April 19, 2011 Nehemiah 13
Goodness that didn't take long. How incredibly frustrating for Nehemiah. I wonder how long Nehemiah was gone when this all happened?
When I was growing up Billy Graham and others had yearly crusades. We went to a church that supported that kind of activity so we attended several "crusades" throughout the years. I went to church camps religiously which tended to mimic crusade behavior at the closing of the camp week. When I read the account of the re-building of the Temple and Jerusalem I am reminded of those gatherings in my life. A huge assembly of people who are ready for reform and ready to repent, full of emotion and passionate determination. But then comes the falling away and usually soon after the event subsides, humans, it happens every time. The saddest part in my opinion is not so much the falling back into human reality, but that individuals and churches desperately sought to find or produce the effect that those crusades had on people.
Sometimes I think that was the beginning of ENTERTAINMENT church. Church needed to become attractive to people, it had to entice us to attend. Pardon me for being skeptical here but isn't the church for the "believer"? Isn't it for the collective gathering of the saints? When did it become an evangelical tool? Read the bible, the new covenant church had people added to it because they became believers, that is what the church is...believers.
If it weren't so, then look at the temple worship, it is a foreshadowing of the early Christian church after all. If the Israelites did it the way we do it they would have a big pig roast in the temple and invite all the Moabites and Canaanites to join in so that they could see how cool they were. The dancers, singers and musicians would be on stage and the priests would take turn dazzling the attendees with their eloquent speeches. They would call forward folks from other countries to give a testimony why they turned to the God of the Israelites and how they are different people now. All this in the hope that some more would convert to Judaism.
Now look at the biblical idea of the early church, from the day that Christ ascended into heaven to the end of Revelation. How did they behave? Don't try to defend why we do what we do, just look at it. If the church is not an evangelistic tool and simply a gathering of believers then I have no problem with it taking on the personality of the group and them worshipping in that freedom but anything else, in my opinion, is a farce. BELIEVERS witness to your neighbors, BELIEVERS feed the poor, BELIEVERS clothe the naked, BELIEVERS care for the aging. BELIEVERS do unto others, BELIEVERS shine the light and add the salt.
Do people hate the church because it Christ's bride or because we are loud, pompous and "cool wanna be’s”?
Okay, on a lighter note, some spring bunnies made for the grandkids spring cards:
