My Soap box.....

Well its been a few days since I have blogged so I have had some time to think about my subject matter. I'd like to begin by thanking you all for reading my blog - Special shout out to Mariah and Ilissa :) and Ang- you know I love ya girl. So I had an interesting conversation this week that has caused me to pull out my old soap box and dust if off. So be prepared for me to harp on my subject a little today :).
I guess to start off I'd like to say that I have been raised in church my entire life. The concept of church and God is one that I'm very familiar with. I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and I thank God every day that He saved me from hell. I am a Christian and I am a minister. I believe in the local church as a means for people to associate with other people who believe like them and to encourage each other in their faith. That being said I think there is a huge misconception among Christians about church and being a Christian in general.
The issue as I see it is a word we call "Religion". Now what is religion exactly? Religion is the rules we have created to please the faith we choose. Religion is the reason people don't want to be a Christian because they find themselves failing the rules and assume they can never be good enough for God. Religion places God in a box. This is why we have so many types of Christian churches, because each denomination has decided what their interpretation of God's rules are and have decided that their rules are the best rules. I heard it preached recently that if you try to decide what God is like instead of accepting God as multifaceted then you are basically idolizing God and are serving a false god anyway. Scary thought huh.
There are many churches/Christians out there that would rather hide from the world with their rules. Who does this help? Being a Christian isn't about hiding from people but rather reaching out to people. God is not looking for religious people - He is simply looking for relationship people! The Bible says even while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He died for us in our imperfections. It was never the expectation that we come to God perfect, just that we come to Him. God works in and through us. The Bible says - He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it! It doesn’t say be perfect then come to church. We as Gods people are presenting a Gospel that shutting people out. People are searching for reality and we are failing them as a whole. When we as Gods people start realizing that "sin" is not the issue with God! People are the issue- PEOPLE. God loves people - He hates sin, He hates satan, but people He loves! Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. What in the world do you think we are supposed to be doing? Do you really think we are supposed to be creating rules to make people perfect and then hide in our perfection? I don't know anyone who has it all together! Just because a person has an outward issue we can all see doesn’t make them unworthy or less of a person. We are all dealing with our issues- some of us hide them better than others.
In conclusion: We cannot hide out from the world- Jesus commanded us to be ambassadors to reach out the those who are hurting. All the rules in the world will not make people want to serve God. Only a relationship with the creator will make people want to serve Him. Its the love of God the brings people to repentance. We need to remember that we are not called to hide from the world but rather reach out to it!