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WHAT CHURCH DO YOU GO TO?

Have you ever been asked the following question:

  • What church do you go to?

When asked,how do you feel?

Have you ever felt judged, annoyed, afraid to share, ashamed or simply frustrated?

Somehow when persons ask me this question it feels "loaded". What I have observed is that depending on your answer,persons who attend the same church will gave you a blessing and a smile commenting that they know the priest or pastor.Those who are not of the same church will either gave a lukewarm smile or a look of disapproval. However,most mature Christians always encouraged you to keep the faith.

 Well for those of us who feel annoyed and frustrated or even judged, I believe that focusing on the following can help you to overcome such negativity.

 I firmly believe that most persons judge you based on the church you attend and not by your faith. They simply cannot judge your faith.However,one possible reason could be that they focus only on the way you pray in church.

 In other words, prayer is an outward display and it shows how you worship. Therefore, people can see it and they can judge.(I believe it may the reason in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus asked that we go to our private room and pray).They look at the way you pray ,the church you attend and determine the type individual you should be. For example,Catholics usually make the sign of the cross and they are mostly quiet and pious when they pray. On the other hand,Pentecostal prays out loud with a much more vibrant way of worship.

 Therefore,we can judge a Catholic to a Pentecostal simply on how they worship and how they pray .(though the  charismatic movement in the catholic church is similar to the Pentecostal) 

 WHAT WE CANNOT JUDGE IS WHO HAS MORE FAITH; You see, you learn prayer discipline in the particular church you attend. There the church teaches you how to worship and shares the word of Jesus in hope it becomes alive in you(extremely important in going to a church).The goal here is that a seed of faith be planted in you through prayer.This faith however, is spiritual and invisible, given by the holy spirit.
Through the holy spirit, by faith you do not belong to a religion or church that is man made, but a kingdom that belongs to Jesus Christ.Therefore, what church you attend becomes a lesser focus and the importance of being part of the Kingdom becomes a bigger focus.
That kingdom is one of the future that will physically become real, a kingdom that have invaded our time and space through Jesus Christ when he came on earth. According to the bible,when he comes again your faith that was invisible will become visible. 
Colossians 3: 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.…

To sum it all up, faith is much more important than the church you go too.However, faith and prayer goes together. We see prayer by its physical form of worship but faith on the other hand is invisible and seen by God.Both grows together.

"Therefore I urge fellow Christians, even myself to avoid judging others because of their denominations or creating doubt in their minds because they do not attend the same church.We all belong to the same Kingdom of God"

To those who are having such issues,you can try the following:
  1. Start with a prayer. Ask the person who seek to focus on the church you attend  to pray together before any further conversation." This brings the focus on Jesus and not seniority of doctrine.
  2. Have a real conversation on how good the Lord is in each other lives. 
  3. Read and mediated on the Romans 14- "Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them.4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand." https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+14--You can read the rest on your own. 
  4. Another would be Colossians 2:16-18 (However you must read the entire chapter to understand what context Paul was speaking to believers).Always pray for understanding before reading the bible.
HOPE THIS POST GIVES SOMEONE A CLEARER PICTURE ON FAITH AND CHURCH. IT TOOK ME SOME TIME BEFORE I FULLY UNDERSTOOD THAT GOD's KINGDOM IS FAR BEYOND ANYTHING.


All praises to you ALMIGHTY FATHER through JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR.






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Comments

  1. Felix BrownDecember 6, 2015 at 1:36 PM

    This also remind me of the situation in the book of Daniel.Daniel enemies saw that he was praying three times per day and went to the King to complain.What they did not know was his faith in Yahweh manifested in the Lion's den.Daniel 6: 11-29

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