The Test of a True Church

How many of you all can honestly say that you've made a mistake in your life, big or small? How would you want people to treat you if you admitted your mistake and wanted to be restored by love? This is a critical issue and one that needs to be addressed.

I honestly believe that one of the true test of a church and whether God is at work and whether it is one that God leads is not necessarily in how much the people are shouting and dancing. Shouting and dancing is a very big part of our worship experience at my home church but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a true church. A true church is not necessarily one that has the most money or even the church that has the largest members.

I believe that the test of a true church is in how they restore people who have fallen and needed to be loved back to reconciliation. There are absolutely too many stories that have been told of people who messed up, made a mistake and yet when they came back and wanted to be restored they were talked about, mistreated and looked at as less of a human being. At the end of the day everyone makes mistakes and we do not have the right to mistreat someone because of their past. Everyone has a past and some of us better be thankful that our past is covered up because if it was uncovered many of us would be embarrassed.

My overall point is that a true church is one that loves people in spite of their past, their mistakes and sees them for who God wants them to be. I wonder what type of reputation the church would have in our communities if more people were loved and accepted for who they are when they come back after making a mistake. We should treat God's people as God treats us. What if God, every time we made a mistake, looked at us and judged differently or vowed to treat us because of our mistake? We would be in a mess. That's how we should treat God's people!

Today I encourage us as a body of believers to restore those in love who have fallen and keep in your mind and carry in your heart that we all have sinned and messed up. God loved us and didn't treat us any different, so the same should happen to those of us who have messed up and need to be restored!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guoYLH-z2u0&feature=related (This video is a reminder that God gives us chance after chance after chance every time we mess up! This is the same that we should do for our brother and sister!!!)