interesting conversation with a friend

      So, yesterday I had a very interesting conversation with a friend of mine. We were talking about a motorcycle. This conversation then went into a talk about God and church and the whole "religious thing". I am always trying to help people understand that it is religion that is killing Christ's church today, and has been for 2 thousand years or at least 1700 years.
Do to a recent adventure in "church" I have a bit of a foul taste in my mouth as does my friend. My taste will go away and to be honest I find it quite inspiring. For my friend however, not so much. He was "burned" by the hypocrisy of the church at a young age. He was confirmed and all that jazz but he then left the church. He would see people that felt they were doing "there piece" by going to church on sunday. This would lead those people to feel as though they have done there part. They are done for the week, "let's get back to the way life is suppose to be". The feeling that if they just do church on sunday morning they would be done with their obligations to Christ, or they have again"paid their insurance policy".

All to often we hear of people who have been burned or upset by the church. What can we do to help them? Do we want to help them? Is it our mission to help them?

If you think about it, they have been taught what Christ stood and died for - right?
Are these people the ones that are throwing the baby out with the bath water?

Many times the church does not act like the bride of Christ. We behave no different than those that do not know the love of Christ.

We do need to be change, we need to reach our hands out to those who have been taught falsely. We must continue to teach forgiveness and compassion in all circumstances.

Talking with my friend about the differences between religion and a follower of Christ. I love these conversations. For the first time since I gave my life to Christ I feel as though My friend actually listened to me. He has not sworn his life to Christ, but he is listening.

We talked about how people are to love one another and how we are to forgive one another. We talked about how the issues in the church are not a lot different than those outside the church. We talked about
how so many people are doing this thing wrong, not that I am doing it right, but I am trying.

We talked about how those things that have happened to me might not be right but, I must forgive and press on. We talked about Paul and how things did not exactly go right for him. We talked about why I would bother going to school to learn how to do this thing called church when I could just pay $59.00 and be ordained that way. We talked about how important it is to some people to see the ordination papers above the pastors head.

All this to say - We had conversation about the things that were both right and wrong with the church. We talked - He spoke I listened - I spoke he listened! We had edifying conversation. For the first time in a long time the person that he was talking to was not talking to him not from a pedestal, but rather up to his level. He felt as though someone was listening rather than judging and telling.

Don't get me wrong, it is not easy to listen to some of the arguments that he had - they were good and well thought out. They were wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove. He knows why he does not like church, I could not argue as they are valid but still wrong things about the church. I am quite thankful for this conversation and to have a friend that will in fact tell it like he sees it.

If I love Christ, I have to listen to these and many others. These are the arguments from the streets. These are the discussions that have to happen. Jesus listened and talked WITH the woman at the well. He was not condescending or snide. He knew who she was and what she was and still He spoke to her. He is the example that CAN be followed.

We as followers of Christ must learn to be more like Christ. Let's not just be Jesus for two weeks after a mountain top experience. Those experiences that are so transformative - let's rise up from our religious bog and enjoy the beautiful valleys. Can we take time to smell the valley flowers and look high to the majestic mountain tops, remembering that it is almost impossible to live at the tip of a mountain. Let's remember that Jesus came down to us. Even Christ came down to be with us. Let's try to remember where we were assigned to be - In the Big Valleys below the majestic mountain tops. It is gorgeous here.

Maybe, just maybe if we get this part right, we can get out of this thing alive!