I just read a friends blog, amandafawn.blogspot.com; check it out, it's class. What she said was exaclty how I am feeling about certain issues in my life. Sometimes I am so focused on what is going in the world around me, that I lose focus of Jesus. As the band 'Casting Crowns' put it in their song, The Altar and the Door, "I'm trying so hard to stop trying so hard." That is how I feel all the time! I see poverty all around me, I hear of calamities all around the world and I see injustice happening in front of me. But in the midst of all these things, I get caught up in this gung-ho attitude of "Let's do something about it!" Now some of you reading this might say, hey, that's a good thing. IT IS! But what I tend to do is forget about the one thing that only God can help people with...sin. Sin is something that has almost become taboo to talk about in Churches because we don't want to seem "out of touch" or not "seeker-friendly". If you have the opportunity to feed people, feed them. To clothe them, dress them! But it just seems that the modern day church has lost something...why are we doing these things? It is because of Jesus, He did these things, but He also died for us. Besides easter, when was the last time we really challenged ourselves and Christian brothers/sisters about sin in our own lives; or heaven forbid, sin we see in our friends lives? If I am sinning, and you don't tell me to smarten up or stop doing what I am doing...then you are no friend of mine! Am I saying to get on your soapbox and "yell" at every passer-by to try and "convert" them? NO!!! Break bread with them, but realize and remember, that there is more going on here than just lunch. There is more to this person than an empty stomach. It seems like there are two polorizations...either we can look after the material needs, but not the spiritual; or we can look after the spiritual, but not the physical. Isn't that what Jesus did? He did both.
The Christians primary purpose on earth is to worship and love God. It is also to love your neighbour. We need to do both. So I pose this question, can we really do one without the other?
