The Games People Play
When I look back on my life as a church attending Christian, I am saddened at the pressures I have placed on my spiritual siblings. Not only the ones that I was fellowshipping with in church, but the ones that didn't attend church. The ones that wanted to know their Heavenly Father, but were met with barriers that I constructed with my church games and masks.
Why? Because they just didn't do it right. They didn't use the same words or act the same way or wear the same clothes or smell right. They weren't maturing fast enough. They weren't playing by the rules. They just wanted to know God, but they didn't want to play the game. The church game.
But the truth is, we DO play church. We have the rules and we either play by the rules or we are told that we "missed God".
What are the rules? Oh they are different in different churches. Some churches say, no smoking, no drinking, no dancing: these things will get you into hell. Some churches won't allow you to have communion with them unless you are a member of their denomination. I was once told that if I didn't lose weight I would be asked to leave the church. My weight issue was a sign that I wasn't really following God and that would make the church look bad.
Or perhaps you worship differently.
You raise your hands....you don't raise your hands.
You speak in tongues....you don't speak in tongues.
You sing and then have a teaching.....you have your teaching first.....the children stay in with you during "worship"....the children have their own worship time....you begin with coffee and donuts....THIS IS CHURCH NOT A COFFEE SHOPPE!!!!!
These are all things I've heard in church through my years there.
It's like.....Church Monopoly!
You land on a certain square...pick up the card....and it says, "You were seen smoking a cigarette outside today....I'm sorry, now go straight to hell, do not pass "Go", do not collect $200." (or something like that).
And the masks! Oh brother!
I know of people who attend church "religiously" (pun intended). They were elders and deacons in the church, but at home they were abusing their wives and their children. Some were being sexually abused.
In church they wore the mask of a Christian well.
At home they were monsters, terrorising their families.
Or how about the mask that says "I'm a great Christian...I'm getting it. I do all the right things and say the right words."
But inside they're wondering "Why? I really don't get it. Why do we do this?"
Their fear that their "brothers and sisters" may find out that they're really questioning church or ....God....helps them to keep the mask on for fear that people will think they are not really "saved".
This is why people don't go to church. This why people say the church is full of hypocrites. Because...many times....they are. I was a hypocrite.
In the Bible, they were called something else.....Pharisees.
15 "How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You travel across land and sea to find one person who will change to your ways. When you find that person, you make him more fit for hell than you are.
