I like your brand.

So many Christians are completely clueless. Seriously. Do you realize that you are pushing people away from God by your 'having' all the answers? Do you realize that your cookie cutter faith is cutting out the truth of the gospel?

I do not believe that there are different 'brands' of Christianity. But there are different types of believers. There are those who honestly believe that everything they believe is 100% there is no gray area found in their beliefs. It's all right or it's all wrong. They spout off holier than thou statements as blanket statements that immediately give the non believer a chance to close their ears and stop listening. Nothing else they say has any bearing on this other person's life, because they have in so many words have judged this person.

THIS IS NOT WHAT JESUS DID!!!

THIS IS NOT WHO JESUS IS!!!!

"I like your brand." Now I don't have a brand of Christianity. And I don't agree with the statement that was made, but I do understand why a person who does not believe in God or Christ would think of it this way. We as Christians are not unified in our beliefs or our actions. We are not unified in speech. We have different messages. We have different goals. I don't even want to call myself a Christian in today's world. I am more a friend of Christ, than I am a 'Christian'. Am I going to make it a Jesus thing...of course I am. My life is a Jesus thing. :D Make your life a Jesus thing too, throw away the cookie cutters. Faith in Christ; walking with him is not about the cookie cutter faith. It's about really living.

I've been searching and seeking for my entire life. I am a seeker by nature and I want to know the truth. If I don't know it, I search until I find it. I have been discussing my beliefs with an atheist, as you know if you've read old blog posts. When the discussions first began, I spent a lot of time in prayer and seeking council from those who seemed wiser and more grounded in their faith than I felt. One particular Christian, when I approached him asking questions told me the conversations were pointless. I won't be able to 'prove' anything to this person and that I was wasting my time. How wrong he was! How misguided and mistaken.

I am not having these discussions to prove that I am right. I am not having these discussions to prove God exists. If I have any goal at all in them it is to show my friend that there is a chance he is wrong, and to learn for myself why I believe what I believe. Give him the seed of doubt in what he believes so that he too can openly search. I could have walked away after the first question and not listened again to anything this person had to say. But I didn't. I listened. *and I will continue to listen* I find that more often than not we as a church are moving more and more to forced evangelism. We judge those around us without knowing their hearts.

We shove the four spirtual laws down their throats expecting them to wake up out of the darkness they are lost in and follow Christ. But what we aren't doing, what isn't happening is being living examples of Christ. We are allowing our families to fall apart and our faith to bring us closer and closer to other Christians. We aren't searching and seeking to be Christ in the world we live in. We find what is comfortable and we stick to it. Jesus didn't live this way. Jesus wouldn't live this way if he were walking in human form on Earth today. How we must be breaking his heart with our 4 spiritual laws and our cookie cutter gospel.

Do you know what will make a difference? Live your life for Christ. Stand up for what you believe. Let your life be your witness.

There is intense pain in my heart today because I see as a church that we are pushing away those who are so desparately seeking. I spoke to a dear friend about this yesterday and I struggled with the pain that this friend who was once a spiritual inspiration to me no longer feels the need to seek and follow Christ. I mentioned that there is a deeply rooted problem in today's culture that the church is ironically pushing away those who are desiring a relationship with Christ because of all the rules and regulations, the judgement and condemnation. Her response. "Those people are turning some believers away as well."

Examine your heart. If you profess to live for Christ. Are you truly willing and living a life like he intended you to live. Are you fulfilling your dreams and your passions? Are you following in his footsteps eating and conversing with those who are mocked, scorned, and hurting?

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Step out of the church doors today, dear Christians, and as the sign says as you leave the parking lot of my church, "Welcome to the mission field"

You have a message. You have a story. Your life, as colorful or as basic a story as it is, is the only one you have and God gave it to you to be shared. The pain, the comfort, the acceptance, the forgiveness. Christians...Follow Christ. Live for him. start today!