There is a reason so many people have left church or church hop. Fifty percent of them will reason they left because of Church hurt. The Church transgressed them. And I'm not going to dismiss Church hurt. As I often say, the Church is not a safe place. Everyone who attends will get Church hurt. It is, by nature, part of the fall and recovery. Everyone in the Church should know they are there because they need a Lord and Savior to heal them of sin and its long-term consequences.

What I don't hear often is people reasoning they left the Church because they got offended at God. It is easier to blame the messengers than the message. Church hurt is real, but so is taking offense at God for delivering truth. And more people leave the Church through offense at God than Church hurt, but who wants to acknowledge that we have fallen short of the glory of God and don't want to hear it anymore?

Some may say God has never offended me, and I'm still in Church. I'm glad you are in Church, but I don't think you have lived a life for Christ without taking offense a time or two. It is part of the nature of God to confront sin and the heart and wake us out of our slumber.

God chastises those he loves. If you have never been chastised, you may not be a legitimate son or daughter of God. The greatest sin is pride in that we don't want to submit to a higher authority. We want to decide what is evil and what is good.

But before we continue into what offended by God is. Let's take a quick look at real Church hurt.

Who hasn't been hurt by a religious person? A pharisee? Or an overzealous Christian who thinks they are Holy Spirit junior and are called to overthrow change tables, dividing sheep from the goats and the tares from the wheat.

Who hasn't been hindered from coming to Jesus by his disciples trying to protect the anointing? Or the person who needs to be a personal pastor, intercessor, or go-between to get answers from God? Jesus gave gifts to the Church, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to teach us to do the work of the ministry and be well-grounded so that every new spiritual idea would no longer move us. But John, an apostle of the Lamb, also states we need no one to teach us the truth because Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth.

The Holy Spirit can do the whole job himself, but he has graciously allowed us to enter as co-laborers with Christ to share in his glorification. This same Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth also leads us into the community of believers called the Church. If we think we don't need the Church to walk in the truth, we are already violating the truth.

But Church hurt is real. I think of the parable of a farmer sowing seed while he is asleep, and the enemy also sows seed. When the servants ask if they should pull up the tares, the farmers stop them and say that you also pull up the wheat. Leave them both until harvest; then, the separation will come. It has happened to me, and I have done it to others. Thinking I needed to confront when I should have just prayed, and God would give repentance to the person in sin to pull out the tare. I have lost and stopped some good seeds from coming to harvest because of pulling up tares in zeal without understanding.

I also think of Moses, who, after leading Israel for forty years, loses his temper and misrepresents God as a vengeful God. The people were dehydrated and complained about not having enough water. God told Moses to speak to the Rock, and living water would come. That Rock represented Jesus and the new birth where no man needed to teach his neighbor about God, but everyone could hear God for themselves.

However, in anger, Moses struck the Rock and caused Church hurt. People are hard-hearted. Church people are often hard-hearted, but it is God's witness to speak to that hard heart and not break it with a harsh tongue.

In the story of Moses and the Rock, living water did come out and give drink to the people, but in most cases, people walk away in hurt, not because of the word but the delivery and misrepresentation of God.

I think of Peter, who was told a few hours before that he could have a sword or two. But presumptuous Peter thought the sword should be used to defend himself against those who wanted to take Jesus away. Jesus said from the beginning, those that have ears, let them hear. But Peter, going for the jugular, loped off an ear. How many Christians have lost an ear in Church and are now no longer able to hear because of offense? It is a good thing that Jesus is still healing detached ears.

Let's understand how the Church has hurt in the last few decades. The over-ripened prosperity message has brought a pay-to-play gospel. God won't do anything for you until you show him the money.

I have heard don't touch the anointed so often I can't take it. We are told in New Covenant theology to test every word and spirit to see whether it is from God. But in some circles, to question the minister or his doctrine is to throw stones and beat against the pricks.

If you love the truth as I do, you too are the little boy who says the quiet part aloud, "The emperor has no clothes of righteousness." And this is nothing new to the Judeo-Christian faith. Jesus himself dealt with the Church's hurt.

Jesus and his disciples were headed to the temple when Jesus saw a fig tree from afar. There were leaves, so he was expecting fruit, for he was hungry. When Jesus discovered leaves but not fruit, he cursed the fig tree to never bear fruit again, and it withered up and died. The scripture says it was not time to bear fruit, so why did Jesus lose his religion and curse the tree? Because there should not have been a leaf either. The leaf and the fig grow simultaneously; if you pick the fig, it goes with it. So, what the tree was doing was bolting or going to seed. The tree uses all its resources to cover itself in leaves but does not bear fruit. Knowing what Jesus did next in this story is essential.

Jesus and the disciples head to the temple and discover the same thing going on in the temple as with the now-withering fig tree: all leaves and no fruit. Jesus and the disciples leave for the day, and that evening, Jesus makes a whip. They return the next morning and overthrow the change tables with Jesus' rebuking that everything has gone to seed. From afar, the temple looked like it would feed the spiritually hungry, but instead, it offered nothing but personal cover for the clergy and no fruit for the seekers.

Anytime a Christian or a church set out to look religious and dedicated to God but has no fruit to offer to the people who are hungry to hear the Word of the Lord, withering sets in. Seedless and fruitless churches cause much Church hurt. But as I said in the beginning, is it Church hurt or offended at God?

All of us have a flesh. The New Testament talks about a war between the spirit and soul after we become new creations. Our spirit is new. Our soul is not made new but is to be renewed by being transformed by living God's word.

We all need correction, and it isn't always about sin. It is easy to drift, as the author of Hebrews asserts. How often do you adjust the steering wheel while driving a vehicle down a straight road? Between the wind, the road, the tires, and other drivers, we adjust our course every few seconds. We need constant course correction, or we will end up in the ditch!

What does the course correction look like? What does taking offense at God look like compared to Church hurt?

Jesus rebuked. Jesus rebuked his disciples. And the more obedient you were, the more rebuke you got! Look at Peter; he is always the first to get on board. Or, in the case of being caught halfway across the sea in a storm, he got out of the boat to receive help from Jesus. But when the storm was calmed, and they were on the other side, only Peter was rebuked for faltering on faith. And he was the only disciple who got out of the boat. Would you have taken offense for being the only one corrected after you stepped out and beyond?

Jesus often said things to the enemies of God and, soon, enemies to the cross that were offensive and often misunderstood until later. Jesus, you laid it out to those Pharisees, but we can't help thinking you were also talking to us. Jesus often spoke in parables that gave sight to the blind and blindness to those who believed they could see.

Offense will invariably blind you. And Jesus offended people quicker than he was healing the blind. Telling people they couldn't follow him because they loved their riches, their family, and even their own life too much, even more than God.

Seventy offended disciples walked from Jesus after he told them they must eat his flesh and drink his blood to follow him. And Jesus did not explain his words. He let them go away offended.

Jesus once called a woman a dog who was unworthy to receive the children's bread. If you begin following Jesus but hesitate and look back to your old life, taking one hand off the plow, you are not worthy of him. These are offensive words from the mouth of Jesus. It is not Church hurt; it is the eternal word of God that is offensive to our flesh.

And Jesus said if you have seen me, you have seen the Father, we are one. Look at the offensives of God under the Old Covenant.

David was offended at God for killing a man who tried to stabilize the Ark of the Covenant. I have seen this happen in church time and time again. Not a physical death, but a horrible offense, people trying to bring balance to a minister or Church that God is directing as he sees fit. Testing the spirit is one thing, but testing God is another. When we can't discern the works of God from the works of the flesh or the devil, we rick blaspheming the Holy Spirit. And that is going to hurt. Not Church hurt but offense at God.

Who can understand the command from God to wipe out entire cities? Our culture today is offended when a rapist or murderer is put in jail without bail awaiting trial. Wiping out a terrorist group is offensive to people around the world.

In Exodus, a man is found picking up sticks on the Sabbath and is executed. Then, there is a man who didn't follow directions in the fall of Jericho. He not only died but his family was executed as well. Offensive to the flesh and offended at God. With the challenge to Moses' God-given authority, God caused the earth to open and swallow several clans to the offense of the rest of the people.

And people are offended that Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden simply for being hungry and eating a fruit set aside.

The flesh is so foolish. We don't know the depths of sin and how easily we sink into it by doing things that yesterday were unimaginable. If not for the mercy and offense of God, we would be destroyed along with those who have come and gone before us.

Church hurt is real, and so is being offended by God. It is to our advantage to get over both as quickly as possible. And I leave you with one more offense from God, although the Bible records many more.

Jesus is resurrected and gives his last words to the disciples before he ascends for the last time to be at the Father's right hand. Peter is told that when he was young, he went wherever he wanted, but now that he is old, he will be led where he doesn't want to go. Thus describing Peter's death for the witnessing of Jesus.

Peter asked Jesus what would happen to the man who kept saying he was the disciple that Jesus loved. Jesus responded, "What is it to you if he lives until my return? But you follow me!"

It is Jesus' business on what to do with Church hurt. It is not our business to make sure we are loved and treated right. Our job is to forgive and love as Jesus loved us by laying down his life for us.

Go to Church and shake off the Church hurt. Go to Church and submit to the Lordship of Jesus even when it is offensive to you. What is it to you and me? We must follow Jesus!