-- From "Wreaking havoc on America" commentary by Matt Friedeman, posted at OneNewsNow.com 6/24/2008
If the church of Jesus Christ, whose congregations number in the hundreds of millions in America, was doing what she were supposed to be doing ("... created in Christ Jesus to do good works"), a whole host of problems would be taken care of in short order.
. . . An inactive and ineffective church, ignoring the call to be holy, is as bad as a culture can hope for. To have a faith that is comfortable inside the confines of worship but remains unreleased into the world is, really, no faith at all.
Dennis Kinlaw recalls one of his tasks as a boy -- gutting a pig and hanging it in the smokehouse for his mother. One day, she asked her son to retrieve that ham, for special company was expected at their dinner table. He dutifully grabbed the meat and took it to his mother, who cut it with a butcher knife. Her mood suddenly soured, as the boy approached to investigate to find out that the meat was now oozing with maggots. She said somewhat forcefully to Kinlaw: "Not enough salt, Dennis, not enough salt."
When the church isn't the salt of the earth or the light of the world, disaster awaits. And the coming disaster, caused by Christian fecklessness, is the rise of paganism, cults, and Islam. None of these can compete with a vitalized, loving, compassionate church.
Luther had a phrase -- "Cor incurvatus ad se" ... a heart turned in on itself; a basic definition of sin. Ecclesiastically applied, there is nothing worse. The Church was not meant simply for itself; it was made for others.
And the world is waiting for us.
To read the entire commentary, CLICK HERE.
