THE WATERING HOLE: WHO IS GOD

Church today is viewed as a watering hole, a welcome natural oasis out in the desert that feeds a huge variety of natural life.  In this analogy Christian’s are the animals, the desert is the world and the church is the watering hole, the source of life itself, and without it we are dead.  Like a real watering hole things get a little crowded, and there’s a pecking order about who gets to be in the prime spots at the water’s edge.  The fittest and strongest will fight their way toward those prime spots while the weak ones, the marginalized, hang around the outer edges and find themselves easy prey for wild predators, the two legged kind.  If this seems to be carrying the analogy to far, then consider the fact that approximately 97% (average) of the people who walk into a church and make a commitment to Christ are gone within one year.  There are two wrong messages here, that the local church is the hope of the world and that Christianity is all about life lived within the walls of the church, a life full of the church, a life full of church-based activities.  Social religiosity is safe and comfortable, so we can feel good about ourselves and look forward to more church and more water to quench our spiritual thirst.  Is Christianity really supposed to be a faith lived out in isolation?  Is it really supposed to be carried out behind closed doors?  Is the main aim of the church to encourage people to be better at attending meetings?  Is it all about going to church to get?  And who is God? - How fresh is the water in the hole?  When we focus only on the water in front of us, when we forget the context of our lives in the world, we become far less useful in the fight - oh yes, don’t forget about the fight, the spiritual war being waged for the souls of mankind and our role beside our warrior king.  This message that Christianity is all about church (small c), about life lived within the confines of a building, doesn’t match up with the Bible model.  Formalized Christianity has drawn the church away from its’ divine charter as the launch pad from which believers (i.e., not pastors) obeyed the commands of Matthew 28:19 - to “go make disciples” and Matthew 25:31-46 to “help the poor, the sick, the oppressed.”  The church has usurped the role of God, pretending to be the water hole.  God and only God is the water hole - the source of life itself.  Jesus and Jesus alone is the hope of the world.  And we, the believers, need to be the Church (big C), to a lost and dying world.