Would You Let Jesus In?
“And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it” (Luke 19:41).
Tonight I heard on the same newscast that 1) another black church had been torched—this time in North Carolina; and 2) that a black youth and his two white friends (who had invited him to “youth night” services at their church) were sent home by men in the church…no reason given except that “youth night services have been canceled,” though other young people continued their activities at the church facility after the trio were driven home in the church van.
The first incident is another grave danger signal of a sick society. The second is a signal of a sick church. I believe both caused our Savior to weep afresh, as He wept over Jerusalem. And I have to wonder if there are not many churches in which our Lord Himself would not be welcome. He was, remember, a Jew. Many churches warmly welcome Jews…but how many churches would not?
Would Arabs be genuinely welcome in your church? Would Hispanics? Would African-Americans? Would the homeless? Would the marginally-intelligent? Would Jesus?
What in the world have we done to Christianity, if we have so domesticated it that we can be comfortable in associating only with those just like ourselves?
There is an evil spirit abroad in our land—a spirit of meanness and arrogance masquerading as Christianity—preying upon our culture and our land. Not all of it is in the uniforms of neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Some of it wears business suits and wouldn’t miss a Sunday service for anything.
And Jesus still weeps.
—Ted Kyle
(Abridged)
Tonight I heard on the same newscast that 1) another black church had been torched—this time in North Carolina; and 2) that a black youth and his two white friends (who had invited him to “youth night” services at their church) were sent home by men in the church…no reason given except that “youth night services have been canceled,” though other young people continued their activities at the church facility after the trio were driven home in the church van.
The first incident is another grave danger signal of a sick society. The second is a signal of a sick church. I believe both caused our Savior to weep afresh, as He wept over Jerusalem. And I have to wonder if there are not many churches in which our Lord Himself would not be welcome. He was, remember, a Jew. Many churches warmly welcome Jews…but how many churches would not?
Would Arabs be genuinely welcome in your church? Would Hispanics? Would African-Americans? Would the homeless? Would the marginally-intelligent? Would Jesus?
What in the world have we done to Christianity, if we have so domesticated it that we can be comfortable in associating only with those just like ourselves?
There is an evil spirit abroad in our land—a spirit of meanness and arrogance masquerading as Christianity—preying upon our culture and our land. Not all of it is in the uniforms of neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Some of it wears business suits and wouldn’t miss a Sunday service for anything.
And Jesus still weeps.
—Ted Kyle
(Abridged)