CHRISTIAN CRITERIA

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CHRISTIAN CRITERIA

"COME AS YOU ARE... EXCEPT FOR YOU, OH AND YOU..."

WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED BY : LYDIA REES

2018
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Talofa my hunnies and welcome back to another post by your fav wanna be blogger. I know i haven't posted in a very long time but forgive me, ya girl is trying to make a living. You know what to do, sit back, relax, grab a tea cup cause I'm about to dish some tea, and its piping hot.

Today I wanted to touch on a subject very close to my heart and I am almost certain that other people feel or have felt the same way about it. Its no secret that your girl is "Christian" and as Ephesians chapter 5 verse 13 says, everything that is in the darkness will be brought to light, SO LETS BRING IT TO LIGHT.
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On a more important note, please please please understand that most of this is my opinion, supported by my findings and i am not forcing anything on your but just encouraging you. If you feel the need to correct me, please write a letter and send it to your neighbour and let them read it. No but for real, if you are offended by this, hit me up and we can "talk".

We have entered a day and age where churches are wondering where all the people are going, why their members aren't showing up anymore and why new comers are only once every blue moon. I believe that what I am about to explain isnt the prime reason but it does play a heavy part on why our churches arent thriving to their full potential. Churches are the first people to say to non church goers "you are always welcome here", "our doors are always open", and my favourite, my absolute favourite is

"come as you are".

Its ironic that even though our doors are open for anyone, the first people to judge aren't the people that are standing outside of those doors, but the people inside the church. How do you expect someone to feel welcome if once they walk through our church doors, they are greeted by looks of judgement rather than acceptance. When we tell people to come as they are, they should be coming EXACTLY how they are flawed , regardless of their past, regardless of their "sins", we should encourage people to come as they are the same way our lord  welcomes us every day. What makes us special? What gives us the right to assume superiority over these people. Because we dedicate one day to our religion? The bible has never mentioned only the black will be saved or accepted, or only tall people will be saved, or people will long hair, short hair, blonde hair, brunette hair, with or without tattoos, with or without piercings.

"Well the bible says no piercings or tattoos"

And its true, Leviticus chapter 19 verse 28 reads " you shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you". And what do we call a disobedience of the scripture, a SIN. Okay fair play, so these people have tattoos and piercings which are deemed as sins but that still gives us NO authority to judge these people. Because all while these are sins, do you know what else is a sin, looking with lust (matthew 5:28), hatred (matthew 5:21-22), seeking revenge, gossiping (2 Corinthians 12:20), not keeping the sabbath holy, rejecting the needy, lying, cheating... These are all sins as well and I don't know about you, but for me, i have definitely been caught in the blur of these sins as well. So before you decide that someones physical appearance doesn't meet a stereotypical criteria of a "christian", think about yourself, make sure your hands are clean before pointing.
And in the wise words of Jesus Christ...

John Chapter 8 verse 7
"... let anyone without sin be the first to cast a stone..."

So tell me... are you sure you are worthy of casting a stone?

While we are on the topic on physical appearance, I want to speak my mind on something so close to my heart which has affected one of my siblings. One very very controversial topics in a typical Samoan Christian church is the subject of Male Facial hair, Male hair, and Female Hair. In a typical Samoan christian church (AOG), its a "rule" for men to shave their facial hair, to keep their hair short, and for both genders to no dye their hair. So controversial that a sibling of mine who had been serving God in the worship team for 8+ years has been sat down because of his decision to grow facial hair. Now i can understand presentation is one thing, but it seems that even when maintained, is still unacceptable. Its crazy because all my life, i have heard stories of man blurring the lines between God's word and mans word but the more i open up my eyes, the more i see it unfold before me. And its scary to think that it only takes one false prophet to  lead us all in the wrong direction.

Its heartbreaking to try and voice an opinion in the Samoan Christian community without coming across as disrespectful. because, Apparently its disrespectful to ask questions ; the same questions which are a possibility to a greater understanding. "Fa'alogo ma fai". Translated to "listen and do". Well Im sorry that my opinion is different to yours, sorry for asking questions, sorry for not understanding due to the fact that my questions go unanswered. When did the flesh become more important than what is on the inside? When did markings of the flesh become more important than the thoughts we have. When did holes in our body become more significant to the holes in our hearts. When did the amount of facial hair we had determined our validity to religion. The scripture says that God isnt bias but according to man, he is.

If you're a fatty boom boom like me and have ordered pizza ( a little too much) , would you be disappointed if you only received the box? Why? Because what you really cared about was what was meant to be INSIDE of the box. The box, acts exactly as a vessel, it plays a little part in the Pizza as a whole. Same.For.Us. Our physical appearance plays very little in comparison to what we have inside of us. When we die, and the body is either buried or cremated, do you see how easy it is to destroy the body, the flesh? Do you see how the flesh can be burnt into dust or rot to just bones in a matter of seconds or hours or days? The flesh, we leave behind, and on judgement day, we stand before God with our soul. not with our arms with tattoos, or our ears with piercings, but with the only thing that matters, our soul. Matthew 10 verse 28 reads do not fear the one that can kill the body but not the soul,  but fear the one that can kill the soul and body... This very verse shows us the significance the soul has over our body.

my hunnies, read this slowly and try and interpret every word

the physical appearance is not an accurate depiction of what is inside your heart, mind and soul.

I know one specific church that is slandered alot by people because theyre seen more as a company than a church and that is Hillsong. I have heard from hundreds of people that hillsong church is all for show, is money driven blah blah blah. And everyone is entitled to their opinion but every service that i have attended, the sermon is always driven through God, God as the main point, the centre focus. God is promoted to these people and do you know why they have such large number of attendance, because they welcome everyone. They say come as you are and welcome everyone. In a society where acceptance is scarce, our young people find refuge in churches like hillsong because they have free access to religion without feeling the need to adhere to a stereotype. God is the same today as he was yesterday and the day before, so why is out point of focus always changing?

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I hope that by reading this, you are also reminded that as Christians, its our duty to spread and act on God's love, word and anointing, and not nit picking peoples physical appearance.

God Bless x


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cya x
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