Dear Christians,
I WRITE to you with a troubled and heavy heart and I ask that you permit me the time to share some of what troubles me. It’s 3:30 a.m. and God awoke me from my sleep with this message: Where is the church (the body) of Jesus Christ? Where are the people who proclaim to carry His covenant and walk in His authority and righteousness?
When we look in our churches, offices, our communities, our schools, our businesses and our homes, it has become almost impossible to differentiate those who represent the righteousness and glory of Christ and those who do not. We walk as people who are either isolated from the world or those who have conformed to the systems of the world. Weren’t we insulated and commissioned to live in the world, make disciples, influence it and make it better? Where did we lose focus, our drive, our commission and our way? Our fear and reverence of God has been swiftly replaced by a fear of secularist and humanistic ideologies, which have at their root a mission to create an apostatical world.
We often don’t see the importance or the power of small beginnings, small movements, small actions or a small seed. The Arab Spring started with one young man. A small seed contains everything required to create the biggest tree. Many globally successful businesses and wealthy people started with a small investment. The establishment into law in support of gay marriage started with one court case. The LGBT community represents 3.8 per cent of the whole of America, yet they were able to exercise greater influence in a country where 70.6 per cent claim Christianity. Based on D. Kellman’s mathematics theory, this proves that 3.8 per cent is greater than 70.6 per cent.
We also see 16 being greater than 270 000 in Barbados. Lance Wallnau teaches that “consistent and sustained pattern of public persuasion transforms culture”. I would add to that, strategy. They were able to spread their ‘humanist gospel’ and transform a nation not only based on what they said, but also what they did.
What allows small things to develop into great things is the environment they are placed in. You as an individual, carrying the Spirit of Christ, should be able to influence your environment and be able to produce, but here is the problem: a person becomes hungry for what they have tasted and exposed to and many of us Christians have had a greater taste and exposer to the things of the world, even after we were born again.
How do I know this? We see it in our fruits, our behaviour, our attitudes, our priorities, our dress, our lifestyles and our commitment to the things of God. We are all sinners saved by grace and through the atonement of Christ; we are able to seek forgiveness when we sin, but there is too much habitual sin in the church. 1 John 1: 5-6 says: “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.”
We turn a blind eye to corruption and dishonesty in our workplaces and say nothing so as not to offend, because the praises of men is more important than that of God. We worry about our reputation, which is what others think of us, and pay little attention to our character; who we are and whose we are. We are focused on “what’s in this for me” rather than “what’s in me for this”.
We have Christian fathers and mothers who allow their children to dress and behave as they like. You are the head of your ‘Christian’ homes, yet you allow and encourage your sons to dress like thugs and prisoners, and your daughters like prostitutes. You support their premarital, teenaged, ungodly sexual relationships. Be warned, kissing arouses what kissing cannot satisfy. Church leaders beating their wives and abusing their children; pastors in secret relationships with their youth; worship leaders feting; Christians selling and using drugs; our prayer life is almost non-existent and we hardly read the Word. Where is the Church of Jesus Christ?
The world’s focus is the fight for human rights. As Christians our focus should be the fight for humans to do what is right (righteous) and that fight begins ‘in-house’; with us first. Your Brother, Corey.
• Corey Worrell, a former Commonwealth Youth Ambassador, is director of C2J Foundation Inc., a project-based NGO focusing on social development. Email: coreyworrell@gmail.com
