What seemed like a GOOD THING has really turned into just the opposite. As a young Christian who had recently been SAVED, I couldn’t wait to go out and tell people about my experience. There’s nothing wrong with shared experiences. However, my zeal was quickly directed by my church and denomination into a COMPETITVE EVANGELISM!
Come and join MY church! We do it RIGHT!
And of course along with those confessions came the unstated message that what YOU (someone not a member of MY church) is somehow doing it wrong. If you were not churched and hadn’t confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior then the motivation was this “threat of hell” message. If the fear of an eternal hell couldn’t convince you to join MY church, then there’s no hope for you and I’d just kick the dirt off my shoes and look for more reasonable converts.
Thus it has been from the years immediately after the life of the historical Jesus that the COMPETITION for CONVERTS was ON baby!
It’s an interesting thing to think that in those first 200-300 years (before Christianity was sanctioned as the IN CHURCH by Constantine) there were so many religions, start-up groups, and the like competing for the “beliefs” of people. As weird as it sounds, the many other religions, cults, and believing communities were okay with what Christians wanted to believe; however, Christians were totally INTOLERANT of the beliefs of others.
It was the CHRISTIAN WAY or the HIGHWAY!
Unfortunately little has changed as churches try and steal members away from other churches and religions try to market their brand over other brands, and all hell continues to thrive. We’ve really got a good one building between Christianity and Islam. Of course Islam and Judaism is getting most of the play from the throne room in Jerusalem. Ironically each group claims to represent the TRUTH! You have these so-called prophetic people saying GOD SAID; however, God is saying different things to different people that contradict the others.
When will we awaken from our illusions, our pride, and just BE….and BE LOVE!
Is that too much to ask?
Seems every member of my family had a dramatic conversion but soon church got in the way.
One such member feels it is her job to tell people when they are wrong.
She was a manipulative person by nature so the change now is she manipulates and says ‘God said’.
When will we get over ourselves.
Love is always the answer(I try to tell her) but she can’t understand what I am saying before she goes and attack someone else b/c they need to hear what God is saying (and only she can hear him).
If anyone of us tell her how has God blessed us well… it is because ‘she’ prayed for us and God listened to her.
It is very frustrating talking to a competitive christian.
I think of all the times when people could not get through to me. Wow! She is me, back in the day!
All I can do now is smile and wait for her awakening because I am barely awake myself.. I have not arrived.
And I still love her no matter what.:)
It is so simple, yet we continually try to complicate the message. Maybe we have trouble accepting something so simple.
Ditto, Don. I have been having those same thoughts, that it is really so simple, but we try to make it so hard for some reason. Perhaps it is when we “see” that it becomes simple in many different areas, but until then we magnify until it is complicated and hard. I have been the most guilty of all, but am “seeing” more especially with in experiences of life.
Your post sounds very familiar to the sentiment of the powers that be for the good old USA. After all it was founded on the beliefs and principles of our forefathers. Not much as changed from the lower level of consciousness of religious and “cultural” beliefs over the history of mankind. We’re one of the youngest nations; however, the exclusive notion of “we’re the ones doing it right and all others are wrong” has cost us greatly! Don’t hear what I’m not saying, we have done great things but we have also caused irreputable damage. It all comes back to stinking thinking: exclusivity, amnesia of true identity, and the motherload of all – the ludicrous notion of LACK. Case in point by Nicholas Tschense in Conversations with the Children of Now by Meg Blackburn Losey:
“I believe there is poverty and suffering in the world due to a gross error that humankind is making. This gross error is about thinking in terms of “lack”. Since there is a percentage of the population who gain greater wealth based on thoughts driven from “fear”, there is a tendency to consume more for themselves. The result is what we call “poverty”. This poverty is not so much due to impoverished thinking, as much as greed thinking. Replace this greed thinking with unconditional love, and “their” lack will surely diminish.”
Unconditional Love – so simple yet so far…
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” Yes! As you so simply stated Ernie: When will we awaken from our illusions, our pride, and just BE…and BE LOVE!
For clarity sake I’m not speaking about communism, socialism or any of the other world’s ruling “ism’s”. I’m “simply” speaking of the oneness of all creation in this dimension and beyond. Peace and love
Check out nicholas’ website here: http://www.nicholastschense.com
Some amazing insights coming from this little boy!
Out of the mouth of babes! This little boy with a bigger than life heart has impacted my journey in ways I cannot fathom! Thanks, you know who you are, for being the messenger that introduced me to him and others. =)
Yes, I hope to live a much simpler and clearer life that judges less, serves others more, and therefore, becomes a clearer conduit of HIM. May I be alert to the previously hidden opportunities to love and serve those that can not return the favor….
May I slow down to help eliminate the continual frown that seems to have many down. Not by preaching or teaching, but by loving those that seem to be out of reach.
This is my prayer.
Yes, there is no competition. God is all. Love is all. Evangelism has taken a huge swing. If there is any conversion, let us convert more to knowing that they are loved, someone cares, someone sees you. Do you know what it feels like to be invisible? I do, as do many people on this planet. The basic attitude is as long as all is well on my postage stamp, what does it matter what is happening elsewhere.
However, “no man is an island, no man stands alone, each man’s joy is joy to me, each man’s grief is my own.” There was a time that I thought unity meant all converted to Christianity. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness there of” is unity. Oneness of mankind and nature. As the Beatles would say “Let It Be”.
Another awesome Beatles song: Imagine
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
My favorite part of this message you wrote Ernie
“As weird as it sounds, the many other religions, cults, and believing communities were okay with what Christians wanted to believe; however, Christians were totally INTOLERANT of the beliefs of others.
It was the CHRISTIAN WAY or the HIGHWAY!”
Coming from a forein country and with an illness to boot and the many different people who “prayed over me for healing” all those years. Sitting, watching them, (even though my eyes were supposed to be closed), hearing them talk of why i wasnt receiving my healing. Hmmm…. my favorite one – because my eyes werent closed i couldnt connect with god so i couldnt receive my healing. OR … there must be some sin in my life that needs to be exposed and that why i wasnt receiving healing…. Honestly, I looked at them and thought, they were crazy and they needed the healing. I was a CHILD! No more than 10, maybe 12….. I wasnt allowed to do ANYTHING so i certainly wasnt sinning. And my question was… What could i have done so wrong at THREE to have God Punish me this way. Well…. I came to my own conclusion. They are crazy and they really WANT to HEAR god, but they are WRONG in their thinking. God is LOVE!!! The Christian way or the Highway was their thinking. I saw their thinking as the “Christian” way as wrong so i took the secret of being a Christian every day in my heart for fear of being attacked by them. But you know even that scenario has enlightened me to a much much closer and deeper relationship with God and i had him with me every day. I just didn’t publicize it. He and i knew and that was enough to get me through their judgements and disappointments that their “healing Prayers” werent answered. I am healed!! I am one with God and that is the best HEALING i can ever have. The outside is just what it is. Sure i havent accepted it much, but i know the inside is STRONG and THAT IS MORE REAL than the outside..