False sense of satisfaction!

It is vital to revisit the purpose and mission of God in our lives and check where we are in the journey. It is usually assumed that it lies with the first part of the first commandment alone in the Bible where Jesus says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”. Mark 12:30. And then all our efforts goes toward the same by meeting the spiritual schedule by using and emphasizing the commonly used term “more”, more reading of the Bible, more praying, more tarrying for the Holy Spirit and more of knowing Him. The word “more” in most cases confines to private faith with God alone. Sadly, the second part of the Great commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself”, remains as a philosophy to preach to others and creating a Christian identity.

An article on Church discipline by “IX Marks” pens down the role and definition of Christian beautifully and it goes like this, “A Christian is someone who wears the name of God on earth, who declares His gospel, and who is united to His people. In essence, the Christian is an ambassador, someone whose identity and work meld together. Everything that an ambassador is, says, and does represents his or her king. So, it is with Christian and Christ.”.

The existence of social media (technical revolution) to a larger extent has marred the Christian identity gravely. At times, I regret the commonly used WhatsApp which is often used as a trash can where people tend to post all that they receive to others by means of forwarding to another Christian friend. I have quite often addressed this issue in my earlier blogs. In another terms it gives Christians a strong sense of satisfaction of inspiring other Christian as they keep forwarding things to one another. But all along, people rarely take serious initiative to connect to the Non-Christian world. Many do not have a message customized for Non-Christian world at all. Christians calling and imploring (begging) each other to join their meetings. 

Take any Christian WhatsApp group, it will be flooded with invitation links, preaching clips and Christian YouTube links, but for heavens sake who needs it? Don't we feel the urgency to write and customize video clips that can be sent to any common citizen or Non-Christian crowds? Unlike the early Christians you will notice most of the so called Christians and leaders today are limiting themselves and flocking with Christians friends bragging about who they are or want to see their meetings have a considerable number. Either they are too timed and lack boldness to reach out to the outside world, or they are interested to only focus on drawing the attention of another Christian/leaders to make their living better. Can we please give some thought to this?

Jesus said He Came to call sinners for repentance, not the righteous (Luke 5:32), but we never seem to get the message. Jesus did not come to earth to impress religious leaders. He came to mingle with people who were considered the most vile of sinners. In fact, for this He was severely criticized by the religious leaders of His day. He replied, “It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. And then makes this fascinating statement less understood by Christians today which says, ‘But go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Matthew 9:12-13). It is high time we make adjustments in our approaches and ensure that we reach out to the world out there and the same time equip those who are with us to take up the divine call and fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ.

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