This Church was Just Right...

I made an attempt to draw a parallel between the story of Goldilocks and man's desire to get what he wants from a God who has given what he needs. The issue is that man doesn't want it on God's terms, but his own.

I was sitting and pondering things just as I usually do, and in the course of one of the million thoughts speeding through my mind one in particular jumped out. It was a reminder of a story that most of us have heard in some form or another. It is a story that enforces the moral of “respecting other people’s privacy”. Just as with other things, we can make this relevant to a lot of different things, take it for what it is, or challenge it. We can readily apply it to something that is happening today. Right underneath our own noses the enemy plays his game. While the enemy is playing some of us are sleeping. Some of us, who call ourselves Christian, may not even be. We have just found a way to make this story end the way we want it too instead of how it really does. Have you figured it out yet? If not, let me explain.

The story I’m thinking of is the story of Goldilocks. Goldilocks stumbles onto a house that is unattended and appears that the master(s) of the house has departed for a short while. Well, Goldilocks was a very curious person likened to someone who we today would call a ‘seeker’. This seeker is so curious about what goes on inside the church that they walk in to see what all the fuss that it is making with all of her “Christian” friends is about. Just as Goldilocks tastes the porridge in the first, second, and third bowls, so does the seeker with services. Each service is different and each house she visits is different. She roams about in a trial and error method until she gets the one that is fitting to her taste. Now she is comfortable. Once she has become filled with satisfaction through the service she moves on to finding a place to sit and take in the surroundings. Now our seeker is looking to fit in, settle down, and become seeded in the group with the rest of the ‘seekers’. She tries the first program, second, and third. All of them seem of the same texture and substance, but the third, is just right. The third group relates to her, the programming is hip, cool, and isn’t that confrontational. The group is so entertaining and relevant to her life she decides to stay. The best part is that there are no distractions or loud alarms that will sound off, disturb her and cause alarm. She now feels welcome and comfortable enough to doze off into a constructed state of false reality that numbs her conscience and gives her peace from Sunday to Sunday.

Goldilocks has now established her comfort zone, and has wondered off into the joys of being with other like minded individuals. She frequents the gathering place of her choice and has petitioned for membership. In her membership she is pondering the idea of leadership and becoming a part of the larger network to become more influential. In all of these endeavors she has fallen fast asleep and has become difficult to awaken. She no longer responds to outside stimulus, the hard truth non-palatable and the soft truth is too mushy. But the middle ground, the moderate stance is just right. This has to be the way that will make the world a better place, so many are choosing it. The truth is in the numbers, if it weren’t that why are so many people responding to it? Can’t you see, it’s just too good……to not be true. Or is it?

Now I have quickly meshed our Goldilocks with the seeker. This is justifiable because it is befitting of the nature of the two. Both will pick and choose until their needs are satisfied and will only settle for that satisfaction. The point being illustrated here is incomplete. Briefly, we should stop to look at a few things. Our seeker is unresponsive to the hard truth, and does not desire the mushiness of the soft truth. The hard truth is our absolute and divine word of God. The soft truth is the concocted version of the love gospel that so many have given way to use in evangelism. Now we have created a problem in mainstream Christianity that is remedying itself much to our own dismay. In the middle, is an emerging school of though that has created a self-catered, sin-nurturing, truth-destroying anti-orthodox movement? Such thoughts of this movement include seeing orthodoxy as the “cultural Christianity that has neutered the Gospel”. Hello? Isn’t that exactly what this movement is doing itself? Please, do not let us forget, the enemy will disguise himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:13-15).

In conclusion I would like to make one thing clear. This illustration is not to institute a bout of mudslinging, nor is it an attempt to establish superiority. This is being written in hopes to demonstrate man’s innate nature to seek comfort in the pleasures he desires. God has laid a foundation in his word and it quite simply is just as the letters in our Bible’s, Black and White. There is no gray area brother’s and sisters. Just as the Day of Judgment will be one of either innocence or guilt so too is the line that has been drawn between good and evil. There is none good, not one but God (Romans 3:12) and if that be the truth of his word than simply we are left with one alternative. We are not good. Can we admit that personally or publicly? As a Christian I can. I can also admit I would much rather have my needs, desires, and sins catered too so that I may live life the way I choose instead of being told how I should. This would even work out better if I could inherit heaven on my own terms. But does this truly define freedom?

The freedom given us through Christ is the inheritance that sets us loose from the bondage of sin. This freedom is to be used for the good of the kingdom and the furthering of the Gospel of Truth (I Peter 2:16). In closing remember this, there are many gospel’s being portrayed in our world of American Christianity. There are also many sheep being led astray by false and deceitful shepherds. Some of them may be intentionally doing this, but also remember they may be deceived themselves. We must always consult the word of God before any thing we see, read, or hear is accepted as truth. Remember this; Christianity is a religion of inconvenience for those that do not wish to conform to the truth of God’s word. But for those who understand exactly what has been done for them and come to saving knowledge of his truth, then and only then, does salvation through the savior make perfect sense.