Christianity has been around for thousands of years. It has survived persecution, and reached into the lives of peoples of all kinds of different races, cultures and languages. Praise the Lord that His Word has not come back void!
What do you think of when you think of being a Christian? What does that look like to you? What does it mean to you to be a Christian? Every day, how do you live it out? I was raised in a Christian home. I'm very blessed in that way. I don't think that it really matters if you are raised in a home where God is worshiped or cursed so long as you follow Him. But I do feel blessed to have been raised by followers of Jesus. However, like so many kids that grew up Christian, I never got the idea of what it was all about. My faith in Jesus wasn't mine alone but my parents'. Everyone I knew was a Christian and so was I. I didn't understand what that really meant. Sure, I went to church, knew my Bible, and understood what I must do to be saved, but I had never enjoyed a relationship with God. One day when I was in high school, the Lord woke me up from the religious stupor I had fallen into. He opened my self-centered eyes to see His love and my puffed up heart to receive it. In my sleep, I had seen only what I was doing to be a good Christian, but in my waking, I knew that it was the holy Spirit that could change me.
That I was saved from an early age I have no doubt. I'm not saying I wasn't saved then. I believe I was saved all those years ago. But I fell into a sleeping state. It happens so often to us as Christians. We get comfortable in our own little Christian kingdoms and stop thinking about what we are doing. We go about our business. We go to church on Sundays, mid-week Bible study on Wednesdays and do our little ministries if we have time.It's like clockwork day in and day out. Then one day, we wake up and think, "Why am I here? What am I really doing? Who is God anyway? What does Christianity mean anyway?" At least I hope we do.
In the States, Christianity is comfortable. We aren't persecuted like those in other countries, we aren't usually cast out by our family for being Christians and while we may not be the most popular kids on the block, we're not shunned but our friends because of our beliefs. It's pretty easy being identified as a Christian. We are allowed o fellowship openly and pray in public. We are blessed and fortunate.
Or are we? Satan has two tactics up his sleeve to crush those who would follow Jesus. Either he makes our lives horrid and scary, or he turns the heat up slowly like frogs in a pot. The latter is true of the American Church, I'm not saying that God isn't sovereign in all this or that He will let His Church die a slow, apathetic death. God is God still. But we must stop acting like frogs in a pot. We aren't cold blooded reptiles! We are different than the world. We are free from all of that. God has set us apart to bring His name glory and all we're doing is our christian thing and going to church, doing our ministries and reading our Bibles and praying every day. We're losing our effectiveness. Just look at the culture's view of Christians. They ridicule us, make us look like Bible thumping wackos and call us hypocrites. Sad but true. We could write it off as "no servant being greater than his master" all we want but our culture has part of it right. We are a house divided. We are saying God is love but not practicing His love with each other. We spend so much time trying o be right hat we've lost our focus on what we're really here for: to bring God glory. What is more important: that your theology is the most correct, or that someone is saved? What did Jesus tell His followers when they were arguing over who was the greatest? If you want to be great in God's kingdom, be a servant of all. You see, it's not going to matter in the end who was the most correct in their view of God. It's going to matter what you did to serve Him. Knowledge is a good thing, but knowledge puffs up. When we think we know he most and understand our theology better than others, we start to look down on them. I know because I did it. I knew my Bible and I knew what the whole God thing was about. But in doing so, I put myself above them as if I were somehow better than them. It's not about what we know, it's about God. It always has been and always will be.
I want o clear the air right now. I don't have all the answers. What I know about God is only a very small part of what He truly is. I'm not the perfect Christian who thinks she has all the answers and I'm right and the rest of you are wrong. Not in the least. The intent of the blog is to promote unity. I want to speak out against the discord the the Church is living with. My intent is not to point out how smart I am but to point you to how great God is. For it is Him and Him alone who matters at the end of the day.
Shake us up, Lord!
What do you think of when you think of being a Christian? What does that look like to you? What does it mean to you to be a Christian? Every day, how do you live it out? I was raised in a Christian home. I'm very blessed in that way. I don't think that it really matters if you are raised in a home where God is worshiped or cursed so long as you follow Him. But I do feel blessed to have been raised by followers of Jesus. However, like so many kids that grew up Christian, I never got the idea of what it was all about. My faith in Jesus wasn't mine alone but my parents'. Everyone I knew was a Christian and so was I. I didn't understand what that really meant. Sure, I went to church, knew my Bible, and understood what I must do to be saved, but I had never enjoyed a relationship with God. One day when I was in high school, the Lord woke me up from the religious stupor I had fallen into. He opened my self-centered eyes to see His love and my puffed up heart to receive it. In my sleep, I had seen only what I was doing to be a good Christian, but in my waking, I knew that it was the holy Spirit that could change me.
That I was saved from an early age I have no doubt. I'm not saying I wasn't saved then. I believe I was saved all those years ago. But I fell into a sleeping state. It happens so often to us as Christians. We get comfortable in our own little Christian kingdoms and stop thinking about what we are doing. We go about our business. We go to church on Sundays, mid-week Bible study on Wednesdays and do our little ministries if we have time.It's like clockwork day in and day out. Then one day, we wake up and think, "Why am I here? What am I really doing? Who is God anyway? What does Christianity mean anyway?" At least I hope we do.
In the States, Christianity is comfortable. We aren't persecuted like those in other countries, we aren't usually cast out by our family for being Christians and while we may not be the most popular kids on the block, we're not shunned but our friends because of our beliefs. It's pretty easy being identified as a Christian. We are allowed o fellowship openly and pray in public. We are blessed and fortunate.
Or are we? Satan has two tactics up his sleeve to crush those who would follow Jesus. Either he makes our lives horrid and scary, or he turns the heat up slowly like frogs in a pot. The latter is true of the American Church, I'm not saying that God isn't sovereign in all this or that He will let His Church die a slow, apathetic death. God is God still. But we must stop acting like frogs in a pot. We aren't cold blooded reptiles! We are different than the world. We are free from all of that. God has set us apart to bring His name glory and all we're doing is our christian thing and going to church, doing our ministries and reading our Bibles and praying every day. We're losing our effectiveness. Just look at the culture's view of Christians. They ridicule us, make us look like Bible thumping wackos and call us hypocrites. Sad but true. We could write it off as "no servant being greater than his master" all we want but our culture has part of it right. We are a house divided. We are saying God is love but not practicing His love with each other. We spend so much time trying o be right hat we've lost our focus on what we're really here for: to bring God glory. What is more important: that your theology is the most correct, or that someone is saved? What did Jesus tell His followers when they were arguing over who was the greatest? If you want to be great in God's kingdom, be a servant of all. You see, it's not going to matter in the end who was the most correct in their view of God. It's going to matter what you did to serve Him. Knowledge is a good thing, but knowledge puffs up. When we think we know he most and understand our theology better than others, we start to look down on them. I know because I did it. I knew my Bible and I knew what the whole God thing was about. But in doing so, I put myself above them as if I were somehow better than them. It's not about what we know, it's about God. It always has been and always will be.
I want o clear the air right now. I don't have all the answers. What I know about God is only a very small part of what He truly is. I'm not the perfect Christian who thinks she has all the answers and I'm right and the rest of you are wrong. Not in the least. The intent of the blog is to promote unity. I want to speak out against the discord the the Church is living with. My intent is not to point out how smart I am but to point you to how great God is. For it is Him and Him alone who matters at the end of the day.
Shake us up, Lord!
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