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July 21
Unknown
There's a saying that goes, "Big things always start off small." And so it is with our Church. Once upon a time, the Church was a little more than twelve, ordinary men and a handful of their faithful followers who were being chased around by the Jews. There were no huge cathedrals, no public gatherings, and definitely no El Shaddai-like worships. Now, with that picture in mind, let?s fast-forward to the technological world of the twenty-first century. Lo and behold! Today, the Christian community is one of the largest (but not THE largest, mind you) religions in the world, taking up a whopping one-third of the global population. Now that?s an extremely far cry from the twelve ordinary men with blue-collared jobs and their great leader who started it all.
But let's skip the statistics lesson and take a closer look on that 2.4 billion people who have professed themselves to the Christian faith. Included in this batch are humans with different nationalities, opinions, food tastes, and yes, different views on God and faith. With such a large number, it would be ridiculous to say that all of us (yes, we ARE included in here) manage to live a perfect, God-centered life. Most of us look at our faith as a small thing that we keep in the bottom of the closet that's useful only when we're waist-deep in trouble. "Oh, it's just another Sunday Mass to be attended," or "I don't need to do this, I mean, I'd rather be a home doing this and that." Blah blah blah. Yada, yada, yada. For many of us, it's just another chore that needs to be finished, another small role to be played. And if we don?t want to do it, there's always that never-exhausting supple of excuses. No big deal, right?
So in that 2.4 billion people, how many do you think are truly living out their faith and are actually enjoying their relationship with God? Not that many actually. After all, there?s still that remaining 4.8 billion who have yet to discover who God is.
With that point made, the question still remains: Why did God allow these people who continue to follow their faith blindly (hypocrites, as they may be called) to remain in His chosen people? Won't they just clutter up the world with their false beliefs and unjust behavior? They might even influence the faithful and get them to turn away from their faith!
It?s because the Lord, as the True and Only Living God, still persists to work on His divine plan. He wants all of us to be saved, and for the unlucky ones who don?t, then they?re off to an all-expense-paid, eternal vacation to Flamey-Volcano World. No buts, no excuses. But who knows? Maybe the bad will be the ones who?ll be influenced by the good, and not the other way around. Maybe those who have gone astray may find their way through again. He gives us a chance to start anew, to fully understand what He means to tell us about the salvation that awaits us at the end of the tunnel. With His almighty power, he unites all those different people and makes them into one, a single family and body to share with Him the glory of His kingdom.
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