Who do you look like?

Matthew 16:26 (ESV)

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

That is quite a loaded statement. You can thank Jesus for that one. In the midst of the ultimate call to die and follow - to give up everything you ever had and have total faith - to take up your cross daily and follow Jesus. That means everything: your lifestyle, your habits, your thinking and reason, your desires, your wants, your intake of media and liberal theology, your possessions, your time, your attention, your love, your diet, your image, your identity, your focus and your wrong ideas of God. And to think that giving all that up would be easy for something so certain as believing in Christ, for some reason it's the hardest thing to do.

To obey God is to give God your soul and entirety of trust. We can derive that as the antithetical statement of that verse. If you gain the whole world - it's pleasures and lure - your forfeit your soul. You worship yourself and other things as god. You are slave to the masters you so desire and lust after. Or, there's Jesus. Freedom in Christ. Submitting to the perfect Master, listening, following and trusting in every word. Jesus said in John 18 that for one reason He came and one reason He was born, and that was to bear witness to the truth.

I say all that because there's only two options here:

Total and ultimate surrender to perfect truth and grace in Jesus which leads to salvation and eternal life.

or

Total and definite enslavement to the world, the flesh and the devil and the hardening of your heart which results in the loss of your soul in hell forever.

There's no middle ground. No matter what approach different circles of religious and non-religious try to take or object, it's one, or the other.

Now, take all that and apply it to the Church; just as an interesting look at the state of who you look like as a Christian, and as a body.

What will it profit a Church if it gains the whole world and forfeits its soul?

What if the Church took measure to look like the world? To model and appeal after the world? To forsake the preaching of the Word of God to the Saints in the name of evangelism?

Wouldn't the same ramifications of a man gaining the world and losing his soul apply to the Church as well? Even if the Church meant well in it's intentions? That's not to say the congregants in the Church lose their salvation, but rather, the corporate gathering of Church life would cease to be living and eventually crumble down to but a few faithful saints, and lots of empty seats.

I don't have a lot of answers to this, but it's been treading in my heart for a long time and I see the state of the American Church and how it's severely dwindling. You end up with social clubs of "feel good" people, and the real Christians suffer because of it. The goal ought to be the preaching of the Word, exegetically. To understand what God says, always, about everything. Not just to skip over the hard parts, or the doctrinally difficult parts, or the offensive/non-P.C. parts, but to hit every word, to know as much as we can and live out what God has revealed to us.

There comes a point to which firm stances of Scripture need to be taken, and it's either willingly with growth, or reluctantly with strife and pain. I pray against Churches with shallow theology. I pray that they have men and women who have the zeal to take the initiative to know what God says, to know "why" they believe "what" they believe. Otherwise, you have dead and dying congregations and pastors preaching canned sermons to the unengaged few.

I pray for an American Reformation. I pray that God revives His Church, with His Word, for His Glory. I pray that I am a part of that in some way. I pray that I can be a pastor one day and plant a Church and preach the word (2 Tim 4:2). I pray that soon I can meet the woman who will one day be a pastors wife, who will help me in this neo-reformation. I pray for boldness and humility - unity and love. I pray for co-laborers, brothers and sisters who will stand firm on the precepts of God and the truth of His Gospel. I pray it will grow and change the paradigm of Church. That there will be a clear distinction between the people of God and those who aren't saved that need Christ. I pray for counter-culture Christianity that puts to shame the current face of "American Christianity". All for the Glory of God.

This is wildly offensive to most, and incredibly resounding to few, and I do not apologize. My prayer is that if you are offended, you would ask why. And if I am wrong in any of my statements, that I would be submissive to Biblical scrutiny and teachable. I want to look like the man God says to be, and be seen carrying His precious word forward.

Soli Deo Gloria