daily java

Daily Java:

I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. (1 Corinthians 1:2)

Sunday night, Tom asked me what the apostle Paul would write to the church in Boonville, MO. How would he address them? What would he say to them? Would he condemn, cajole, criticize, compliment? What would he say?

Thinking about it, he would probably say the same thing to us that he said to them. churches are made up of people, and people are really no different today than they were then. They react differently to some things and there are elements of society today they didn’t have then.

But in general, what would he say?

If I were Paul, what would I say to this city?

The first thing I would say is get your acts together and quit pretending to be something you aren’t.

I will have to admit that I do not know one single church that I feel totally fulfills what God wants, even my own. Someone pointed out a large discrepancy last night at Bible class in our church and she was right.

I really believe the church I attend comes pretty close in many way, but in others it doesn’t. This is not an indictment of the church. We all fall short of what God wants and the only perfect church will be the one in heaven.

But here goes.

1.    Quit sacrificing quality for quantity. So many churches try to grow by releasing things they do not want rather than focusing on the will of God. Getting rid of things so that we can be more “tolerant” or “loving” of others is not going to make us grow. Jesus called us to excellence, not the middle. We will never grow if we are not stretched to do that which we cannot do on our own. That is one of the reasons we get together as a church: to stretch each other (Hebrews 10:23-25). If left to our own devices, we get tired and do not do what we need.

That is the whole point of all of the AA and NA and OA or Weight Watchers. They are there for mutual support in doing something we do not want to do. The less we do and the less we demand of each other, the less we will grow. Any church that gets rid of the hard things in the name of tolerance cannot help but die.

Grow some backbone. Have, what one woman called, cojones enough to do what you need to do, to make the hard decision, to call each other to excellence. We have reached such a middle ground of mediocrity in our society that we are all dying for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Do what needs to be done. Call sin what it is and don’t let it go by unchallenged.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we become witch-hunters, or overly demanding. What it does mean is that we call each other to excellence, to a life in Jesus.

More later.