The other day at bible study...

During the past week when I was at a bible study there was something said that made me really think.  During the study the topic of other denominations came up and one person made the statement that this one particular denomination hurts the cause of Christianity more than anything else, and it got me to thinking about what truly does the most damage to Christianity.

I believe that Christians do more damage to the cause of Christianity than anything else.  In my ten years of being a Christian the worst people that I have met are those that are professing to be Christians and the people that have treated me the worst, lied to me the most, and been downright cruel the most, have been Christians as well.  I believe the reason that Christianity is not blossoming in America is because people are not seeing the so called love that Christians are supposed to be showing.  Christians are not showing Christ.

A common occurrence  that I have seen is Christians KNOWING that a person is suffering or in pain and than doing NOTHING to help the person.  Often times people are too busy to help it seems.  Yet, I am sure these people that are too busy still manage to watch American Idol or some other TV show. I have seen this from laymen, deacons,  board members, even all the way up to Pastors.

Please do not get me wrong, I love my brothers and sisters in Christ, but I can't help but write down what I have personally seen and while the worst people I have met have claimed to be Christians, the best people that I have known have been Christians.  I have seen many Christians reach out unselfishly to help another person and as a matter of fact I have seen two separate instances in the past week alone of Christians helping others while asking nothing in return, but for the most part I have seen people that claim they are Christians or people who even are Christians care little to less about the heartache and pain that they see others around them undergo.

I believe that this is why Christians have a stigma about revealing anything wrong that might be happening in their lives or that there might be any trouble.  Christians know that their might be little to no empathy or sympathy and that instead of love they might actually get attacked for; 

1. a lack of faith, 2. sin in their life, 3. opening themselves up to the devil, 4. God holding them accountable:

all of which I have actually heard someone say about another person.

I will end this blog with a challenge to anyone reading this.  I challenge you to reach out with love (not the gospel, the gospel will be shown through your love) to someone who needs a loving ear or a helping hand.  Pray that God will bring someone who needs you into your life and than show them what a Christian is all about.