had been after me to help with their seemingly small electronic repair in their home for weeks, but things repeatedly “came up”...that’s retailer talk for “too busy for your small problem”. I normally am conscientious on trying to satisfy the customer, but I blew this one off a couple times. This one probably smoked and drank too much to expose myself to. (Note the contrast of who Jesus hung around compared to my pious thinking.) Then I pray daily over my malt-o-meal “Lord, show me someone to share with today.” God is probably saying “Do they need to wear an ‘I Need Jesus’ hoodie or carry a sign?” Who knows if this person was a Christian when they died? It is too late to hash that one out now. I feel like an accessory to their punishment.
Bottom line...I can only think of three concrete reasons why we don’t share our faith. 1. We don’t believe enough. 2. We don’t love unchristian people more than we love ourselves. 3. Our sin embarrasses/shames us into being ineffective.
If we had the cure for cancer, whom would we tell? Everyone!! We would probably buy a megaphone and shout it in the air! We would hit the chat rooms, the coffee shops, and the street corners! We would tell it to friends, semi-friends, and anyone who would listen! Would we be afraid of rejection, like I often am with sharing Christ? No, if we saw it cure cancer, what fear is there?
I am here to tell you, we have a cure for Death! All death! John 3:16 says “shall not perish, but have everlasting life”. 1 Corinthians 15:55 (NASB) says”O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” Sure we will die on Earth, but we will have eternal life in Heaven! Maybe I am old fashioned, but I believe in heaven and hell. We all, before we die, get to pick between the two. By all means within ourselves, shouldn’t we show our neighbor these alternatives, and let them choose? Do we believe enough? Do we love enough? Do we sin too much? I am going to do better. I have a long way to improve, but improve I will nonetheless! The time is now to “put down the Sears catalog if we aren’t going to use the outhouse!” Join me in committing to telling others. Email comments or ideas to [email protected]. Thank you and God Bless!

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