Unfortunately, no one, including GOD HIMSELF, ever said that living life as a Believer would be easy. In fact, we pretty much have a promise that just the opposite is true. Since our belief in GOD and all that HE is, starting with truth itself, is contrary to everything about the world it shouldn't be a big surprise to any Christian when they find that they're not comfortable or at ease in the world. Now I'm not just talking about situations when a co-worker invites you to have a drink after work. Or when maybe someone asks you out to go dancing at some club. Or when you're present when a vulgar joke is told. I'm talking about all of these types of incidents along with being revulsed by all the mess on television. I'm talking about not being able to pick up a newspaper without seeing anything except updates on body counts at some school and how another [supposedly] Christian church has ordained another homosexual minister. These are just examples of what I think of as normal occurances in the daily life of a world headed straight to hell, literally. Now let's get more personal, and here is where a lot of people who profess CHRIST don't like to go, and it's sad to say that more and more churches are staying away from what they are terming 'contraversial issues.' By the way, some of these 'contraversial issues' that churches are staying away from today are things like having altar calls, talking about hell, even admitting to there being a hell, the virgin birth of CHRIST, just to mention a few. Back to the personal thing we started a moment ago. I read quite a bit, everything from my Bible to works by Bible scholars and theologians from eras past, to books and studies on just about anything to do with GOD, JESUS CHRIST, the Bible, theology... Do you get my drift? I have one test that I use to determine whether I'll read a certain person's book or article or study, and the fact that I use what I think of as a 'test of the Scriptures' will bring us to the first of the personal issues I alluded to earlier. I'll give an example of just how important it is to me that everything stand up to a 'test of the Scriptures.' A certain author that I've read quite a bit of, whose works have always stood up to the scrutiny of the Scriptures, wrote in a fairly new book that the average Christian has no chance of understanding what GOD is telling us in HIS Word. This author went on to say that without years of theological education and many more years of being mentored by someone 'qualified' that most of us had no business picking up a Bible. I actually went back and read this passage several times, I was that shocked by what I'd read. This reminded me of an incident that resulted in the early Catholic church actually ordering a priest in a rural parish to cease and desist from teach his parishoners to read the Bible. When he didn't cease and desist, after trying him for crimes against the church, they burned him at the stake. So after praying about the situation with this writer, who is also a pastor of a large West Coast church, I decided to not purchase or read any more of his books. If you're like me, after making this kind of decision, you might second guess yourself, which I began to do. But, as we all know, GOD is ever Faithful to HIS Truths. Just as my doubting of my decision was approaching it's zenith, I was looking through a catalogue put out by ChristianBook.com [who I highly recommend for anybody for everything from Bibles to Christian gifts at very reasonable prices] and came across an exerpt from a new book this fellow has out. After I read this exerpt, all of my previous doubts over my decision were gone. Without going into too much detail, the purpose of this new book appeared to be to convince Christians that GOD will always view us as HIS slaves, and that was as good as it would ever get, so we should also see ourselves as HIS slaves, period. Right about now you're probably wondering how this little wandering of mine could have anything to do with your personal issues, in regards to being and living a Christian. Here's how. A lot of changes we're seeing in not only the world we live in, but also in the churches we attend, are happening for one simple reason. That reason is that most people are afraid of speaking out. Are you afraid of being labeled as being too conservative, or too liberal? Maybe you don't want to be identified as someone who isn't a 'team player' or as a rebel. Have you ever sat through a service and had a quiet but persistant little voice inside of you saying something like, "That just doesn't sound right?" Did you act on it, and ask questions later, or maybe during a Sunday school class, for clarity? Or did you just 'go with the flow?' I'll admit, yes it is a whole lot easier to just set back and not make waves. Look around, all of the things we talked about at the beginning of my rambling today started with someone someplace having a thought, then it became a spoken thought, and either no one or not enough people spoke out against it or questioned it. Then it became an action, without doubt something small and easy to miss, but no one spoke up. Then another action, followed by more actions, each on a larger scale than the one before. Now we have what started as a thought in someones mind being accepted as fact. You want to know what I can see in all of this? Probably not, but I do have a habit of saying what I think, just ask my wife Faith. I see the devil starting with a toehold, then ever so slowly creeping and crawling his way into not just our civil and criminal justice systems, not just our political system, but into our churches, and from there into our homes. Do you think I'm being over zealous? Okay, I'm fine with that, but I challenge you to find in Scripture where GOD says it's okay for anyone living in outright declared sin, who's avowed through their everyday life that they have no intention of changing, to have any position of Biblical authority whatsoever in any church recognized as a Christian church. Let's start with that one, since it seems to have became almost a fad in our lives today. Do you know how this, and a long list of other things that have become acceptable, came to happen? Because it was easier to not make waves when this was just a thought.
A final thought, and then I'll let you be, for now anyway. Just how easy do you think it was for JESUS? Not only the day HE took a very solid stand, but HIS whole life? I'm sure that there wasn't a single day HE didn't think of HIS purpose in the FATHER's Will, the Will HE had made the decision to accept. I'm also sure that as HIS final hours drew near that it didn't become any easier, if you think it did then you need to read of HIS final moments, when HE cried out to HIS FATHER because for the first time in HIS life HE didn't feel HIS FATHER's eyes firmly on HIM.
No one ever said it would be easy, but it still has to be done. Some will ask just what it is that has to be done, and for anyone who is a professed Christian that is a sad thing, to not know what they're called to do. Here, I'll make it easy, this thing that has to be done. Live for HIM! Why? Because HE died for you, and I promise you that living for HIM isn't easy, but neither was HIM dying for you. Step up! Be a Christian! Live as a Christian!
Be Blessed!
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