Are you your brother's keeper?
There was this sister in Christ in my church who I will refer to as J. Sister J was a humble person, who served as an usher in my church. When I first became a Christian, Sister J was the only one who bother to befriend me. She was also friendly to all new-comers in church. She would also do the job which no one like to do, for the church, such as clearing up the vomits that would come after a deliverance session.
However, she had one flaw. She was too frank with her words and as a result, not many people in the church like her. She told me that it was God who promoted the people, and therefore God promoted her to be a leader in the usher ministry. One day, sister J stopped coming to the church and the pastor told me to forget about her. I couldn’t forget about her, though. She was my friend and she was such a humble sister. Why did she stop coming to church?
I contacted sister J, contrary to the wishes of my pastor. She told me not to contact her anymore as she no longer believed in God. I told her we could still be friend outside of church even if she did not believe in God anymore. She then told me that she did not want to stumble me in my faith with God and the pastor had told her not to contact anyone in church. She stopped contacting me, and until today, I had not seen her.
The question I posed to all of you is, why did such a humble sister who would do the odd job no one ever bothered to do in church fall away from Jesus? I soon found out why. Sister J’s entire family committed suicide and she was upset with God. Furthermore, instead of emphasizing with her and offering support for her grief, the church rebuked her for her lack of faith in God and asked her to put her priorities right in God.
I mean, why should she not question God when her entire family, not at the same time, one by one, committed suicide? How many people could choose not to question God at a moment such as this? The church ought to offer her support, both emotionally and financially but instead, chose to ask her to set her priorities right. Most of the church people’s lives were blessed and without problem and therefore, they did not question God. It was easy for them to judge her, but if their shoe had been the same as her, would they not question God, too? Christ told us in His Word to bear with the weak and try our best to help the weak. (Romans 15:1-3) The church did not do that but criticize and judge her instead.
Sometimes, when we are blessed, it is easy for us to forget those who are suffering in Christ. We look at these people with judgmental eyes and forget that Christ died for them and love them just as much as he loves us. We fail to put ourselves in the shoes of those who are suffering. We question their sincerities for God when we ought to stand behind them in their time of need.
Satan is very crafty. He knows he cannot stand against us if we are united and therefore, he does not attack everyone at the same time. Instead, he shoots his dart at the most vulnerable, the one whom he thinks the church will not support if he or she falls away. One by one, he takes away the vulnerable and when we ignore the vulnerable in church, his strategies succeed. The church does not decrease in size over-night.
Instead, it is the one individual Christian who leaves church that we do not care about, that slowly adds up to the church’s demise. We think it is only one person the church loses, but many such ‘one’ individual adds up to a large sum.
If we have been united as a body of Christ and go all out to stand behind every ‘one’ such individual who falls away from church, Satan will not have been successful in his tactics as there is strength in numbers. (Ecclesiastes 4:12) However, we ignore the merely ‘one’ sister or brother who falls away, and our selfishness gives strength to the devil.
Is it a wonder that church is almost empty these days? Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus cares for the ‘one’ sheep that falls astray more than He worries about the 99 sheep that are safe in the sheep-pen. He talks about how he finds more joy in finding that one sheep back more than He does the 99 who does not stray. (Luke 15:4-7)
Shouldn’t we do the same as Him? Today, try to contact all the individual brother or sister who used to attend your church but who you no longer see in church. If they cannot be contacted, or if they do not want to be contacted, pray for them. Do not stop praying for them unless you see them in church again or know somehow that they are still serving Jesus somewhere in another church.
Let not lose any more one ‘individual’ to Satan today! I am still praying for sister J, even though it had been 20 years ago when she fell away. Join me in my prayers for her and the many Christians who no longer walk with God! We need to love one another like Jesus loves us! (John 15:12)