WWJD

     I know that we have all heard, no matter who you are, the term "What would Jesus do?" It's been thrown around so many times that half of the time when you hear it, people laugh or don't even take into account what it really means anymore. Have you ever thought about taking that acronym seriously at some point in your life? What if we all took WWJD to heart and made every single decision based off of that acronym? Well, before we start thinking about taking it seriously, let's find out exactly who Jesus was since we are told to act like Him.

     Let's begin at skin color. White? Black? Hispanic? European? No, no, no, and no. Jesus was born in the modern day middle east. He traveled through and around Jerusalem and all over that location. Jesus was Arabic. He had darker skin, but not too dark. That's just where His life was and what the geography was like. Next, let's hit some of His beliefs. What I'm about to say might be hard to hear, but it is the truth. Many of us have heard this but haven't gone into depth with it, so I'm going to clarify some of it up. The question: was Jesus Jewish? The answer: no. Jesus Christ of Nazareth was not Jewish, He was born into Jewish culture. (Now, I believe Jesus was a Jew inwardly and outwardly, however, His statements in the Sermon on the Mount and many other things He did challenged Jews and did not match up with today's Jewish Culture. Jesus was a Jew then, not one now). In fact, He challenged the religious leaders of His time, who happened to be Jews! (Pharisees). Now that that has been said, we can move on. What was His personality like? Was Jesus the kind of man you see holding a baby in one arm and petting a dove in the other with all types of people just smiling at Him? Or was He this old man with a thick and mangy beard who yelled at people all the time and told them to change their lives? Well, I'm not going to say which one He is, because, well, we don't know. But I"m going to say that Jesus did say things that only God would say. He convicted everyone with what He said. He also had an angry side, when He literally flipped over tables at a temple and told everyone to leave. (Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-18, Luke 19:45-47, John 2:13-16) In John it even says that Jesus made a whip and drove all of the animals out! So then, what are we supposed to act like when WWJD comes into play?

     I feel like there are different situations that present themselves to us and each one Jesus has something to say about it. If you see people hitting each other, or people are throwing punches are are physically harming one another, WWJD? Calmly approach them and make an attempt at ceasing the fight. What about gossip? Tell the gossipers that the truth can only be found through the source, and that our own accounts of people's lives don't matter. Judgement is wrong. What if someone actually bashes God or disrespects Him in front of you. Are you going to tolerate it and act like nothing has happened? Stand up for your Father, represent Him, respect Him, glorify Him. "For He who denies me before others I will surely deny before my Father." Those are Christ's words, do you think He would let someone get away with throwing God's name around? I think Jesus would have a word or two to say to them. We have to stop tolerating sin, brothers and sisters, and start defending our God and Savior as warriors of the cross. Amen.

Reviving the Church

     Allow me a foreword before you start reading, please. What I write here may be hard to read, and it may challenge your beliefs, and that is totally fine. You are allowed to disagree with me, but keep in mind that everything I write here is truth, and my opinion only comes into play at the very last paragraph. Thank you and enjoy.

     

     I'm currently studying the book of Ephesians, written by Paul. As I look at the verses I've covered so far, there is just so much to share, but I feel compelled to talk about a certain topic that really made me think about how the church (building) should be acting. I feel that the church (building) today is not the way Paul was referring for the church to be, or how Christ sees the church should be.

     Let me ask you some background questions, just to get the message flowing a bit more. It's early in the morning and I need some mind jogging if you will. First of all, who is the church? It's not the building, it's us as believers. We are called the church. Next, who is the head of the church? Well, in Ephesians 1:22, Paul writes that God has placed everything under Christ's feet and has appointed Him to be the head of the church. So, the church is one big body with Christ being the head and us as believers being the rest of the body, correct? Yes, so lets move on!

     If your body were to get an infection somehow, that would corrupt it, right? If you get a cold, your whole body just feels like trash and you need to either take medicine or wait for recovery. Think about the church now. We are a body of believers, led by Christ. What happens if this body becomes infected? It would affect the church! That's not how it's supposed to be, Christ's body is supposed to be pure and united under Him, that doesn't mean we're perfect, Romans says that everyone sins, but it means that we are not to let infection and corruption into our body.

     What's the corruption, since even all believers sin? Well, the infection or corruption is non-believers. The people on this earth who are not saved, or are not a believer will bring an infection to the church. Why? Because they carry worldliness with them. The church is nothing but Godliness, correct? Well, in chapter 2 of Ephesians, Paul says that the spiritually dead (non-believers) follow worldliness and are disobedient. We have godliness, non-believers have worldliness, and the two of them should NEVER become equal, Godliness is always higher than worldliness.

     Does that mean we can't bring our non-believeing friends to church? Of course not! But there is something that needs to take place. The non-believer who attends church, MUST FEEL THAT HE DOES NOT BELONG WITH THE CHURCH. That is a correct statement, am I right? The body/church/believers are all under Christ, we are all a believing body. Non-believers do not belong in the body for they do not follow Christ. They can go to church and feel that they loved, welcomed, and supported, but NOT belonged. Non-believers do not belong in the body of Christ.

     But then why are there so many fake Christians who go to church. Those people who go to church and "claim" to be believers, but go home and curse their parents out, or do drugs, or go to parties, or commit adultery, are NOT believers at all. They are NOT Christians. They would be described as "lukewarm" by Jesus Himself in the book of Revelation. But then, why do they keep going to church? Well, here comes the hard hitter.

     I believe (this is my personal opinion) that today's churches around the U.S. are so focused on numbers of attendance and making sure that more and more people are coming to their church, that the church itself is failing. We are making compromise, something that Jesus NEVER did, nor the church of Acts. We are sacrificing our Godliness for their Worldliness, and that is what is making the church fail. Modern day churches are so focused on making EVERYONE feel comfortable and belonged in the church that it is actually watering down our church as a whole and filling it with infection. This should not be. The church is a place for believers to gather and disciple one another under Christ, not a place for worldliness to make its way through and infect the church. The church's job (as believers) is to disciple one another, so that we can go out on our own and evangelize to the non-believing world and bring them to church once they are saved! That is what Christ told us to do before He left! "Go out and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit..." The church should not be focused on evangelizing within the church. No no, because then you end up with tens of thousands of lukewarm Christians, rather than 100 strong, fighting ambassadors for Christ.