So I am outside the church today watching a bunch of construction guys work on the road. One walks by and starts chatting with me. Then he asks me a question. "Are you Catholic or Christian?" I said, "Pentecostal." Now hindsight is 20/20, that was the wrong answer. He looks at me and says, "What's that?" I then think about the question and quickly say, "Christian." His response took me by surprise. "Oh, that's good, that sounded Satanic to me." I punctuated my point by saying, "No, we make it our business to give Satan as much grief as possible." He laughed and said, "Good!"
I can understand some of the confusion. According to some sources, there are roughly 4,200 religions in the world. Of those, approximately 33% of them are Christian/Catholic. Out of these, there are probably more than 43,000 denominations worldwide. I can't keep up with all of them.
John 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
I can understand some of the confusion. According to some sources, there are roughly 4,200 religions in the world. Of those, approximately 33% of them are Christian/Catholic. Out of these, there are probably more than 43,000 denominations worldwide. I can't keep up with all of them.
Some people think that the local church is a plague on the community. Recently, I was in a TV interview, afterward, I was skewered by some people online who thought that neither the church or I had any right to an opinion concerning a local issue.
So with that said, what do your faith and the local body of believers you worship with represent in this thick soup of religion? How do you stand out and what are you known for? Another way to put it is when people walk away from you or your church, what do they think?
I walked away from a car dealership recently thinking - "Expensive."
I recently purchased an item and walked away thinking - "Great idea!"
I walked away from a restaurant recently thinking - "Bland food."
I walked away from another restaurant recently thinking - "Great food!"
That was my first impression. But after thinking about it, the dealership does good work, the item I purchased has a design flaw, the bland restaurant has excellent service, and the "great food" restaurant was expensive.
What separates you and your church from everyone else.
These are Jesus' words. So here is a little homework for you. Don't worry, you're not going to be graded. What are you going to do today that will let others know that you love Jesus AND them too!
PRAY: Dear Jesus, help me to love You AND others today. AMEN
More. Tomorrow.
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