2. There are a lot of people leading double lives (post 1 is here)
Inevitably there is the person who you see outside of church and you hardly recognize their personality because they are acting completely different.
In some way we are all leading double lives. We all have sin natures and are always fighting evil. We are all in need of God’s grace all the time. However, it is also our job to shine the light of Christ and it is scary to me how many Christians simply do more harm than good. Please don’t take this as me throwing the first stone without looking at the plank in my eye. I see the plank…it is huge.
In my previous life of business to business sales, my boss was adamant about his church. He always talked it up, talked about how he loved going every Sunday, that it was exactly what he needed every Sunday. Now let me say that he did go to a great church that is doing wonderful things. Rose and I went there for about 5 months and I remember seeing him raising his hands in worship and just feeling sad. Not because he was in worship, I thought that was great. I was sad because I knew him Monday through Friday. I knew the man that cussed all the time, talked about women other than his wife, yelled to his wife on the phone, treated other workers like dirt, and to this day I think he did more harm for the kingdom than good. I was sad because something wasn’t transferring from the Sunday morning to everyday life. I still wonder to this day which “person” was the show.
In high school I had a small group leader who I grew close to for a short time. On Sundays he was perfect youth leader, and then every night he would get drunk, sometimes with students around and I knew about it. He was my leader, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and for this I was naive and stupid. This is something that to this day makes me sad and disappointed. He was 2 completely different people, unable to let his relationship with Christ affect him outside of church.
I wonder how seriously most of us take our faith. The people that know we are Christians are watching us and when we are not an example of Jesus, they notice even more. I know for me that the love of Christ does not shine in my life nearly as much as it should.
“The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
With the news yesterday on the study showing atheism and agnosticism growing at rapid rates, I pray that we will take this to heart.
