In my book 'Ripples', a young boy with no religious affiliations finds 'Heaven' in a church on Christmas eve. The reality is, however, that God and Heaven are rarely found in such. That is unfortunate but true. On many occasions I have found that there are more 'Christians' outside the Church than in it. Okay, I know that Christians are sinners along with the rest of mankind and I accept that. The point is that Christians often tend to come across as more like the Pharisees of Jesus' time than the disciples of the new church.
I recall an example given me by an Uncle of mine. A dispute arose in their congregation when is was discovered that one of those charged with counting the collection money was making the given money up to a round dollar by adding extra of his own while counting it. The dispute was over the fact that the extra money had not been dedicated and/or blessed. What a performance. It split the entire congregation. Eventually the congregation left. As the door was locked for the last time the person locking it said, "We won." Who won?
The denomination I belong too do not usually baptise via total immersion. Occasionally, however, some one wants to be so baptised. One congregation were undertaking major alterations to their building so the suggestion was made that a bath be built under the font so that if, in future, immersion was required the font could be moved and the bath uncovered. Again, what an uproar. Love thy neighbour?
Both you and I could give many examples couldn't we? How sad. In this day and age, at this time, I think it behoves us to walk the walk like no other time. Our world is currently facing disasters, confrontations and evil the like of which has not been seen for a long time. Christianity is being sidelined by institutions and Governments in favour of secularism. Many of Christendom's critics point to examples similar to those mentioned above.
Don't you think it is time we Christians did better?
