BEING RECONCILED TO CHRIST AND NOT RELIGION

Are you selling the gospel of Jesus Christ 

or are you giving it to the world?

Growing up in a Christian home

and attending service every time the 

church doors opened, then becoming 

a minister's wife I can honestly

say that many times as much as we 

try not to, we find ourselves getting 

trapped into selling the gospel 

instead of giving it away.  When 

I say this I am not saying that we

are actually making people pay

money to receive it.  What I am saying

is we lead people to believe that we

must dress a certain way, walk a 

certain walk and if you look 

closely you will notice even hair 

styles change to conform and various

other things change in a person's life
depending on which religion they follow.

They are striving to please the Lord 

by doing these things people tell them
to do instead of reconciling their
hearts to God.  We find ourselves spending
more time trying not to look like the
world outwardly instead of reconciling
our hearts because people can't see our
hearts but they can see the outward
appearance, so we put on a show
for them to see instead of truly
reconciling our hearts to God.

When I turned about thirty-nine
years old  I became so disgusted
with what I was seeing take place
within the body of Christ.  I still 

longed to follow the Lord but I was 

sick and tired of paying for a gospel 

and getting zero returns.  Actually the

returns were in the negative numbers

by far as my mother had committed 

suicide, my brothers and sisters had

turned away from God and now I was 

watching my own family break into 

fragments.  Nobody seemed to know 

how to help me.  My returns were not 

even coming back as zero they were 

far worse than that.

This was not an anger that arose 

with me, where I told the church 

off or stopped attending but it was 

an anger where I took a stand

and changed who I was within the body 

of Christ.  Up until this point I had

been reconciling my life to my husband,

the deacon body, the women within the 

church who had the highest standards 

and to the couples who felt I should be 

the perfect pastor's wife so their children

would grow up seeing a Godly example.

This type living left me spiritually 

bankrupt.  

I had learned that wearing a dress 

everyday was what Godly women do.

Godly women not only do not adorn 

themselves with jewels and costly 

apparel but they rid their home 

and their children of any of these

things also.  No red bows on your

front door during Christmas lest you 

lead someone astray about following 

after idols.  At the end of my journey

I found myself empty and broken. 

Being reconciled to the church brings

you to this point but being reconciled 

to God is a total new story.  When I 

attend church now there are times I 

wear slacks. I have had a few ladies 

gasp and say something and my response

has been if the fruit of my life is alive

wearing slacks and dead wearing a dress 

then it is far better for me to be wearing 

slacks because the woman who wears 

something on the outside and is inwardly

dead has reconciled their lives to a group

of believers who will leave them totally

bankrupt one day.  Doing without 

celebrating Easter, Christmas and all the

other holidays is not what God called us 

to, He called us to be reconciled to him.

Once we are reconciled to him, if we feel

that is what we should do, we realize that

it's for us not that we have to force it upon

everyone that walks into the Sunday School 

class or everyone that crosses our path.

If somewhere down the line I feel that 

dressing a specific way is what God has

called me to do then who am I to force 

you into my standards because I do it  If 

I do then you are reconciling yourself 

to me and  not reconciling yourself to 

Christ and you will become angry and 

turn completely away from the very one 

who died for you and gave you freedom 

to live. 

Now you may be a little upset by now 

while reading and thinking I am breaking 

down the body of Christ.  My prayer is 

not to break down the body of Christ 

but to set it free and to make it much 

stronger.  For you see it was after 

I abolished all the legalistic demands

on my life and started walking with 

the Lord and in His love and grace that 

I saw fruit coming forth.  Up until this 

time the only fruit I was getting was

rotten fruit, dead fruit that was not

bringing me into the joy the Lord.   It

was not leading me to reconcile myself

to the Savior but to a set of stardards

that I couldn't meet up to no matter

how hard I tried.

Do I still have bad things happen

in my life?  Yes, but when I am

reconciled to Christ and I understand

he set me free and the freedom to share 

the gospel of Jesus with no strings 

attached and the fruit of righteousness

starts bursting forth, then I can drink 

from those wells as I see them springing 

up with fruit, even though the bad things 

are still happening.

When I reconcile myself 

to Christ the pain is much easier to bare 

when I realize the pain is due to 

planting the harvest and watering 

it instead of trying to protect the church
and it's children by my outward apparel.  

Christ can take care of our reputation 

when we reconcile ourselves to him 

but when we reconcile ourselves to the 

church we end up destroying our own 

reputation and many times we destroy 

the reputation of the church also.

Let's start reconciling ourselves to Jesus
Christ and bringing forth much fruit.

And all things are of God, who hath 

reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, 

and hath given to us the ministry of 

reconciliation;  To wit, that God was in 

Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, 

not imputing their trespasses unto them; 

and hath committed unto us the word 

of reconciliation.  Now then we are 

ambassadors for Christ, as though God did 

beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s 

stead, be ye reconciled to God.

II CORINTHIANS 5:18-20