Church, it is time to WAKE UP!

I was back in the UK this last week and went to my Parent's church on Sunday, and became rather annoyed at the prayer that was made - during which the request was made for God to "Feed the Hungry", and I wonder why on earth that prayer was made.

Now before you suddenly think I have gone stark raving mad (though I would fogive you for having that conviction about me already), The fact is is that this is not how God intends for us to work in his church - there is no point sitting around on our backsides very nicly praying for the hungry, the sick, the homeless, and anyone else in poverty, if that is ALL we are going to do! let me take a passage from the Bible, James Chapter 3. This is a passage that is commonly misread, and as a result we tend to ignore it because it seemingly doesn't fit in with our knowledge of salvation. It is the passage in which James tells us that "Faith without Deeds is Dead" - but the misconception from this passage is that this is telling us that we are dead, unless we justify ourself through deeds - hugely theologically inaccurate, mainly because as sinful human beings we hae no hope of justifying ourselves, we are justified only though Christ's death on the cross, and have eernal life through his resurrection from the dead. But I digress slightly from my point. James is stating that there is no point in having faith if we don't do anthing to SHOW that we have faith. He is not talking about being a Pharisee, where we stand an shout our prayers on street corners to show how religious we are, that is not what he is talking about - he is saying tht we are the Church - we are Christ's living body - filled with he power of the Holy spirit, we are left on earth to fulfill God's will, and to show our faith.

When I was at School, I preached the Gospel at (I liked to think that it was to, but in hindsight, I think "at" is a more appropriate word) my friends, and they came back saying that they had done good things in their lives, and there are people who do good deeds and are not christians, does that mean they will be in hell? And I think that perhaps there was some indignation that there are christians who DON'T. My Father refers to these as "Billiard Ball" christians - those who come out of their worlds, out of their pockets every sunday, knock around with a few other christians, and then dissappear back ito their pockets again come monday. It is these Christians that James was speaking about, and quite possibly to, as well. What is the point in faith if we do not use it?

I heard an alarming statistic on the way into church on sunday morning, over the radio, and it was this - we spend more money on Ice Cream in the western world each year, than would be needed to feed everyone in the third world.

We talk about a global food crisis, but it is statistics like this that show that we have plenty enough food, and can produce plenty nough food on the world to feed everybody - but where are we trying to even it out? and this is what gets me with some Christians. Other than for your own salvation, there is no point having faith if you are just going to sit on your behind every sunday, and then go to housegroup on a wednesday, but DO NOT ACTUALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE REAL WORLD!

God has given every one of us things that we are gifted at - things we can do, not just spiritual gifts, but also skills in finaces, cooking, making music - I am Pleading with the church for everyone - the whole of God's church, over a BILLION of us on God's Earth, about a quarter of the percentage of the population of the planet, Now is the time for us to chane the world - stop being a Billiard ball Christian, get out of your pockets, and start LIVING - be a part of the Body of Christ, and fulfill his work on Earth. PLEASE!

Let us start working together - there are an estimated 34,000 different denominations of Christianity, but WE ALL WORSHIP THE SAME GOD, THE SAME MAN, WE ALL BELIEVE IN THE CHRIST, AND HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION - so let us work together to bring his glory on this earth. It is time that the Church did what it was born to do.