You are the Church

Acts 11:17 If then God gave to them the same Gift (equally) as He gave to us when we believed in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I and what power or authority had I to interfere or hinder or forbid or withstand God?

I like my church for many reasons, but one of the main reasons is because you can come exactly the way you are.  For many years as a young child I was drug from church to church to yet another church on Sunday’s by one of my family members having people lay hands on me or “trying” to have me saved.

Church became a place that no longer was about God but about how I looked, was I saved, was I going to hell or was I worthy enough to walk through the doors.  Now, I say this and want this to be clear, none of those feelings came from any of the pastors, ministers, preachers or congregations; they were all delivered by the hands of my family member.

I was taught that I must be so incredibly bad, dirty, unworthy or unloved, if I must go to all of these churches to save me from being myself.  Obviously, I never knew or understood why I was all of those things, I just knew that I must be, or this wouldn’t have become our Sunday ritual.

I would pray for God to save me, from what, I didn’t know, but please just do it, and do it soon, so I don’t have to keep doing this over and over again.  I knew that I loved God but if this is what it is about, then I want no parts of it.

I am sure that I am not alone in having a bad experience with Spiritual abuse.  I am sure that someone else had a poor role model of what God is supposed to look like and be, and that pushed you away from entering into a relationship with Him.   It sure did for me.

It took me many years to get back to going to church and to find the right church.  I like that I can look around and see young, old, families, singles, friends, people there alone, all races and all denominations attending my church.  I like that one week I can be sitting beside a guy who wears a cowboy hat and the next week I can be sitting beside someone who has a sleeve of tattoos.  

To me these are the faces of God. 

I opened this writing with the verse from Acts 11:17 If then God gave to them the same Gift (equally) as he gave to us when we believed in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I and what power or authority had I to interfere or hinder of forbid or withstand God?

Because, who am I?  Who am I to say that because you have a neck tattoo and made poor decisions, and still do, that you aren’t gifted with the same gifts that I have?  Who am I to say that because you are older than me that you aren't as valuable as I am?   I am not the person who says how you should come to church, nor do I want someone telling me how I should come to church.

I am a jeans and sweater person, with flip flops, if that is who I am and I am coming to serve the same God you serve, what does it matter what I am wearing?  What does it matter that I have tattoos?  If you knew the story behind some of them you would know that there is indeed a deeper meaning and God is glorified in most of them.  But because I have them, does that make me less “Christian” or less “saved” then the person who does not?

I love the phrase the church is not the building you go to every Sunday, Church is who you are.  That phrase hits deep in the pit of me.  Church isn’t the building I go to worship in it’s the vessel that the Holy Spirit lives in.  I have church every day when I commune with God. 

We need to make an effort to start to love the people around us the way we want God to love us.  We have all made mistakes, we have all done things we wish we would not have done, and we have all sinned, as long as you believe and confess in Jesus, we have all been forgiven.

Why can Jesus a man who knew no sin, but became sin, for you and me, why can He overlook our faults and the faults of the people beside us, but we cannot.   Jesus paid the price that we will never be asked to pay, and yet, He opens His arms wide to embrace us with love and forgiveness.  He extends His love, grace and mercy to us every single day, but we have trouble forgiving the person who cut us off at the red light.

We are equal in the sight of God.  You might think because you have a thousand degrees, or make more money than I do that you are better than me, but I would say to you, does Jesus love you more than me?  Does Jesus extend His arms of love to you more than me?  Did Jesus die for you more than He died for me?

The answer to that, is He did not.   He loves us equally, completely and totally.

You know the song; He’s got the whole world in His hands?  I don’t think the song said He’s got the whole world, except people with brown hair, or tattoos, or piercings, or alcoholics, or drug addicts… No!  The song says He’s got the whole world in His hands.

We are the church.  Every day we wake up, we are the church.  We are God’s vessels in the earth and when you choose to turn your head in judgment on someone who has taken a different path in life than you have, you are no longer showing them a church as God created it to be.  You are showing them a church that the world created.   You are showing them you!

Recently God has told me that I am to love someone with His love, not my own.  I think this is a brilliant statement!  If I love out of my own ability to love, I love conditionally, but if I love from the abundance of God’s love, than I am loving perfectly.  I am loving wide open, perfectly, unashamed, exposed and complete. I love the way God loves me.