Gospeling the Church

It is so easy as followers of Jesus to speak and write about the ills of a culture separated from Jesus.  Guess what? If a culture is separated from Jesus, it will not act like Jesus.

What is sad is when the church who loves Jesus fails to look and act like Jesus. And, the church says nothing about it because we are too busy pointing the finger at a broken culture separated from Jesus.

I'm praying for a Church who will speak the gospel to itself like Paul spoke the gospel to the believers in Ephesus:

..... Don't go along with the crowd which has led to sexual obsession and perversion

.....take on the God-fashioned life

.....no more lies 

..... No more pretense

.....no more lying

.....don't use anger for revenge

.....no more stealing 

.....watch the way you talk

..... Don't grieve God...this is the most intimate part of your life

.....breakaway from cutting, backbiting, profane talk 

.....be gentle to one another, sensitive

.....forgive one another as God has forgiven you

..... Watch what God does and do it.

..... Learn a life of love

.....don't let love turn to lust... Sexual promiscuity, filthy practices and bullying greed

..... Discipline your tongue, don't gossip,don't talk dirty our silly...Speak words of thanksgiving

....don't use people or religion for what you can get out of them - usual variations of idolatry

....avoid religious smooth talk and being taken in by such smooth talkers 

....don't drink too much

....etc., etc. (The Message).

Let's recalibrate our efforts as a Church to address our own brokenness. Let's stop "joining the choir" in speaking against a few politically charged cultural sins" and let's speak the gospel to one another. Let's remind one another to be more like Jesus.  Let's do more to look like Jesus in out culture. Then, perhaps they will hear the good news of Jesus from us.