We Worship a Risen Savior!
Yesterday was Easter! The day we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! Like Brother Eddie said, ours is the only religion that worships a Living God.
Try that on for size!
I need to tell you about something that happened over the weekend. On Saturday, we received a phone call from a friend of ours. She said she had just gotten home from her church’s Easter service. I said “Wait a minute, today is Saturday not Sunday.” She said that her Pastor asked the regular members to attend the Saturday service if they could so there would be more room for the C & E’s.
“OK,” I said “What’s a C & E?”
She explained it was a kind of shorthand for referencing those people that only show up in Church for ‘Christmas and Easter’.
That really stuck in my craw. It reminded me of the ‘SMO’ label. You remember; ‘Sunday Mornings Only’. These labels are not only judgmental, they are prideful too. Both are traits not exhibited by Christ. How can the light of Christ be within us when we use labels like that? Maybe these people do show up once or twice a year, or only on Sundays, but it is not our place to judge them. We do not know what they are going through in their own lives.
Mahatma Ghandi said once “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
I believe things like this are why he said that. As a Christian in Training, I believe we are all supposed to be living like it says in today’s bible verse, Philippians 2:3 NIV:
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves . . .
How can we be humble and place the well-being of others above ourselves when we use labels like this?
One other thing that bothered me about what my friend said was that the regular members should attend Church on Saturday instead of Sunday so these people would have more room in the Church. Let me ask you, when you take the Christians out of the Church, aren’t you also taking the reflections (the light) of Christ away?
Although they may come only once or twice a year, we (Christians) need to be there for them. It is not just through the singing and the messages delivered by the Pastor that people come to Christ. It is also by people seeing Christ in others.
That much I know. Because that is how Christ came to be in me.
Your friend,
Roscoe
A Christian in Training
A Reader writes …Dear Roscoe, I am writing you today in response to reading your book, “The Letters from Roscoe.” First, let me state that your book is a blessing so thank you for writing it! I feel you and I are on the same journey based on many similar feelings and experiences you describe in the first few chapters of the book. I praise the Lord because I feel He put you (my friend Roscoe) in my path, and has shown we are both on the same journey through our mutual experiences, as a reminder that He is real and will reveal Himself to those who truly seek Him.
“ . . . You will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” – Deuteronomy 4:29 NKJV
Roscoe, please keep writing, and please keep seeking our Lord Jesus Christ! May He bless you, my friend!