Having been raised in church and in a christian environment, I realized at a fairly early age that there's such a thing as the "christian danger zone"; one even might use the term "christian critical zone" (we'll talk about it in a minute). Quite some years ago, people in the church I used to assist went into a low-income, government sponsored neighborhood to take Jesus' message to the families. In the process, a lot of people came to know Jesus and many began coming to church; this including many young children, young adults, and kids. So many indeed, that the church started this initiative for church families to "sponsor" these kids and young adults, so that every Saturday they would take their sponsored kid/young adult to their homes and do Bible study and have lunch together. It definitely was a great experience which nourished, both personally and spiritually, everyone involved in the process. For some time... everything went great. Then one day... it didn't.
Without much of a heads up, the church began to be vandalized and some of the family members of the sponsored kids/young adults began threatening some church members. What had happened? Well... one of the sponsored kids had been sexually assaulted by an adult male from one of the sponsoring families. An adult man with a high position on church, years of attendance, "committed" to serve and lead by "example", a married man and a baptized man... did the unthinkable. Needless to say, many of the kids and young adults that were 'recruited' stopped assisting church and things were not the same for a long time. I was a kid back then and even with a 'childish' mentality I could not believe the incidents that had transpired. Something like that should NEVER happen to anyone, but even less in a 'christian' /church environment. Questions like: "how will we ever pull up the face to go back and tell those families to join Jesus' family when they just experienced such a despicable and terrible situation?", started to pop in my mind. In my innocence, I thought, "aren't christians supposed to be good people?". After all, the man involved in the accident acted and portrayed himself as having gained heaven already. It wasn't until years later and much Bible study that I came to understand the why.
"Practice what you preach or change your speech..." - unknown
Christians have been warned before...
As a life 'manual' for spiritual and personal decisions, I knew I had to start with the Bible to find answers for why would something so terrible happen. As I was looking for potential references, a Bible verse came to my mind that I know applies 100% to the situation at hand. Let's read together the verse; this verse is Jesus speaking by the way:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’" - Matthew 7:21-23
Let me decode this verse for you... there's a lot of hypocrites who call themselves christians but whose heart and mind are far from being one. This is the 'Danger Zone' for christians; convincing themselves that they're "good-to-go" when in all reality, they're very far from being it. I know this is a very strong way to say it, but I have to say it this way. In this text Jesus is both warning current christians to not let themselves be deceived by their own works, and is telling the general masses that not everyone who calls himself a christian will indeed be one. As a christian, or future christian, or 'newborn' christian... be ALL IN. God says in the book of Revelations:
"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth..." - Revelations 3:15-16
Christians, in very big and real sense, are 'representatives' of Jesus on earth. We are to be the reason people love Jesus, we are to live day by day working towards clinging to Jesus and asking him to mold our characters and help us be better. Our nature is selfish so there's simply no way we can transform ourselves for the better without tainting our intentions with selfishness. All over the gospels and throughout the Bible we're told to constantly pray, to constantly look for Jesus, to constantly devote ourselves to Jesus. God does not want 50% christians, he wants 100%. The christian life is a never-ending journey with Jesus; for as long as we're alive and walking with Jesus we'll forever be learning, growing, and bettering our characters to better resemble Jesus. Without Jesus is impossible to love like he did. We NEED TO CLING TO JESUS. The Bible says:
"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love..." - 1 John 4:8
Along these lines... it also says:
"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing..." 1 Cor. 13:1-3
Also...
“A new command I give you [Jesus speaking]: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” - John 13:34-35
Once again... let me rephrase these verses for you. As a christian, going to church... not enough. Participating in prayer chains... not enough. Cooking for the homeless... not enough. Being baptized... not enough. Donating your belongings... not enough. Giving money to charity... not enough. Jesus is very clear in stating that works don't save anybody, Jesus does. All these things are great things to do, but it is all in vain if Jesus is not at the very center of the heart's and mind's intentions. Period. A person who does all those things might present himself as the best human and christian that ever existed, but beyond the flesh, God can see the contents of the heart.
Jesus must come first. Once in Jesus, all the good deeds will naturally flow from us because we want to love and share like Jesus did. It just can't be the other way around, else, we might just be fooling ourselves. Can you think of any situation in the Bible where this happened before?
His own did not received him...
"The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him..." - John 1:9-11
No other example in the Bible comes close to portray the dangers of convincing yourself that you are in good terms with God (when you are not) than that of the Jewish religious leaders during Jesus' life. A quick read through the gospel books in the New Testament will show right away that Jesus did not got along with the jewish religious leaders. The biggest contrast among them? Love versus rules and traditions. The jewish leaders were so strict and adhered to their religious rules and traditions, that they missed the most important thing of all... love. They attended church gatherings, gave their tithes and offerings, sat in committees, 'followed' the rules, did their work, but they had failed to understand the essence of their responsibility... to love others. They thought they were in the right and connected with God so badly, that it led them to commit murder and killed the Son of God, Jesus. Killed the man who they had been long-waiting for to redeem them, the Man in whom their faith was based on... slaughtered. Condemned to suffer the death of terrible criminals and low-lives by those who professed to serve God.
Jesus had something to say to these religious people:
" You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’” - Matthew 15: 7-9
One key thing to learn from this verse and as we had concluded before... there are hypocrites in church. Jesus didn't hesitate to call them out in a strong language, I won't hesitate to admit that there are such people still sitting down at church's meetings. Isaiah spoke of Jesus saying:
"Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth..." - Isaiah 43: 4-7
Jesus died for everyone, including those who claimed to be in the right with God yet commit murder. History happened and was recorded as a lesson for us today. As christians we have a responsibility and commitment that we must follow through. This is not a game and nothing to postpone. We need to live walking and learning from Jesus each and every single day. We must recognize our constant need for His help and His guidance so we never fall prey to our deception and led to believe we're living a life that's far from where we think it is.
So what's the lesson?
We are to represent Jesus' character on earth. The man in my church committed one act of extreme disrespect and violation of rights... and damaged, potentially forever, the image that young girl had of those that serve Jesus and maybe the image of Jesus Himself. Clearly, the man checked all the right boxes, just like the religious jewish leaders did... but in both cases, they were deceiving themselves and living a lie. A very dangerous lie. In both cases, such lie to themselves caused them to commit horrible beyond imagination crimes. This might not always be the case, people lying to themselves might hurt nobody but themselves, but regardless, they miss out on truly changing with Jesus for the good. They miss the true meaning and purpose of being a christian. Even worse, many go to their tombs and seal their fate on the wrong side... forever.
Beyond many being in that "danger zone", it is important for everyone, and I mean everyone, to understand that people like that might never be openly discovered. Only God knows what's truly in their hearts. The point I want to convey is, never let your image of Jesus and of the church members in general to be damaged by the actions of one or several individuals who claimed to serve God. God can't be blamed for people's mistakes. The Jesus I'm talking to you about, is the Jesus that came to save EVERYONE. The Jesus that says:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest..." - Matthew 11:28
Notice that He says: "ALL". No exceptions. Your background, race, past, current actions, career, decisions, problems... none of that matter. Jesus came for ALL. Never forget.
As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions, comments or concerns. Don't forget to follow us, share us, and subscribe to our YouTube channel and may God Bless You and your family forever.
Until next one,
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