How Do You Look?

“That is why the LORD’s anger has fallen upon Judah and Jerusalem. He has made them an object of dread, horror, and ridicule, as you can see with your own eyes. [2 Chronicles 29.8]

How does the world see Christianity today?

This is a good question to ask. It is also a good question to ask ourselves as individuals!

When people look at my life, do they see the blessing of God or do they see dreadful, horrific, and ridiculous things?

Let's put it another way: Do people dread to be around me? Do people see the horrific curses of sin upon my life (for a complete definition, see Deuteronomy 28.15-68)? Do people think me ridiculous because they hear claims from my mouth and see nothing in my life to support those claims?

In a large portion of Bible history, Israel was as an object of dread, horror, and ridicule. Why? Because they had betrayed God! But!!! When Israel obeyed and walked with God, they were feared by all the nations of the world!

So, if we, as Christians, take a truthful survey of how the world sees us, what will we discover? Are Christians the blunt of jokes? Or, are Christians respected and left alone because of the fearful and overwhelming power of our God evident upon us? 

Instead of concluding that we are powerless and not where we should be in our relationship with God (with very little or no resemblance at all to Jesus and His life on earth), we are guilty of some "ridiculous" claims: 1) we continue to make claims (and call it faith) that are repeatedly unsubstantiated and certainly not distinguishable as truly miraculous; 2) we abandon "Jesus-kind" of faith altogether making doctrine of our powerless existence calling it "faith;" or 3) we simply look like the world, act like the world, and suffer like the world hoping there is a God, there is a heaven, and that we will make it there someday if we go to church enough - and call it faith. All three make a mockery of faith as the Bible presents it. Faith heals the sick, raises the dead, walks on water, abundantly feeds thousands with only morsels, commands the wind and waves, makes the blind see, makes the deaf hear and the mute speak (yes, faith must be patient. But faith that consistently NEVER accomplishes anything may not, according to the Bible, be faith at all!). Fruitless faith draws ridicule from the world. Faith embraces the cross in selfless love for others.

My point is this: Christianity will never be popular, but 'unanswered questions' should lie with the world - not with Christians! Frankly, the world is only right in ridiculing Christianity today because Christianity today looks very little like Christ!

What do we do? We start by repenting...

Father, forgive me for making a mockery of Jesus with my so-called "Christianity" void of anything that looks of acts like Jesus in the eyes of a watching and desperate world.