Bored and Thinking...what if?

Pondering a few random thoughts at the moment.  Why in America is it so socially acceptable to say you believe in God or that you are a Christian, but so few professing Christians actually live a lifestyle conducive to their faith.  It’s acceptable to speak it, its unacceptable to live it.  I think about countries where it will get you killed to profess to be a Christians and those Christians speak and live it even unto death.  It has become a bit of a running joke in America that churches are full of people who profess Jesus on Sunday with their fake Sunday smiles and hands lifted as if in a theatrically scripted performance to the Almighty Savior, all the while thinking about what they are going to have for lunch.  The theatrical drones of the Christian church are for certain a major contributing factor to the lack of interest from the outside world as to why to even bother with Jesus if there is no difference he brings.  It’s almost like an assembly line for painting cars.  (I know this is random and a little off beat but I think it helps me visualize it).  Picture this.  Every car in the world is black (model T style).  Black paint is all that has existed from the beginning of time until recent advances in paint science have allowed paint engineers to develop a red colored paint.  It is ground breaking, earth shattering news; the biggest in car history over the last 2000 years.  Now there will be a way to rid your car of the this black dreary color and transform it into a new fresh red car, set apart and standing out among all the fellow black cars.  So here go the cars to the factory to be coated in this red paint.  Cars are going through the line day in and day out receiving this new red paint…but a new problem has arisen.  The black undercoat is eating through the thin factory applied red paint.  So the ones who care most about the image of their car are required to take it in weekly for a fresh robot applied thin coat of paint.  Others who are looking on watching these cars be paraded in and out of the factory see all this hard work being done, but the cars keep ending up the same as they did when they entered.  Meanwhile a small group of those who received the misted red paint are starting to truly seek a red coat that can last.  They seek it day in and day out.  Finally they find the source of the red paint and are blown away to find that the scientist producing it are giving it away for free!  They realize that the factory may be applying it too thin, but if they can only get one on one with the red paint and apply a thick coat to the car themselves that it just might last. The problem has been solved.  They realize if you rely on the factory to freshen up your ride every week, it fades before you can park it at work on Monday.  Seek a thick coat of red paint for the best interest of your car, apply it deliberately on your hands and knees with sweat and tears and it can withstand the ever-corroding black undercoat.  As is the problem with Christians who are showing up black to church every Sunday, receiving a dose of Jesus and leaving black back into the world.  If we are no different, why should anyone want what we have?  And if what we profess isn’t making us different, then we should examine what we think we have.  It may be we need to trade in the fake stuff for the real thing.  We as Christians need to embrace the free gift of Jesus’ blood to forever overtake the sinfulness in our core.  We need to stop faking ourselves out on Sunday and start seeking a genuine relationship with Jesus by getting on our hands and knees with sweat, prayer, and tears and seek the face of the one who is the very reason for our existence.  Too many of us seek the experience of church but forgo the experience of Jesus Christ, our hands lifted high but empty on the inside.  What will it take for me?  What will it take for you?  I hope we get it figured out while a world is perishing not knowing the genuine difference of a life changed by the blood.  While we fake religion in the comfort of our sanctuaries, millions are dying and going to hell in the real world.  I want to be held accountable for my actions by those around me.  I want to be able to say I am Christian.  To be able to say look at my life and the difference Jesus has made.  To have a life testimony where is Christianity is demonstrated and defined.  To take away the punch line of the joke that is the typical American church performance.  Give the skeptics something to desire instead of mock.  What if we changed the world?