The Church: Part 3

When you are born in the country I lived in for the last 2 years, you are given an identity card, on which a religion is stated-- the religion of your parents. Because of this, there is the belief that you are born into your religion, whether that be Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, or even Christianity. Sadly, this view has infiltrated the church. When that is a belief in the church, the gospel is not preached, the Word is not treated fairly, the Holy Spirit comes and goes according to your good works, and repentance doesn't have much of a place. You can imagine the implications of such a belief. Not much need for evangelism. An assumption that everyone in the church building is actually a believer. Etc. Etc. 

As I came back to America, I realized, this belief exists here too. Many people who sit in pews week after week sit there because their parents and grandparents did-- they've always been in church. There's a belief that since they've always been in church, they're believers. Or since they went up to the front and said a prayer or signed a card, they're automatically part of the kingdom. That's not the gospel Jesus preached. Jesus preached a gospel of repentance, of belief, of absolute surrender. I am convinced that church buildings across this country and the country I just lived in are filled with people whom Satan has deceived into thinking they are believers when in fact they are not. 

Have you been playing the Christian game? Maybe your whole life? You're good at it. Really good at it. Maybe you've even deceived yourself into thinking that you are a believer because you were practically born into the church. But have you truly repented? Have you truly surrendered your life to God, laying the signed blank check of your life on the table for the Sovereign Lord to fill out?