NO. IT'S NOT OKAY TO HAVE A FAITH JUST BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR GOD

We are perpetually targeted to walk by sight; not by faith.  We count numbers because influence can't be tracked.  Accomplishments are more easily grasped than vision.  Such a stark trend has caused faith to subtly go stale.  Believers in Jesus have been transformed into believers in Christian theory coupled with distracting busyness.  I speak not from hopeless exasperation.  Rather, I voice a proposed reversal of practice which might bring the church a renewed and greater hope.

A culprit behind today's church propaganda is a doctrine most oft repeated, I have a faith that's just between me and my God.  How would I know such is said?  Well, for one, I hear it all of the time.  But, second, I once said it of myself...a lot.

Here's what has been lost.  Christianity is anything but a private matter.  Jesus didn't die in the shadows of a remote dark alley where others wouldn't notice.  Neither was he draped upon his cross decked out in a tuxedo.  No, Jesus was executed upon a high and public hill, naked, for all to see.  Not a top-hat; but a crown of thorns completed his wardrobe.

Jesus was public; not private.  And, we are to follow?

Much of Christianity has gone into hiding in plain sight.  We are here.  We have meeting places.  We have valuable activities and missions.  But the trend of our people in general is that when it comes to their faith; this is between them and their God.  That....isn't faith.  That's a dressy language which hides in fear of both engagement and involvement.

I want to be a part of the progress.  What can we do to reverse this deadening trend?

1. First, we might consider that to follow Jesus will mean very personal painful moments.  To advance the Kingdom of God, there must be soldiers of the Cross rather than just participants of the ritual.
2. To think about extending to others, rather than the preserving of self, would surely be both a scriptural theme as well as a meaningful reach toward our community.
3. The back of self-serving, self-preserving legalism must be broken.  I live in a church world where squint-eyed judgment runs rampant while sensitive reach toward a world lost in darkness is completely dismissed by the former.  Oh, it's surely talked.  But, it isn't walked.
4. There might be benefit to discarding the infatuation we churchers have regarding our specific religious name-brands.  Much is lost due to our incessant belief systems which always include that our group is the most correct while all others are silly for their doctrinal conclusions.  We are all silly.  We are all suspect.  We are all more weak than we are strong.  It is Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  As we grow in Him, we will move more efficiently toward important and accurate doctrine.

To have a faith that is just between us and our God is to have gone deaf to His plea that we take the Good News to every corner of the globe.  Thank you, those who live to do such.  You inspire us.  And, thank you, those who haven't maybe been the best at pulling this off; but your intent is to mature toward the goal of His higher calling.  I join you.  I want to improve.

May we reach the entire world with an eternity-shaking message that was certainly that of Jesus; EVERYONE IS IMPORTANT....BUT NOT EVERYONE, YET, HAS GOTTEN THE MESSAGE!