Presumed Holiness

As Christians we know that we are mandated to win souls to God's kingdom. We also know that our best recruiting tool is ourselves; how we live our lives before men. It's easy to get "caught up" while in church on Sundays but what really matters is what we do and what we say after the benediction. The church is under attack more now than ever before and it seems as though satan is boldly using those called by Christ's name, to do battle against the Kingdom. I'm often amazed and saddened when I listen to how we as Christians speak to each other and talk about each other especially when we think we are in safe company. I wonder if we we knew that some of the hurtful and awful things that we say sometimes gets back to those we are degrading and slandering would it cause us to think before we spoke? I wonder if we knew that as Christians, our punishment is severe if we do harm to a fellow Christian, would that compel us to keep our mouths shut? It's so easy to engage in conversations that take a nasty turn and we don't seem to mind or give it a second thought as to the damage that this behavior causes, even if the subject of our conversations never finds out what was said. It causes damage to our spiritual walk and our relationship with God because He is not pleased. As we dwell in our glass houses we cannot afford to throw stones and the things in our lives that need fixing demand our utmost attention now. We hide so cleverly behind the veil of Christianity, thinking that we have the world fooled but we don't. There's more to being a christian than wearing the name tag, attending church and carrying a bible under our arms. No, it takes self control, praying before speaking and resisting opportunity and temptations to defame someone's reputation and name all in the pursuit of self satisfaction. Having our names on the church roll and holding a position on the trustee or steward board or being a member of the ministerial staff does not make you holy; your actions, the way you conduct yourself, and your steadfast committement to doing and being what God commands His children to be, that makes you holy. God already knows that we will never be perfect but we should at least die trying.

Be blessed,

Cynthia