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 They say to each other, ‘Don’t come too close or you will defile me! I am holier than you!’ These people are a stench in my nostrils, an acrid smell that never goes away.Isaiah 65:5

There’s a stench in the air. It’s the pungent smell of arrogance. I smell it in both American culture and the culture of the Church. It has trickled down from above, not from a heavenly above, but from the heads of churches and of state. Our country, our church, our ideology, our politics is better than yours! In fact, I’m better than you!

The Left is smarter than the Right and the Right is more moral than the Left. Social media and talk radio self-proclaimed pundits bolster their frail egos by preaching to the converted with bluster and conceit. Don’t forget folks, we’re better than them! If they disagree with us and our…

“Let’s be friends,” says the Creator, “and let’s go out together and make some more friends!”

Now, doesn’t that sound a little more appealing than: “Let’s go evangelize Africa!” or “We’re going out witnessing on Friday night. Everybody come!”?

For one thing, “Go evangelize” sounds more like an activity than a lifestyle. Not to mention it gives the impression that it’s something we do to people rather than for them. If we don’t like it done to us you can take it to the bank that they won’t appreciate it being done to them.

At the same time that God befriends us he invites us into his quest for more friends. He bids us to love people for Jesus. We’re his welcoming committee not so much recruiters for the Church. The similarity between inviting people into friendship and recruiting them for membership is paper-thin.

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– Originally published in Reaching Rahab:…