But It's Okay, We're At Church

Today I was reading some Old Testament passages (kickin' it old school) when I found a little section where God says if there is only one person in the entire city who follows Him He will spare the city. But of course there was no one. And I started to wonder, how, how on earth can a group of people that were so dedicated to God end up with not a single person believing in Him. Then I found this:

Jeremiah 7:3-7 ~ This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: Change your lives and do what is right! Then I will let you live in this place. Don’t trust the lies of people who say, “This is the Temple of the Lord. This is the Temple of the Lord. This is the Temple of the Lord!” You must change your lives and do what is right. Be fair to each other. You must not be hard on strangers, orphans, and widows. Don’t kill innocent people in this place! Don’t follow other gods, or they will ruin your lives. If you do these things, I will let you live in this land that I gave to your ancestors to keep forever. (NCV)

Can you imagine, giving offerings to other gods, actually murdering people in church, but then saying "But we're doing it in God's house, so we still believe in Him. It's okay." And I again I wondered, how, how could anyone possibly get to that place. A place where they think any action is okay as long as they do it at a good location, a holy place.

But do we do that? Does the church in general have people who lie, cheat, steal, but they still show up to church on Sunday morning and since they visited the "Holy Place" whatever they do in life is then okay? Yes, we're forgiven and yes, we are saved by grace but doesn't that mean we should live like it? When Lorie says she loves me no matter what I do does that mean I should go out and spend all our money on prostitutes? Or does it mean I should live up to the love that she's giving me?

Yesterday at our church staff meeting yesterday, someone said this that got me thinking along the same lines. "I wonder how many times someone is at work and they do the job in an hour, but they charge the person three hours, all the while sipping coffee from one of our church mugs..."

Maybe we should start living up to the love and mercy and grace that God has bestowed on us...

Matthew 7:20 ~ Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. (NCV)

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