"life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind." henri frederic amiel

i think the biggest problem with the church these days is hypocrisy. honestly now..there aren't very many churches who are genuinely into God. and there's so much judgmentalness going on that it obviously would turn people off towards christianity in general. i mean, most non-christians don't even understand what true christianity is about, thanks to us not freaking acting like christians.

obviously, we make mistakes, like everyone else. we're human. and we're still all sinners and whatnot. but still! even when we sin, we should repent and come back to the Lord. but noo..we go off and continue doing the same thing and acting just like the secular world. what is wrong with this picture? what happened to being "set apart" and the "light of the world" and being "pure and holy" and all that stuff that is being preached from the pulpit. what's the point of going in to listen to a sermon if it does nothing to change our lifestyle? what's the point of saying we should love everyone and turn the other cheek then go out to judge everyone who doesn't fit our view of what's "right"? there are different types of people, you know. it's not all about "oh, i think is the way we should go about doing things so any other way is wrong."

mostly, i think this problem is with asian churches. at least that's where i see it the most. we're all about perfection and making it all at least seem like perfection. well ok, we all know we're never going to be perfect until we get to heaven, and it's just plain hypocritical to act like we're perfect when we know we're not. so stop trying to be all self-righteous and acting like you have your act together when you don't. being in a church is not about looking "good." it's about coming to God broken. it's about coming to what's supposed to be a community so we can encourage each other and build each other up. not to point out differences and judge based on that. and we also don't need to talk about other people just because they're doing something "not normal." i mean, if it directly goes against the Bible, then of course we should correct that, but when we get worked up about little trivial things, that's going too far. like, who really cares if someone's more exuberant than others? what's wrong with trying to reach out to people, even if they're "weird"? i'm not saying we should let it go when someone is clearly doing something wrong. but that "wrong"ness shouldn't be based on our own perception of wrong.

who are we to judge who should be invited to church and who shouldn't be? are some people more "deserving" of salvation than others? helloooo. are you any more deserving of Jesus' sacrifice than anyone else? NO. we all need God's infinite grace and mercy. we do not deserve anything from God. get that straight. we shouldn't pick and choose who to bring to the house of God and who not to bring. we should bring all we can. everyone. in need of Jesus. no matter what their background is, no matter how they dress, how they look, how they act..God loves them all and He wants to know them all because He paid the price for everyone. and it's not the issue of inviting them since most churches are too messed up to go to anyway. the point is that we're all so judgmental about who shows up and if the person doesn't fit into the mold, we condemn him/her. something's wrong. obviously. but do we fix it? no. we go on doing what we do.

i know lots of christians who wonder why they can't attract their non-believing friends to Christ. ok well, look at all the crap in churches! Jesus said that the world will be able to tell that we're His by our love for each other. to be honest, i don't see much love in God's people. all i see is a pattern of christians getting angry with each other over the stupidest things yea, you know they're stupid and dividing the church over trivial matters. non-christians don't want to be christian. no wonder they think christians are all self-righteous hypocrites. no wonder we can't effectively bring people to Christ. no wonder it's harder to touch people with God's Word. there's almost no genuine, authentic christianity left.

what unites us is God's love. either we've forgotten what God's love is, or we're ignoring it. what is christanity? it's about following Christ. and what is following Christ. essentially, it's about love. we've forgotten how to love each other. we've forgotten how to love our Savior. and we've lost the true meaning of what it means to be a christian.

i wish we could return to simplicity of the early church. the church so pure and filled with the Holy Spirit as to be able to reach out to thousands of people at once. so holy that sin could not abide within it at all. why can't we be like that anymore? we kind of need a serious spiritual revival. so what are we going to do about it?