Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Movement: Legalism




Church is not a place for saintly Christians to display their spiritual resumes, but a refuge of salvation for the doubters and the degraded, the bullied and the bruised, the poor and the prostitute, the hungry and the heroin addict, the thieves and the thoughtful. These are the one Christ came to save. But I'm finding out more and more that we get distracted by the meaningless, shallow things that trip us up from ever reaching Christ. We judge, we criticise, and rip each other apart...
"Did that girl really not do her bible journal?" She is struggling to believe it's true

"He's too good to sing." He is quietly worshipping to himself

"Is she really wearing jeans to church? Slob." Her parents are getting a divorce

"A girl can't read scripture in front of church! " That scripture transformed her life

"Did you hear so-n-so really held hands in the parking lot?" They are secretly falling fast and need love and guidance, not more rules.

"So your actually doubting Christinty is real?" Making her feel doubting is wrong, so she just fakes it to impress.

"You are not allowed to say your're struggling with porn in The Lord's House!" Now he needs love more than anything, and a godly man to help him overcome.

You sinners, DON'T SIN!

This is the mantra I feel crushing me, crushing the church and what God intended it to be. I'm sick of it. It's wrong. We obsess and rack our brains over people's sins and mistakes, while isn't the person judging just as sin wrought at the next. To quote Don miller from Blue Like Jazz, "People often say, 'Love the sinner, hate the sin.' shouldn't it be 'love the sinner, hate your own sin?'"

At this moment I feel done with church. Done with Christan High school. Done with Christian performances and cheesy song lyrics and little christian sayings that half the time we don't even realize what we're saying. I'm exhausted by these legalistic rules. Where is MERCY, where is GRACE, where is LOVE?!

Deep breath.(weehww)


Adonai, the Sovereign one.

3 comments:

Kelsey Ann said...

be the change em. proud of you for being real. you are a great example to me. hope i can be more sincere like you.

Micah Wetzel said...

You're incredibly brilliant.

That is all.

Meredith said...

so there's this girl named emily schad. i think i love her. yea, pretty sure.

good work, em!