How Things Ought to Be

Lately I’ve been reading and hearing a lot of “anti-church” sentiments. Even people who call themselves Christian spout off, some proudly asserting, “I refuse to go to any church.” Wow.

And even worse, people who DO go to church say things like, “I’m not getting fed” or “Nobody cares about me.” I’m so sick of hearing that! How old are YOU? How long have YOU been a Christian? A child by the age of 2 can FEED THEMSELVES! The child might be a messy eater, but he uses his hands and doesn’t need to be spoon-fed or bottle-fed anymore.

“You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food” (Hebrews 5:12 NLT)

How things ought to be:  You get saved, you get filled with the Spirit of God, and you begin to grow. You learn more and more and learn to feed on the Word and learn to be led by the Spirit of God. There’s a time for being a baby, a time for having your diaper changed by others, a time to be fed by others, a time to be carried by others. But then there comes a time when you eat by yourself. You walk on your own with no help!  You keep learning and growing, and you should even learn how to share with others – learning how to encourage, how to exhort, etc.  You may even become a teacher or a mentor, but at the very least, you should strive to become an encourager!

It’s time to put on our big girl and big boy pants and BE FOLLOWERS of CHRIST. That’s what “Christian” means after all! It’s time to be different. It’s time to care about OTHERS and quit whining.

If you’ve been a Christian for a long time and you’re still saying, “I’m not getting fed” or you still need others to help you clean up your messes, or you don’t feel like anybody at church cares about you, something is wrong!

There’s a principle that God has built into His creation called “sowing and reaping.”  It says you reap what you sow. If you wait for others to care for you and you never reach out to care for others – then you’re going to feel like nobody cares for you. But if you practice being an encourager of others, I guarantee that you will reap that back! And that’s not my guarantee, it’s God’s guarantee. “He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”

It grieves me to see older Christians, who have walked with God for years, reach some arbitrary “retirement age,” and become uninvolved in the lives of others. You people have rich treasure inside of you  – what are you doing with it? Don’t you see its value? You are NEEDED.

So quit complaining and become a person who makes a difference! Become a person who builds others instead of tearing them down. And . . . be careful about how you talk about the body of Christ!