Roleplay

The following is an extract from The Gutter by Craig Gross (co-founder of XXXchurch.com).

In the days of the Bible, the ones who didn't like Jesus weren't the uchurched or irreligious ones. They were the religious. The Pharisees. The so-called church folks were the ones that despised Him. The Christians, though the disciples didn't call themselves that at the time, followed Him. The religious hated Him, and the unchurched hung out with Him whenever He was in town.
The groups. Two sides. With Him or against Him.
The unchurched embraced Him then, but they don't now. So when did this spiritual reversal occur? When did the "lost" change their position? They didn't. We did. Christians did. Somewhere between the time Jesus ascended into heaven and now, we Christians, the walking billboards for Jesus' life-changing power, have done a lousy job of maintaining His momentum. Those who despise Him now advertise for Him. And it's all because Christians changed.
God didn't change. Jesus didn't change. His people did. At one point, the God who embraced the gutter was well represented. Jesus walked the streets and took authentic love with Him -- all the way to the gutter. Wherever He went, the unchurched responded while the religious scorned.
Fast forward two thousand years and now the reverse is true. Many Christians work endlessly to provide an authentic example of Christ's unfailing love. But often their message of Hope is corrupted from the outside by an overzealous Pastor Bible-type character who refuses to see people through love rather than law. When those who are "lost," or as I like to call them, "pre-Christians," see this judgmental display, they turn off their ears, and Christianity becomes unbelievable.
In the mid-'90s, dc Talk released its big hit record, Jesus Freak, and while I in all my coolness have a difficult time admitting this, I kinda liked it. I especially liked the song "What If I Stumble," mainly because of the quote that precedes the song. [...]
"The greatest cause of atheism today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That's what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
Ouch. Hypocritical Christians have destructive effects -- that hurts to hear. But while it's painful, in many cases, it's also true. Instead of loving and embracing those with a different spiritual opinion, we throw rocks at them to tear them down and elevate our position. Usually, the ones slammed with rocks are the ones who need Jesus most.

This book has been very convicting up until now (p. 91/156). Makes me feel like crap to realize what kind of a hypocrite I am. But God came and saved even the worst of sinners (like the one typing this out right now) so praise Him. That's something else this book reminded me of: the fact that my God is greater than "my" world, that His love for me is greater than my lack of love (relatively, I hope) for Him. It's easy to claim that God loves me, but claiming that I love God (meaning that I obey His instruction really, because that is really the only measure of a human's love for God) is quite a lot harder. I honestly admit that from what I know of my character (if it can even be called that), I do not love God. Not enough. Never enough. Anyway, this book discusses very sobering and humbling stuff. It's a great, down-to-earth read.