Hello! Sorry I've been absent lately. Work gets busy! Before February's over, I want us to think about the church. As you've seen, it can seem like God is having many victories (which he is), but also that the world is becoming extremely hostile towards God. More and more Christianity is viewed with skepticism, mistrust, and even scorned. We are definitely in the last days, and things must become like the days of Noah before Christ is able to establish his kingdom on this earth.

What I find interesting though, in this paradigm shift in America (at least. Other countries may see a similar trend) is that even though the Church is viewed with disdain, Christians are viewed with contempt and people blame us when we don't live to the standard we talk about, calling us hypocrites!

But honestly we are ALL hypocrites. No matter if you're a liberal atheist or the staunchest evangelical christian, there's only one person who walked on this earth who lived exactly the life He preached about, and His name is Jesus.

The Church is not defined by a building or a symbol. Each individual member makes the church, which is the Body of Christ. We, as members of Christ's body are sick with the terminal disease of sin that can only be fixed by Jesus, our Heavenly Physician. In Luke 5:29-32, right after Jesus asks Matthew (Levi) the Tax Collector to follow Him, He eats at Levi's house (the significance here being Levi also showing his friends Jesus) with other tax collectors, prostitutes and "sinners" (everyone besides Jesus is a sinner). The self-righteous Pharisees looked down on Jesus for associating with what the world would not associate with:

29":And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.
30But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?
31And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
32I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Unlike the world which seeks to condemn and judge people by standards that are fallible and changing, Jesus seeks to save us from our sins, give us rest from our sin sick souls, and make us more like Him. Those who come to Jesus, like the downtrodden in society and those who have come to acknowledge their sin, know that they're not well and that they need Jesus' help. When any follower comes to follow Jesus, it's when they realize that they couldn't do it on their own, that they're messed up. That they hit rock bottom and that from the depth of their soul, they need Jesus. Whether you're the PK who realized he/she was just going through the motions, or the wild child that like the Prodigal son, realized that they had wasted their lives and need to go back to the Father, all sin sick people check into the Hospital of God, known as the Church.

The Church is made up of all believers, and is supposed to be a place where people can get a break from the world, to grow spiritually, and learn about Christ and how to worship Him. But every now and again, we do get those Pharisees or people with worldly views that have a wrong understanding of what Church is for, and this hurts the body of Christ.

Please reflect this week on YOUR need of a physician. Have you called out to God? Do you need Him? Do you have need of the Great Physician? Spend time going to him to be healed of your sin sick diseases.