Isaiah 48:10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
Isa 48:11 For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.
Zechariah 13:9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
Is your church too refined to accept people who do not look like you, dress like you and may not smell like you? Is it so refined that you do not want any drama or responsibilities in the community or to the less fortunate? If so, your church may be refined by man's standards, but it needs to be refined by the fire of God and that is not comfortable. God has done it to Israel in the past and will do it in the future. How much more will He do it to His Church to purify it before His return?
James 2:1 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
2 For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;
3 And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:
4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?
The song, My Jesus, by Todd Agnew says "My Jesus wouldn’t be accepted in my church. The blood and the dirt on His feet might stain the carpet." "I think He'd prefer Beale Street to the stain glass crowd." I think He is correct.
We have built some gaudy edifices for the rich or the wannabe rich so they will come. The problem is that people are messy. We all stink in some way. Some people are wearing spiritual Depends and some sort of religious cologne so the stink is not easily smelled, but it is a camouflage of deceit and denial.
The folks who come to church broken, smelly and full of drama are at least being real. They are the ones Christ came for, not the Cammo Christians. When we try to say we are not stinky and look down on the open and out there stinky we become modern Pharisees. Sometimes, the stinky remind us where we came from and we want to forget that. Some fear having people in church who are where they once were will cause them to fall back into that lifestyle.
The rich do not want them around because they fear the people will ask them for money or stuff. Indeed, they may start feeling convicted and struggle with holding on to their wealth when they see needs they can easily address from their excess disposable income. Their monthly Starbucks spending might keep the lights on for someone or pay a medical bill. The smell of that is repugnant to some.
When I was in bible college, another student with a wife and kids had a tire you could almost see the air in it. Another student, also with wife and kids and not rich himself, bought a tire for the other student. The student with the issue attended a church with plenty of very expensive cars in the lot, but no one checked to see if the student had any needs. The poor often help the poor more often than the rich. Most likely, because they know how it feels having been there often themselves.
It is time that churches go into the poor sections of town to evangelize. It is time to seek out struggling churches of like faith and offer to merge with them getting them out of the burden of supporting a decaying building and into a place where they can be edified or built up of instead of Sunday being a depressive day bringing defeat instead of joy.
Will you refine yourself to His standards before He refines you in a way that will bring the heat before He can bring the fire of the Holy Spirit to use you for His glory? Have you forgotten where He found you and how He brought you to where you are now? Worse yet, have you forgotten His mission to seek and save that which is lost and to bring the Gospel to the weak, base and foolish of this world to confound the wise? It is time to refine and shine His light in the dark places, not the gaudy ones. Maranatha!
