Taking Back the Mission

Okay, so here’s the part where I say something about how Christianity is wrong and you all get upset with me because… Why not? 

Christianity, in all ways, has ditched the original point and purpose of His mission. Even hijacked His terms and words to suit its own thoughts and beliefs.

Anyone have a soap box I can stand on? ‘Cause I’m just getting started. 

We have begun to spread the “word” of God like a disease, and it makes me sick to see what it has become. People that travel thousands of miles across the world to…. Oh, how did He put it? It was so well said. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.”

Goodness, He says it so well it gives me chills. No holding back to spare their feelings. No tenderness in order to prevent offense. “You make them TWICE the child of HELL as you are.” 

Hold on a minute, I’m geeking out here. That’s not just calling out one man on his bull. That is a God-sized, generationally deep, eternally potent, burn! Okay, okay, let’s move on. I’ll try to curb my enthusiasm at His incredible, awe inspiring words. I can still feel the blow-back from that one. No one does it better. 

My point is this…. We have Missions all over the world. There are more who claim Christianity than EVER. 2.38 BILLION people, according to World Population Review 2022. Are you kidding me right now? That is about a third of the world’s population, and yet we can’t get it together enough to stop this madness, even within Christianity, itself? Every day, some new scandal involving a church, pastor, Christian, cult, or something or another comes up. What? You can’t be serious! Affairs. Abuse. Money laundering. Murder. Sex scandels out the wazoo (whatever that is). I mean, really. At this point, the Christian demographic is more of a dirty joke with a bad punchline. 

So how did we get here? It’s actually really simple. We fell for the same thing that every generation before us has fallen for. We gave up what was truly Holy for something cheap. 

You know what? No one says it better than him, so…

“Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”

 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and
dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!”

 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore, I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.”

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (Matthew 23:16-39)

I can’t take it. My heart can’t take how good, how rich this is. He is pointing out their hypocrisy. I can’t even begin. We look at this and say, “We don’t do those things.” 

Really? Let’s see. Hold the Bible higher than the voice of the one who gave it? Hold to the building more than the family that is meant to build it? Focus on our tithing but forget to pursue those qualities that only come from Him? Condemn and set aside those that we don’t understand? Some of you still condemn the prophets and teachers sent to you. You ignore them. Set them aside. Push them out of your churches and towns. And don’t say you don’t. I know you do, because I am one such person. I have watched my brothers and sisters grow in the hands of God. Their marriages and homes were healed before your very eyes and you KICKED THEM OUT!!!! God have mercy. 

And don’t think that I hate you. Because I don’t. I am dying inside for you. I let go of things I wanted and needed in order to be among you and teach you and help you, and you treated us with mockery. I am not even worthy to be counted among the greatest of His teachers. I have never found the strength to sit among you and say anything close to the words that He said there in Matthew, and you have condemned us. We did what we did because we wanted better for you. We wanted HIM for you. 

And there it is folks. Christianity gave up HIM for the “mission.” Everything became more important than Him. Money. Population. Converts. Popularity. Acceptance. Public opinion. Comfort. Nationalism. The scriptures. The buildings. The doctrine. The theology. EVERYTHING and ANYTHING was deemed greater in value than He, Himself. 

How? I don’t understand. Someone please explain this to me. How can you come face to face with HIM and go, “Naw, I don't want that.” 

How? I mean…I don’t have words. 

I had the opportunity last fall to visit a young man that we had been discipling long-distance. (Remember, that was what we were supposed to do…make disciples for Him, not for US, for HIM. Not converts! Followers of HIM! Get it? Got it? God.) I wanted to do so much more than we were able, but what I did do was live out the possibilities in front of them of living with Yeshua. This young man fell in love with it. He fell in love with our God. He fell in love with the person that I know. And I watched him go from struggling to grow under the weight of religion to blooming before the Son. (Forgive the poetry. I am an author, after all.) Since we left, he has taken off, and I have watched him grow in strength, faith, and passion for the things of God. THAT is what “Missions” is supposed to look like. It took us less than two weeks. I did not do that. I taught him about the One I love, and he took off running after it with everything in him. Now he goes from village to village in the African bush, teaching them about relationship with God. 

It doesn’t get any better than that. It’s perfect and flawless and beautiful. It’s him. It’s Yeshua. 

I know that it’s hard. I know that the worries of this world beat down on us and push and persuade us to just give-in to the world around us. I know that the world avoids the easy answers. It doesn’t point a gun at our head, most of the time, and say “recant or die.” No. No, the world says, “Okay, choose that path if you want. Life will be difficult. People will reject you. People will hate you. And it will be because you just won’t shut up and do things the way we want you to.” The world pushes down and squeezes us, hoping we will break. 

But don’t give Him up. Hold on. Hold out. He will not let you go. If you are out there truly looking for Truth, looking for Him, He will not leave you in the dark. Don’t give up what is priceless for something cheap. Holding to the Truth and offering Light, when the world just wants to swallow it and make it a part of itself, is the mission. Not you. HIM. Not them. HIM. Why? Because He is worth it.