Among Prostitutes and Whores
So, if you couldn’t tell by the title, this post just might offend you. Honestly, I don’t really care anymore. The Church has spent thousands of years trying to “not offend” anyone, making compromises to appease the pagans. But this isn’t a historical post, so we won’t dive into that. As a disclaimer, I will not be referring to any specific congregation that I have ever attended. When I speak of “BIG C” Church, I am speaking of the entire body of Christ. In terms of “little c” church, I am speaking of the act of attending a local congregation. That said, here we go!
I’ve wanted to start attending church again for quite some time now. The problem arises every Sunday when I try so desperately to leave my home and head to any local congregation. I am absolutely disgusted by it, feeling like I am on my way to a brothel. I have begun to ask myself why. Why has the Church become a brothel of prostitutes? Were we not at one point the Bride of Christ? How did we lose our first Love, our truest Love? Does YHWH not still visit us there? Does He not still grace us with His presence? Does He not still long for His Bride? Yet we come in, sing our songs, listen to someone talk for a while, throw a smile on our faces, maybe make a donation, go through all the motions, stick with the program, and return to the World completely unchanged. Fake it and get out.
We look exactly like the World- the Whores.
I can see no difference between the Body of Christ and the World. When churches are governed as corporations with their non-profit status so they won’t have to pay taxes (btw- give to Caesar what is Caesar’s?), can we really still call ourselves a Bride? With multi-million dollar buildings, who’s using those buildings on any other day than Sunday? Can we not throw those doors open and declare “Come one, come all!”? Why must we treat our pastors like CEO’s? Why must pastors be reduced to managing people when they are called simply to love? (I’m sure there are plenty of pastors that know exactly what I’m talking about.) Speaking on a personal level, while getting out of ministry was one of the most painful experiences I’ve ever had, it was one of the best possible decisions I could have ever made for one simple reason: I can love now, rather than managing people. The corporation Church looks a whole lot like the World. While She has successfully brought in plenty of converts, how many Christians have discovered the passionate, unadulterating love of the Most High God? While it’s easy to write a check or donate some old clothes, when has charity become an act of sacrificial, inconvenient love? Was it convenient for Jesus to stop and heal the blind beggar?
David said it best after dancing naked in the streets: “I’ll become even more undignified than this.” John the Baptist lived in the dessert and ate locusts. John the Apostle was exiled to an island. Moses wandered in the dessert, but he saw God. I don’t want to be dignified. I don’t want the good life. I am not a whore of the World. I am not a prostitute of the Church. I am undeniably a lover of Christ, and I’ll do whatever it takes to dwell in His presence. Nothing else matters.
the Bride wears White said,
October 18, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Hello. I appreciate this article very much. May the Lord bless you with even more revelation and understanding.
It is indeed the day and hour that the Church wake up and realize her true condition while there is still time. In Revelation 3, the letters to the Churches, the Lord says he is standing in the midst of his Church desiring to refine her to make her worthy of her calling, which is much more than salvation, it is ruling and reigning with Him with the iron scepter.
Since when was the Tabernacle (or Temple) of God supposed to be “seeker friendly”???!!! Never. The Temple of God is to be a house of prayer and worship for God alone. We have made the church seeker friendly in this age and we have seriously diluted the power of God in our midst. We have traded the Glory(Shekinah) of God for the disgrace of idols.
Where is the presence of God in the church? I dont mean those goosebumps that we feel when we sing OUR favorite song. I mean the presence of God that is the GLORY of God that causes us to fall on our faces in an instant and repent, SEEING OUR true condition, alongside a HOLY God, when we recognize that worship is for God to sing His song.
Where are the Josiah pastors of this day? I love to read about what he did at the age of 26, without a doctorate in theology from any one of the millions of christian colleges and seminaries! (1 Kings 23) He knew what was right when he read the Word of God and began to cleanse the land of all the idols. The Lord said of him “there was none like him ever again that served Him with all his mind, soul and strength.” Wow.
The church in this day is indeed a prostitue and adultress in desperate need to come back to her first love, and be endowed with the power of God that can heal and deliver, bind up the wounds of the pagan world. I fear this love cannot be found inside the church in this day, because a seeker friendly church is not going deep enough in the Sunday sermon to learn what it is to “forsake all other lovers” and being “lured into the wilderness” for a time of purification, learning to call him “ishi”-”husband”. How can a church in a love affair with the world speak about holiness and purity when it allows all those things in the church so we dont offend the ones who dont know God or recently accepted God.
Well I could go on…haha. Thank you for the posting.
Blessings.