Look around at most things that most people do today and you’ll find one thing: absence of Jesus. Modern society has fallen hook-line-and-sinker for the lie of the enemy and modern Christianity has fostered that lie by discluding Jesus from just about every facet of its existence and shame on us for allowing it to happen. Where is Jesus in the modern Church? Where is Jesus in her members? Where is the zeal for Him, where is the focus? The shameful thing is that churches today spend more time and effort in lifting themselves up than in proclaiming the Gospel. Websites pop-up with the name of the pastor on every page but the name of Christ on only one. Sermons are filled with commentary on how to relieve stress or make friends or effect political change. Again I ask, where is Jesus?

The manifestation of this phenomenon is in the believers and their daily lives. I read writings of people who expound greatly on things of Christ only to have the sweetness of that writing tarnished and broken because others applause puffs up the author making him think he is something he is not (don’t applaud man, applaud God!) I hear complaints from the people of God because they hate their job or they don’t sleep like they want to or they’re lonely or any other list of non-sensical and meaningless grumblings. I go to Church and am told nothing of my sin and nothing of my depravity (one of the largest churches in my town has the unwritten motto “We don’t make you feel like a heathen for doing ________”). I am hardly ever called to task on those things that offend my Creator. I am rarely rebuked, admonished, or even scolded by the Church for anything I do that is wrong. I am never held accountable by those who claim to be friends. Even the tone of this letter is too global and not close enough to home for the readers (and author) to grasp its message and the direction of that message. This makes the next statement hard to hear (and hard to write) but necessary in its delivery:

This is not meant to convey this message “True, true. I know people like that and it makes me sick.” This is meant to be ingested and digested like this “I am guilty of putting myself, my ego, and my needs above the will of God. I am guilty of breaking the first commandment and have idolized myself above all else.” The state of mind that the each of us is doing fine is wrong. We are not. Each of us is equally guilty. Each of us has used the forum of A Blog Apart to benefit himself on just about each and every occasion.

“And the Lord sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, “There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up. And it grew up together with him and with his children; it ate of his own meat and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler unto the rich man, and he was unwilling to take of his own flock and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man who had come unto him, but took the poor man’s lamb and dressed it for the man who had come to him.” And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord liveth, the man who hath done this thing shall surely die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.” And Nathan said to David, “Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: `I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul, and I gave thee thy master’s house and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Why hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon…and David said unto Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said unto David, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.”

This author is beginning his journey by turning from things that would destruct and turning to those things that Honor and profit Jesus Christ and the ministry He left each of us.(It has been wrong of me to use this forum in a manner unworthly of a child of God. I have attempted to usurp glory that is God’s alone. For that I have repented.) Christ is the one that should be reflected from each member’s being. We should take no (zero) accolades from this life and that part of it we affect. The praise is not ours and shame on us if we take it anyway.

So where is Jesus? He is here, in my heart and yours. Let make sure he is not hidden from the world; a world that desperately needs Him.

The words of John the Baptist make a fitting end:

“He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all; he that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from Heaven is above all. [emphasis added]