The Christian Hypocrisy
We Christians - we pray for revival.
In church, we speak in tongues fervently, lift our hands as high as they can reach to the heavens, sing in the loudest voices. We sing about how much Jesus loves US; about how blessed WE are to be Christians; about how WE will win the victory. Never mind that the songs don't really focus much on God alone. It's all about us, isn't it? After all, Christ came to DIE for US!!! He exists to serve us, didn't He say so?
We smile and greet the person next to us - "Jesus loves you!" - when Pastor asks us to. Then, task done, our smiles switched off, we spend the next hour or so ignoring our neighbor. When the service is over, we walk away without bothering to say goodbye. We don't know their names, why should we talk? It's the welcoming committee's duty to find out, isn't it? Newcomers? Well, what about them? They get the welcome package and applause. Then they're free to approach us anytime they want, to ask for our names. Why don't we bother talking to them, or to follow up on them? I told you, it's the welcoming committee's jurisdiction! We're just the lay members, it's none of our business.
Pastor preaches about how God wants us to be successful. Being a Christian means to live a victorious life! Too bad he forgot to define the meaning of success, but never mind, we can figure it out ourselves. God wants us to be rich! Pastor's favorite line is 'God will bless those who give'. The more you give to the church, the more successful you will be! It's a smart, safe plan, covering all bets.
Our life outside of church is even more interesting!
We can be heard telling our own Christian clique how good it is to be Christians in loud, pompous tones, in the same conversation - sometimes even in the same breath! - as we gossip about others who are not in our clique. Then we move on to complain about other people who did something to us: "God will judge!" we say with a self-righteous sniff.
We think that Ms.So-and-So is not a true Christian because she missed a few Sunday services, never mind about the weeks when we ourselves did not attend. After all, we had perfectly valid reasons! The holiday tour could not be postponed now, could it? Besides, I couldn't wake up; the concert last night was one I absolutely had to go to! Surely God will understand that I worship Him better when I'm awake! God loves me, I'm sure He doesn't want me to suffer from sleep deprivation!
And then there are Christian homes which provide shelter for the homeless. Of course they will let the homeless in! They're Christians, aren't they? But you're allowed in only if you answer in the affirmative the standard question they ask during the admission interview: "Do you believe in Jesus?" Otherwise, who cares? The unbelievers are going to hell anyway, right? Why bother about them? Might as well let them get used to hell on Earth first, a sort of preparation.
Our pastors, they're truly amazing people! They're always busy doing the Lord's work! In fact, they're so busy serving Him that they don't notice the homeless people around them. They're in such a rush, driving about in their air-conditioned cars from their air-conditioned homes to their air-conditioned offices that the homeless man along the route goes unnoticed. Their time is consumed by funerals, there's none left to make a call to the social home to provide a temporary roof over a homeless, living man's head. The dead are more important - after all, the deceased's family members are Christians from their own church and the homeless man is not. It's not good to offend the family members - they tithe! The homeless man, well, he's jobless. And he's already staying out on the streets, so what's one more night, or even one more year out there, right? Same difference. Besides, who knows what he might have done to deserve this state of homelessness? Maybe it serves him right to be out in the streets!
We conveniently forget to attend prayer meetings. We work late, and after work we're just too tired to pray. We go straight back home to sleep. Praying to God only takes place on Sunday mornings during worship; that is, assuming our gossip buddies are seated somewhere far from us. Reading the Bible? Sure we read the Scriptures! Pastor always has a nice verse or two for us to read for the day. That's all we need! No time to finish one whole book, or even the whole Bible. It's so thick, it's impossible!
When a friend calls us up asking for help, we listen sympathetically, say a prayer over the phone, and then get back to our own lives. She doesn't need our help, God can help her. We're too busy with work that we can't go over to help her anyway!
We're so caught up with searching for God, looking to the heavens, that we forget to look around and see the need of those near to us. We love God - love is a feeling, not expressed by actions! - so much that we are too busy to love His people.
Then we sit and wonder why there is no revival.
In church, we speak in tongues fervently, lift our hands as high as they can reach to the heavens, sing in the loudest voices. We sing about how much Jesus loves US; about how blessed WE are to be Christians; about how WE will win the victory. Never mind that the songs don't really focus much on God alone. It's all about us, isn't it? After all, Christ came to DIE for US!!! He exists to serve us, didn't He say so?
We smile and greet the person next to us - "Jesus loves you!" - when Pastor asks us to. Then, task done, our smiles switched off, we spend the next hour or so ignoring our neighbor. When the service is over, we walk away without bothering to say goodbye. We don't know their names, why should we talk? It's the welcoming committee's duty to find out, isn't it? Newcomers? Well, what about them? They get the welcome package and applause. Then they're free to approach us anytime they want, to ask for our names. Why don't we bother talking to them, or to follow up on them? I told you, it's the welcoming committee's jurisdiction! We're just the lay members, it's none of our business.
Pastor preaches about how God wants us to be successful. Being a Christian means to live a victorious life! Too bad he forgot to define the meaning of success, but never mind, we can figure it out ourselves. God wants us to be rich! Pastor's favorite line is 'God will bless those who give'. The more you give to the church, the more successful you will be! It's a smart, safe plan, covering all bets.
Our life outside of church is even more interesting!
We can be heard telling our own Christian clique how good it is to be Christians in loud, pompous tones, in the same conversation - sometimes even in the same breath! - as we gossip about others who are not in our clique. Then we move on to complain about other people who did something to us: "God will judge!" we say with a self-righteous sniff.
We think that Ms.So-and-So is not a true Christian because she missed a few Sunday services, never mind about the weeks when we ourselves did not attend. After all, we had perfectly valid reasons! The holiday tour could not be postponed now, could it? Besides, I couldn't wake up; the concert last night was one I absolutely had to go to! Surely God will understand that I worship Him better when I'm awake! God loves me, I'm sure He doesn't want me to suffer from sleep deprivation!
And then there are Christian homes which provide shelter for the homeless. Of course they will let the homeless in! They're Christians, aren't they? But you're allowed in only if you answer in the affirmative the standard question they ask during the admission interview: "Do you believe in Jesus?" Otherwise, who cares? The unbelievers are going to hell anyway, right? Why bother about them? Might as well let them get used to hell on Earth first, a sort of preparation.
Our pastors, they're truly amazing people! They're always busy doing the Lord's work! In fact, they're so busy serving Him that they don't notice the homeless people around them. They're in such a rush, driving about in their air-conditioned cars from their air-conditioned homes to their air-conditioned offices that the homeless man along the route goes unnoticed. Their time is consumed by funerals, there's none left to make a call to the social home to provide a temporary roof over a homeless, living man's head. The dead are more important - after all, the deceased's family members are Christians from their own church and the homeless man is not. It's not good to offend the family members - they tithe! The homeless man, well, he's jobless. And he's already staying out on the streets, so what's one more night, or even one more year out there, right? Same difference. Besides, who knows what he might have done to deserve this state of homelessness? Maybe it serves him right to be out in the streets!
We conveniently forget to attend prayer meetings. We work late, and after work we're just too tired to pray. We go straight back home to sleep. Praying to God only takes place on Sunday mornings during worship; that is, assuming our gossip buddies are seated somewhere far from us. Reading the Bible? Sure we read the Scriptures! Pastor always has a nice verse or two for us to read for the day. That's all we need! No time to finish one whole book, or even the whole Bible. It's so thick, it's impossible!
When a friend calls us up asking for help, we listen sympathetically, say a prayer over the phone, and then get back to our own lives. She doesn't need our help, God can help her. We're too busy with work that we can't go over to help her anyway!
We're so caught up with searching for God, looking to the heavens, that we forget to look around and see the need of those near to us. We love God - love is a feeling, not expressed by actions! - so much that we are too busy to love His people.
Then we sit and wonder why there is no revival.
posted by sleepypurplepiglet at 4:06 PM
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