Monday, November 22, 2010

Spiritual Mannequins: The Pinchbeck Churchgoers

Hey everybody...yeah, I know...it's been a minute. But better late than never, right? Been ripping and running. Please pray for a brother...so long as you're not one of the prayer warriors in the last entry.
How about this for a subject? Spiritual Mannequins. I actually wrote about this in my second book in the Church Folk series, Church Folk: What's Love Got to Do With It? What better place to revamp it than the blog?

Question. Have you ever noticed a mannequin from a distance and mistook it for an actual human? If you don't wish to admit it, I'll put myself out there. Been fooled a couple of times. Unless we're up close, sometimes it's hard to tell we're looking at something plastic. It's similar to the love of some church folk.

Fakers have the "appearance of love" from a distance. But it takes us getting closer to find out just how plastic they really are. Yep, plastic. They claim they love you, but it's all counterfeit. Love doesn't look for something in return, it always gives. But I've come across a lot of church folk who want to know "What's in it for me?" Just like a no good joker giving a woman flowers and treating her to dinner, because he expects dessert. Some church folk are the same way. It's what I call a "pinchbeck" churchgoer.

Merriam Webster defines "pinchbeck" as an alloy of copper and zinc used especially to imitate gold in jewelry. It isn't REAL gold, it's FOOL's gold. An alloy is a compound of MIXED metals. In it's archaic form, a WEAK metal is mixed with a more DURABLE metal to give some desired quality. It adds up to something of worth being closely imitated.

Enter the Spiritual Mannequin: The Pinchbeck Churchgoer.

Phony and counterfeit love is a mixture of the PURE love of Christ ( the VALUABLE ) metal and the fake love of the churchgoer ( the LESS DURABLE) metal. So, what we see from a distance in church is nothing more than an alloy - FAKE LOVE. And much like a mannequin, some church folk are hard and heartless. Mannequins look real, but how many of us can share an intimate moment with them? Try to kiss one...see if it returns the smooch. Embrace one...see if it returns the hug.

Same result - hard and heartless.

Let me encourage yawl. Be careful getting intimate with spiritual mannequins. They act like they love us, but they're waging war in their hearts against us. Just like Judas...betraying the Lord with a kiss.

1) They'll tell all your business.
2) They'll try to steal your spouse.
3) They'll mooch off you....and won't pay you back! ( And will get an attitude with you and THEY'RE the ones who owe YOU.)
4) They'll cuss you out when the mood strikes.
5) They'll turn others against you.
6) They'll take credit for the work you've done in ministry
7) They'll lie TO you and ON you...deliberately

Can we hang out with some REAL folk? Please? Church DOES have them, but you have to search far, wide and deep to find them.  KEEP SEARCHING. The Lord will put them in your path.

Don't sell out looking for love in all the wrong places. The devil loves church. His minions love church. Fallen spirits hang out in the church.

But God is still on His throne. He has His own disciples in His house. Find em and hold on tight.

Much love,

Your bro.
Sid

4 comments:

  1. Good stuff, Sid. Keep it up, man! It's not hard for people to do the right thing, you know? But, so many make an effort to be wrong. Go figure.

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  2. Thanks Q. And you know that's right. We need to get it together.

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  3. Hey my brother,

    Been a minute - gone but not forgotten. This is truly a word here Sid. If we had a plastic detector some churchs would be full of mannequins. The worst of it is we would probably not be surprised who they are. Keep up the good Godly writing my friend. Peace

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  4. Hey LesRee. So glad you can witness to what I am feeling. I'm sure many others feel the same. Plastic detector, huh? LOL. That would be interesting. Unfortunately, it may malfunction from overuse.

    I will keep up the writing, Lord willing. It's my passion.

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