The Wrong Car: A Parable – Sunday Thought For The Day

Saturday morning my wife had an experience that was parabolically speaking, a perfect biblical metaphor.  Let me explain.

Saturday morning my wife called me; she was stuck in the grocery store parking lot, because the key would not would not open the car door.  It would not open either with the remote opener nor manually with the key.  I don’ know how long she wrestled with it, but after so many years, I know emotion in her voce when I hear it.  I told her I would be there within 15 minutes.  Moments later she called back and said don’t leave, all was well, she had been at the wrong car.

Ordinarily there would be no way on earth that she would confuse that car with our car she was driving.  But, with her mind occupied on something else, she glimpsed the color of the car and reflexively tried to enter it.  It wasn’t until after she had called me, that she took closer note of the vehicle.  It was dirty, with paint chipped and peeling; in brief it was in poor condition, in no way resembling ours.  Frustrated at not having been paying attention, she went to ours, which was parked a couple spaces away.

The parable here is that this is a perfect example of many churches today.  They look like a proper church until you enter and observe what’s being  taught and preached.  It matters not how pious nor how nice and kind the church leadership and congregants appear to be a glance, we must examine them closely enough to see if they are in fact truly biblically based.

I know a church pastored by a person I genuinely love and care deeply about as I do for many of the people I know that attend the church.  The problem is as it was with my wife at the wrong car.  It looked like ours when she failed to take a close look.

She could have continued to wrestle with the wrong car; she could have become frustrated and emotionally distraught; she could have pushed the shopping cart back to the store entrance and waited for me or she could have done what she did.  After calling me she took a closer look, realized her error and sought out the right vehicle and with thanksgiving on her lips, she entered with ease, the comfort and security of the familiar surroundings of our car.

When in search of a church we must not be deceived because we aren’t paying attention to the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit.  God is not going to lead a person to a blasphemous church nor a church that is doctrinally errant.  If God leads a person to such a church, I assure you it is because that person has a special calling to enter into such places.  They’re spirit-filled, uniquely gifted individuals specifically called and anointed to be there.  And, I can assure you when God leads such a person(s) to such a place it is to turn the church around or to signal the end of the church leadership if the not the end of the church.

For those who are looking for a church, you should be petitioning God for Him to lead/direct you to the exact church He would have you attend.  Less you be deceived and misled.  Like the car my wife first approached not paying particular attention, it is easy to mistake lies for the truth if one is not attentive or if one is not biblically sound.  And trust me there are a lot of people in churches today who are anything, but biblically sound.

If you are a biblically sound Christian, why sit frustrated by a pastor and church that’s not meeting the spiritual needs of you and your family?  Why sit frustrated in a church that doesn’t preach biblically sound doctrine?  When searching for a church examine it closely to see if it is spiritually legitimate of if it is led by a person who acts nice, but in reality is comfortably leading a whitewashed sepulcher filled with dead men’s bones.

READ:

Matthew 23:27-28 KJV
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.