The Church Under Attack!
This starts out ugly, but read to the end to find hope!
Seemingly, there are not many days that go by without hearing of a church being attacked.
The attack on the church comes from within and without.
Attacks from without that have included what has become an increasingly common occurrence:
Violent terrorist attacks on church’s of varying denominations. Houses of bloodshed that invaded by those with hearts filled with hate, and turn what are to be houses of worship into places of bloodshed.
But perhaps even more disturbing is that many attacks come from within:
There are attacks that are brought about because of sin in the church. Certainly at the forefront of these attacks are appalling reports of sexual sin, sexual abuse, along with the cover ups of these heinous acts, and turning away of the blind eyes. It sickens me that any of these things would take place in any church, but sadly they have. It repulses me that many have stuck their head in the sand over these issues be sadly this too is true.
But those aren’t the only failings of the church, others such as in-fighting, hypocrisy, and apathy, just to name a few, have long plagued church’s in today’s society.
Some attacks are from one church upon another over unbiblical minutia that need not divide true believers.
To often we arm the enemies of the church with ammunition of our own wretched sins.
While attacks in and on “Organized Religion” are up, support and attendance of the church is down.
Perhaps God’s hand of protection that has been removed because of our sin, and in order to wake us up and shake us up so that we will come running back to Him.
We pray for spiritual revival and for the God to bless us, but yet we invest so little of our time and other resources to prove our sincerity and bring ourselves back to a place where God can righteously and rightly bless us.
Many in the church have become disheartened. We see the reports and studies citing increasing age of the attendees, and declining attendance, support, offerings, and the sending of missionaries.
Despite all the negative in the news...there is hope!
Just because many church’s today are not the church we aught to be or used to be, does not mean that we should not strive to be the church that we must be and can be by the grace of God!
There is much I do not know when it comes to the issues of the church and how to turn around the trends and stave off the attacks...these 3 things I do know with all my heart when it comes to the church.
- The Church is still God’s Chosen instrument of action in this present age. God is not done with the church! He has a plan and purpose. He has the answer and is the answer to all of our needs.
- God will never tell you to stop going to church. Despite the growing trend to throw the church under the bus as “organized religion”, God will never tell you to stop attending. We as church attenders may use all kinds of excuses to not go to church, but it is not God’s will for you to forsake the assembling of yourselves together.
Am I saying that if you miss a church service for one reason or another it is the end of the world...no.
There are legitimate reasons why we may not be able to always go to church.
But we are not to forsake the church, we are not to throw her away. God hasn’t and neither should we. How do I know this? Because of #3
- Jesus Christ will one day come back for His church! We don’t know when it will but we know that it definitely will be. It is important at that we be ready for Him to come, and that we tell others how they to can be ready for that day.
