It's tragic, but as we near Jesus' second coming, the more the world gets blind. And the worse thing is that the church has been blinding it.
No matter the continuous massive efforts at evangelizing the world, the millions of dollars spent for the purpose, the plague just keeps spreading. And even the gospel being shared online with all the beautiful web designs and graphics and features don't help any. We've been blinding the world so it can't see Jesus. Or probably, we've been unwittingly presenting another Jesus to it all along.
When I read Jesus in the gospel and compare Him with what churches are doing and talking about, it's like reading two separate books: a non-fiction and a fiction. One's about LIFE, the other's about a mad rat-race with a lot of rules and policies in human theological jargon. Honestly, I can't see Jesus in the church, offline or online.
That LIFE was the light of men, says John. Without that LIFE seen, men has no light, whatsoever. All they have are what the church gives them today--jargons and another Jesus.
Contrary to what we're told by some ministry and theology experts, the world is not anti-Jesus. It only is, as declared by the Word, because it's been fed with lies by the church. The church has not presented the true Jesus to the world and the true unity Jesus fervently prayed for in John 17--I mean really manifested Him through their real lives and characters and complete unity.
But actually, if we go rub elbows with the masses, if we go down to the grassroots and out of our comfort zones, we'd see that the world is aching to see the real, genuine Jesus. They look everywhere but see Him nowhere, especially not in Christian churches. Creation groans for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed, but sees nothing except mere humans trying to make a religion work.
Without the Jesus LIFE seen in the church, men have no light, not even a spark. The world wants to see the true God, but churches present it with nothing but a rotten god passed off as a "loving" Savior. Disappointed, the world rejects any idea of the true and perfect God and settles for the "Christian" god the church has been blinding it with.
As long as we don't live out the Jesus LIFE, totally bereft of any worldly benefit, possessing nothing, and totally surrendered to the cross, and as long as denominationalism blocks Jesus' prayer for a complete unity of believers in John 17, the world will never believe. We will continue to blind it.
Indeed, as the Master said, as long as we do not learn from the birds that don't plant or reap or store, and the lilies that don't spin, the world will keep stumbling blindly in the dark because of our stark worldliness.
No matter the continuous massive efforts at evangelizing the world, the millions of dollars spent for the purpose, the plague just keeps spreading. And even the gospel being shared online with all the beautiful web designs and graphics and features don't help any. We've been blinding the world so it can't see Jesus. Or probably, we've been unwittingly presenting another Jesus to it all along.
When I read Jesus in the gospel and compare Him with what churches are doing and talking about, it's like reading two separate books: a non-fiction and a fiction. One's about LIFE, the other's about a mad rat-race with a lot of rules and policies in human theological jargon. Honestly, I can't see Jesus in the church, offline or online.
That LIFE was the light of men, says John. Without that LIFE seen, men has no light, whatsoever. All they have are what the church gives them today--jargons and another Jesus.
Contrary to what we're told by some ministry and theology experts, the world is not anti-Jesus. It only is, as declared by the Word, because it's been fed with lies by the church. The church has not presented the true Jesus to the world and the true unity Jesus fervently prayed for in John 17--I mean really manifested Him through their real lives and characters and complete unity.
But actually, if we go rub elbows with the masses, if we go down to the grassroots and out of our comfort zones, we'd see that the world is aching to see the real, genuine Jesus. They look everywhere but see Him nowhere, especially not in Christian churches. Creation groans for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed, but sees nothing except mere humans trying to make a religion work.
Without the Jesus LIFE seen in the church, men have no light, not even a spark. The world wants to see the true God, but churches present it with nothing but a rotten god passed off as a "loving" Savior. Disappointed, the world rejects any idea of the true and perfect God and settles for the "Christian" god the church has been blinding it with.
As long as we don't live out the Jesus LIFE, totally bereft of any worldly benefit, possessing nothing, and totally surrendered to the cross, and as long as denominationalism blocks Jesus' prayer for a complete unity of believers in John 17, the world will never believe. We will continue to blind it.
Indeed, as the Master said, as long as we do not learn from the birds that don't plant or reap or store, and the lilies that don't spin, the world will keep stumbling blindly in the dark because of our stark worldliness.
