Watch Out! Sheep Shoot!

I can remember just this past week, my children playing and laughing in the van for about the first 4 hours of our 11 hour journey.  Suddenly, these two children, who really do love one another, began to fight.  About Everything.  “He’s touching me.”  “She’s got my crayon.” “He called me a poopie head” (I’m not kidding).  Amazing: same family, same space, same journey, fighting like they don’t even want to be related anymore.  I was sitting in the driver’s seat doing what any good parent would do at 70 mph on the interstate, “Don’t make me pull over!”

Wake up church!  Awake O’ sleeper!  Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”  A good application of this passage is that we GIVE from all of our heart, soul, strength and mind to God.  We GIVE to our neighbor at least in the same way we would desire them to help us in our need.  We GIVE, they RECEIVE.  We are provided for by seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness.  In observation of church, I do see many who are seeking what they want and not what they need.

“I want more of this” – “I want less of that” 

When the desires are not met, teams tend to get picked and sheep begin to shoot.  You know who loses?  Everyone.  The leaders who get exhausted, wounded, and disheartened. The non-believers who are looking for family and are turned off by church wars.  The children who desperately need consistency and service modeled for them.  And the people who are the shooting sheep, because they strive to meet real needs illegitimately.  

It always requires marriage vows that are kept for the covenant bride to function. Without that kind of commitment, we are just another group of people who gather on the basis of preferences and will become disfunctional once we are no longer having fun.

“Do you (Your Name) take (Church Family Name) to be your committed family – to live together after God’s ordinance – in the holy estate of matrimony? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sadness and in joy, to cherish and continually bestow upon her your heart’s deepest devotion, forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto her as long as you both shall live?”

Our passion is for Jesus, our relationship is with Him, our salvation is by grace through faith through the completed work of the cross. God has set this thing (church) up with you and me as the Bride, being purified and prepared for the great wedding day.  We are to be committed to one another, preferring one another, serving one another.  WE SHOULD OPERATE IN GRACE WITH ONE ANOTHER NOT PRESUPPOSED SUSPICION.

Church, let’s begin to repent, restore gently, see God’s move in our midst (not look for the bigger thing elsewhere), hold each other’s arms up, and be about our Father’s business.

It’s gonna be hard, it’s gonna hurt sometimes, BUT IT IS COMPLETELY WORTH IT!

Thanks for hearing my rant!

Scott

Recommended Reading:

Book: “Stop Dating the Church” by: Joshua Harris

Online Article: “Before You Quit Your Church”