Faith as a Punch line

As I have grown in my relationship with Christ, I have discovered with great sorrow the amount of people that claim to be Christians, but don't really have a grasp of what that means biblically. This sad state of faith today has left my heart very heavy and confused. I grew up with the idea that people who believed in Christ, believed in the cross and it's meaning. But faith has become a punch line. And even worse, a tag of ignorance and close minded thinking. To be a Christ following, bible believing christian today puts you in a class of judgemental hypocrites, sneering and jabbing at the world from behind the sandbagged walls of religion and the weapon of the scriptures. To hear the world tell it, you would think we believers were hate mongers spreading the word of division and eliteism. And the battle lines don't stop there. The deep chasm of division between Christ loving churches has become so deep that it's hard to tell the difference between criticism from the secular world and that from other churches. I wonder how Christ feels about all of this. Imagine the sorrow as he watches the very people that he suffered for eek out perceived victories in semantics and tradition, while their souls slip closer to eternal seperation from their maker. But let me disperse some myths about true christians and lets leave the religions to seek out their own common ground. The reason people think Christians are hypocrites is because they are right! Especially when you consider the amount of people that claim to be christians but have no practical application of christ in their life. But let's return to the christ followers for a moment. I continue to deal with sin in my life. I praise God that so much of my life has been transformed but the transformation isn't complete and I still deal with sin in my life. So from the outside looking in, unless I live my life without reproach (which is biblically impossible), I am a hypocrite. The second is perception of judgement. The bible says to judge not less ye be judged. The ultimate judge is Christ Jesus. He will be the one taking account for the life lived here. The world wonders why Christians are so adament about issues of morality and ethics. The misconception is that we want to force our values on everyone else. The reality is that we follow Christs moral compass, not our own. Can you imagine what the standard would be if our sinful, selfish hearts were in charge of setting the bar. I have observed the spread of this way of thinking throughout the world today. But the bar has been set by Christ in his perfection and we can only strive and aspire to become more Christlike. Ultimately we will fail, but our failure has become victory in the cross. My last point is this: If I have followed Christ and given more, loved more shared more, respected life, built relationships and lived in peace and happiness then what have I lost? I live my faith outloud not to give hommage to how great and blessed I am, but to give praise and honor to the authour of my salvation, Christ Jesus. And to share this gift as instructed by Christ himself. I received an e-mail from my Auntie Russie about a 17 year old boys version of heaven. The boy was killed in an accident soon after...it was the last thing he ever wrote. It was amazingly touching, and his view of Christ's sorrow was especially vivid. I want my "shared the gospel" file to be bigger than it is now so I leave with this. If anyone ever wants to talk about the lord, salvation, the cross, and Christs sacrifice, where faith is not a punchline. I will at anytime and in any place listen. If you are struggling with things, wondering about issues, chances are I have struggled too and am still struggling. Let's take this journey with Christ together. I don't have all the answers and God knows I am not an example to follow...But Gods Spirit has touched my life in incredible ways. I want to share it with those people I love most.