The Repelling Factor

Have you met people who hate Christians to the core ? I am sure most of you had. Some of these people might be even Christians themselves. Personally, I had. And man , did I have a hard time! Well, not so much of convincing them that they misunderstood what 'real Christians' are, but just to even talk to them about God in general.

Hurting people are all around us. They are hurt not because of the fact that we are Christians, but more because we do not live out what we are supposed to be. Well , we all can argue that we are still human and that we are still sinners subjected to failures. But if there is no expectation, then why are we called Christians ? What is the difference between a Christian and a non-believer?

I think the biggest gospel repelling factor are these two: Bad tongue and Pride

As proverbs says ' the tongue has the power of life and death'. Why the tongue ? Why not the stomach or the liver ? Because the tongue is the most effective and accurate expression of the heart. For out of the tongue comes what is in the heart. When a person has a foul mouth filled with sarcasm and thorns in every sentence , who would dare go near him? Right away, people get hurt and offended. Our words ought to go through the filter of love,sensitivity,caution, and courtesy before coming out from our mouth with a purpose of encouraging, lifting and exalting a person. Like what chinese people say ' Go through your big brain first'. Well, it is very different from sugar-coating words. Because when you sugar-coat words, people can feel it. It smells fishy and inauthentic. But when you speak with love, it is a verb. :D

Pride. The greatest downfall of many church leaders. Why leaders? Because these are the people thrust into the lime-light, running the the so called ' show' of ministries. Often, the problem of people with pride is that they do not realize they have it. Why? Because it has become so assimilated and well-blended into them that they can't see it. Sadly, when they do realize it, it is probably the last few stages of severity. It is also the hardest time for them to admit because they are already hardened. And when they choose to hover on in pride, the deeper they fall, and the harder it is to humble themselves. Unless of course if God chooses to humble them. Actually, it is not very difficult to humble a proud person. Just some diseases,financial crisis,lost of someone they love,retrenchment and you see their world crashing down. Why? Because these are the things the proud hold on to, the shakable things, things that threaten their degree of loft. What they need are the unshakable things. The things NOT of the world.