Children of Hell or Children of Heaven; where does the Christianity you’ve experienced fall into?
Matthew 23:15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.”
Today’s verse is simple but to the very heart of a big portion of the church’s problem within our society today. When we are practicing unfaithful, misleading, selfish, destructive, divisive, and manipulative Christianity and we then convert others to this hypocritical Christianity we are hurting the cause of God more then helping it. It would be better for us not to convert a single person then to convert them to a Christianity that looks more like the Pharisees then it does the mission of God. In fact, if would help the Church more if we quit reading our bibles, quit going to church, and quit speaking for God then to teach and pass on the same form of unfaithful Christianity. Perhaps one of the problems today is our manipulation of scripture has created an unfaithful brand of Christianity that has become one of the biggest enemies of God all in the name of God. It is important to know what we believe, but it is more important that we are shaped by God instead of using “cause of God” to manipulate, shape, and support our own personal agenda. No wonder Jesus had to go to the cross when He got mixed up with children of hell like us! Right teaching and right action matter; without them we are simply tools of evil.
Lord, thank you for completely exposing every single aspect of my sin that would become an obstacle to your mission. Thank you more, for not leaving me abandoned to my sin but defeating it upon the cross and freeing me to live a life serving you. Jesus, please forgive the church of my society for manipulating your gospel into a soap box for their own selfish agenda. Lord, I’m not even sure the Church knows it is doing this all the time. Forgive those leaders that promote a message that is so wrapped up in using your scripture to justify their own desires. But please God, do not let the manipulation go unnoticed; bring judgment upon your Church that is producing a faith of the Pharisees more than the faith you taught. Keep their churches from growing; please don’t bring others into their communities of faith; and whatever it takes, don’t let their pharisaic Christianity be duplicated any longer. Put a stop to this idolatry! Change their hearts; change my heart; give us the grace to allow your scripture to shape our lives as you intended. Help Crossroads be the kind of church that practices a faith that is worth repeating. Constantly expose our ways of unfaithfulness; give us the grace to be called children of God and not “sons of hell.” May our faith be worth repeating; I thank you for all those people that will come to know you through this community of faith. Thank you God for adopting me from being an offspring of hell and making me into a beloved child of heaven. Amen!!!
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