Throwing Cold Water: Some Days It’s Difficult to Tell the Christian from the Non

A friend of mine said, “I know that we’re supposed to go to church because when coals get separated, they grow cold alone. But when I take my little fire to church someone always throws cold water on it.” He stopped attending because every time he went he would return home more discouraged and lonely than before. Someone always threw water on his fire!

Sound familiar? I hear this pretty often. Have you ever wondered whether something you might have said or done has driven someone else away from the church? I suspect that every one of us is guilty in this respect. We get involved in our little group during coffee hour, or are busy trying to get out of church as fast as we can. Maybe we can’t wait to check our social media updates so we don’t take that extra time to reach out and be kind. More and more, people are developing a personal relationship with their smart phones, not a Smart Creator!

It is often said that we Christians may not be the best argument for the faith, but we are the best argument against it—some days it’s difficult to tell the Christian from the non. We may claim that “Christians aren’t perfect, they’re only forgiven,” but often that’s just a lazy and lame excuse for not being who we are called to be.

What if we recovered the biblical truth that our relationships with our believing brothers and sisters are sacred? Why? Because they’re eternal. In fact, they’re the only ones that are. And they’re the most powerful testimony to the unbelieving world that the Gospel is true.

Let’s go out today fully conscious of this most urgent mission and ready to put it into daily practice: as the body of Christ, what we do and say to one another, how we treat each other, is one of the most important things we’ll ever do on earth.