Maybe Gandhi had a point,..

Soak it in,... This quote by Gandhi I ran across this morning. It astounded me and made me really think a moment. Then it hit me. This is how outsiders, people not "raised" "born" and "bred" in church see the Americanized form of Christianity so prevalent in America today. Can we blame them? 

We preach Jesus but scoff at sinners and hate gays. We preach love and forgiveness but cheer when people hate and are the first to throw the stones when we think we see an offense in someone,... We preach we want to save the lost but we stick to our clicks, we don't want to reach out, that seems like too much work!" We say Jesus said feed the hungry but we gorge ourselves with the good stuff and give scraps to our neighbor who is hungry. Maybe Gandhi had a point, how alike of Christ are we. We are to be like" mini"Christ" but I think we are more conformed like "mini-Pharisees" look at some of the comparisons,.. 

Jesus walked with sinners, he was dirty I'm sure, he probably didn't smell the best, he touched lepers, he ate with sinners and tax collectors. He associated with the people no one wanted to be seen with because he wanted to share the love of heaven. 

Now lets look at the American church. We report Sunday and wear our very best, no jeans in church, wear a dress, make sure you look, smell and act your best.  Our churches aren't filled with people who look different than us, they aren't filled with lepers, they are filled with plastic American Christians trying to look their best,.. For who? God? Im pretty sure God can see how dirty you are on the inside he doesn't care if you shined your shoes or wore your best dress. 

I'm sorry if this comes across as harsh. But you know what. I've felt those stares. Of not being the best dressed or most appropriate. I wasn't raised in church! I barely owned a dress. I'm the girl in skinny jeans and a tshirt, my husband is the guy who has tattoos down his arms in jeans and a tshirt and we aren't perfect. We were once lepers who Jesus cleansed and so we want to go to church to raise our hands and WORSHIP and THANK him! Not to look good. We don't try and look different it's just who we are. We want to come to Him just as we are BECAUSE he's  cleaned up our insides.

 I guess if he decides to one day we might become penny loafer wearing people  :) but for now he loves me like I am :) I think when Jesus healed people we see it as he fixed their outside but I think he was more concerned about their insides.... We just fail to see that. Leprosy rotted people from the inside out. Not the other way around. Remember that.