CHURCH DEFINED

Church comes in varied molds as well as public perceptions.  Some believe it the lifeblood of a community.  Others think it to be a Sunday morning penalty box; sort of a make-up hour for all of the spiritual neglect in our lives.  Still others see church as a nasty six-letter word.

No one has disrupted the joy and the power of church like those of us in it.  We push Jesus' teaching; yet, seem to ignore them when not found to be handy for us.  How many in the church know that we are to refrain from judging others because we are equally guilty?  Basically, we trample that text.

How often do we justify our lack of faithfulness to Him while living with a critical eye toward another?  And by the way, faithfulness to God is not to be correlated with church attendance.  One can be a regular pew-sitter with little certainty that God is active among us.

Church defined?  There could be as many variables as there are members.  There does seem to be a few strong factors expected to be found among us which, with truthful evaluation, might not be our primary focus.

Jesus is the one who perfectly disrupts religiously rote practices.  When we slip into such a spiritual posture, meaningless boredom is quick to follow.  Criticism of others becomes our strong talk; even though not one of us is better than the worst culprit we can name.  We tend to point to others flaws to justify our own lack of spiritual integrity.  I did it for years until I saw myself.

When, however, we begin to investigate Jesus we may find that he will force our weak concepts into the water and walk on top of them.  As we watch Jesus, convenience and comfort are not the basics.  Risk and daring walk for the kingdom are.

Church defined by the standard of Jesus takes all church attenders into a rarely new and wonderful scheme of activity which is loaded with meaning, purpose, and exhilarating results.  If you would be one who doesn't care for church it could be that you have a mistaken definition.  If you live aggravated by some as to how bad they are, without noting your own lackluster behavior, I know you have a warped sense of the kingdom process.

No one is admitted into the church without first confessing our sheer failure; not our accomplishment.  The most powerful writers in the Bible were those who deemed their own sins which led them to plead for a Redeemer.  And they found him.

Church defined might be a place where one can be holy and wholly grateful that such a group of people would let at blatant failure like self in.  We are all just alike.