Church.....I cringe when I hear this 6 letter word. I'm not talking about the body of Christ here, but the building. The man-made things of church. church with a lower case "c". Hundreds, if not thousands of books have been written about the very subject. Books like, "They like Jesus but not the church", "So you don't wanna go to church anymore". We can try to pretend that we haven't been hurt by those in the church...but we would be lying to ourselves. We can pretend that people aren't hurting but what good can that do? It breaks my heart to see Christians putting fellow Christians down. I am sometimes scared to tell people to go to church because I don't want them to have to deal with the hurt, sometimes the rejection, and even the disownment that people in the church seem to spread. In my own walk with God, I have been hurt by the church, and I have to wonder...how does this make God feel? It says in John 15:5:
"I am the Vine and you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
So, if we are all branches that are connected to the Vine, wouldn't it seem odd when we attack each other? It's like we're hurting ourselves. That was never God's intention for the church. We are to be a body that uplifts one another, encourages, supports, prays for, and loves each other. Maybe we have forgot what it means to be "the church". Just maybe, we forgot what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
