GOD KNOWS MY.....WAIT...

I'm fairly certain that most of us can finish the title of this post without hesitation. But for the sake of clarity it's "God knows my heart". If you're like me then you've often heard this phrase uttered while speaking with someone about the gospel, church or the bible. This appears to be the go to default response when a Christian is asked about such things as church attendance or how often they read their bible and even about some particular habits they may have. Let's examine this phrase and, more importantly, the reason for its use.
For starters, it's important to note that there is nothing particularly wrong the phrase. God does indeed know our hearts. In fact, even better than we do ourselves. But do we know it as well as we think?

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

According to Jeremiah 17:9, our hearts are deceitful or, as another translation has it, sick. This makes it clear to us that we can't possibly trust it with most matters. In fact, it goes on to say that only God can know it. Despite this fact, we are content to default to this thinking in our attempt to explain away disobedience. And that is what this post is actually about; our tendency to openly and freely claim that we are believers, but in practice and our personal lives one would be hard pressed to see evidence of that claim.
In case there is any confusion, I'm speaking of a concept known as "Lordship salvation". In short what this means is that when we accept Christ as our savior, the one who lived a sinless life and willingly gave that life up for us so that we would not suffer the just wrath for our sins, we must by necessity accept Him as Lord as well. Or in other words, we don't have the option of allowing Him to be our savior today and then wait another 5 or 10 years, when we feel we're ready, to allow Him to be the Lord of our lives too. This kind of thinking and mindset not only contradicts scripture but gives rise to such concepts as a "Carnal Christian", a person that may have professed faith in Christ but nevertheless goes on living the way they did while they were still in the world.
Again, scripture is replete with examples of this being impossible;

"You are my friends if you do what I command you." ~ John 15:14 (ESV)

"And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked." ~ 1 John 2:3-6 (ESV)

Unfortunately, and despite this evidence, in this day and age we make it increasingly harder to live this out. Seemingly everything in our society is geared towards a noncommittal existence. From cell phone plans that no longer have you locked into a contract to rent to own merchandise that can be returned whenever it suits you on to the putting off of marriage until later ages, we are doing everything in our power to actually commit to less and less! By extension, the idea of committing ones life to glorifying God and actually changing our lives to reflect that, is a foreign concept. After all, God loves us just the way we are and knows our hearts, right?
But, whether we realize it or not, there are very real consequences that stem from this mentality. The most obvious is that we are not displaying the signs of true repentance and salvation and should, by right, question that. Christ saw fit to wholeheartedly commit himself to being obedient, even unto the cross, so we should at the very least be able to commit to changed lives that reflect our gratitude for that and glorify God. But another equally devastating effect is that it diminishes our testimony in the world and causes those that may want to come to Christ to be skeptical of the validity of our faith. The world expects us to be different and when they see the opposite and see us doing exactly as they do (and worse) they rightly call our bluff that there's any substance to what we claim to believe!
If we couple that with the popular perception that "we're all in it for the money" and that this is just a business and our product is Jesus, our effectiveness is watered down tremendously. And even if we
come correctly, they will turn a blind eye and deaf ear towards not merely us, but Christ himself!
This is something that we can no longer allow to go unaddressed, both in ourselves and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Yes, God knows our hearts...and he saved us from them!
Let us live as ambassadors and as if we have a priceless gift to share with the world on behalf of our King and Lord, because in reality...we do...

HOW FREE ARE WE?

How free are we? This is a question that I've asked myself before, but not so often as within the past week. I've participated in several discussions lately that were sparked when a certain celebrity (whom shall remain nameless) graced the red carpet of the BET awards in a rather revealing dress. The dress itself really wasn't the topic of these discussions and neither was it whether or not an entertainer should dress that way. The actual question was whether a Christian (which she professes to be) should dress in something that leaves so little to the imagination. This then naturally progressed to the question of the freedoms we enjoy in our personal lives. And that is what I'd like to address here.

The world has long espoused the idea that we all have our rights to do as we please (within the limits of the law) and that no one should care how we live our lives. In short, privacy. In this modern culture where the progression and advancement of self is the chief goal in everyones life and privacy and the ability to ensure it are a multi-billion dollar industry, the notion of not being able to do what you want to do just because someone else may not approve seems like a ridiculous idea. I mean if someone has a problem with what I do, they can simply opt to not be in my presence, right? If they don't like what you're wearing they can close their eyes, right? Don't like the language I'm using, don't listen!

Is that how we, as believers, should respond though?

Before I proceed allow me to say this. Yes, it's true that you have your private life that no one can claim a right to be involved in. And it's also true that you have your own private places where you can do as you will when you will. When you are at home you can do as you please in the privacy of your own home and expect no one to say anything to you. But that really isn't the topic here and is another issue altogether. What we are talking about is whether or not you should care what people think of the things that they can see and witness with their own eyes and even ears. Should you care about what people think of your smoking, your drinking, your clubbing habits, or even the company you keep? Should it matter to you what others think of how you dress or how you talk? I say that if you call yourself a Christian and are a professing believer then the answer is a resounding YES! 

Now, let's be clear here; there are things that we do that are not sinful in and of themselves. Drinking isn't condemned in the bible, being drunk is. The dress that was the topic of so many discussions this week isn't, in and of itself, sinful.  So, yes, you may have the right and ability to do some things and you may even know from the word that you're not sinning. But again, your rights aren't the issue, your abilities aren't the issue. We have more to be concerned about. And we are told what that is in the word:

9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. ~ 1 Corinthians 8:9-13

So the real issue is not us but rather our brothers (and sisters). When asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?", we should not hesitate to say yes! Once we are saved and become part of the body of believers, we are set free from the penalty of our sins. This is a freedom gained only in and through Christ. But at the same time we lose the "right" to say and do as we please without concern for our fellow man. That dress may look amazing and you may have the figure for it, but are you aiding your brother in his purity or causing him to lust? 

We are called to be set apart from the world, but instead we see the the church itself and its individual members seeking to blend in with and imitate it. We look like the world, talk like the world, speak like the world and even think like the world does. So much so that they can no longer tell us apart. This of course gives rise to the idea that all Christians are hypocrites, since we seemingly pick and choose which sins are serious based upon our own comfort and convenience. We damage our own testimony by this and hinder our ability to properly (and believably) carry the gospel to the lost. We preach a gospel that is not only supposed to save but also claims to make us new creatures, all things becoming new. Yet we refuse to let go of the old lives and habits we were saved out of.

So, how free are we? Only as free as the slaves of Christ can be. Our lives are no longer our own and we owe it to our brothers and sisters in Christ and to those that have yet to know him to be mindful of how we carry and conduct ourselves, not causing them to stumble but helping them to stand...

YOU'RE WRONG TO SAY I'M WRONG...

Ask any twenty random people on the street which belief system they believe is the right one and you're likely to get twenty different answers. Or would those answers have more in common than you'd think? Almost without fail when I speak of this with people, they are of the mindset "if it's true for them, then that's okay" and "to each his own". That may sound like the loving thing to say or think, since you seem to be considering other's feelings and beliefs. But how loving is it really, especially if you happen to profess to be a Christian?

I'd venture to say that it's not "loving" at all! 

Let me explain. There are truly only two "belief systems" in the world. You have that of man's works and what he can do to get to heaven (or what they may call their version of it). And then you have that of God's work and what he did for us to get to heaven. The former would entail almost every religion in the world from Islam to Mormonism. The latter is Christianity and it pretty much stands alone in this regard. Furthermore, the reason that Christianity is looked down upon and even hated in so much of the world is because of one unique claim found therein. Namely, it's exclusivity! 

What do I mean by exclusivity? I'm referring to Christ's very own claim, 

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through  me.'" John 14:6

It is this claim that sets Christianity apart from every other system we see practiced today and indeed is the reason that Christians are met with hostility in world. Because, this claim leads us to tell others the one thing that is often falsely labeled intolerant...."you're wrong"! Regardless of their zeal or sincerity, we have tell others that what they believe will get them to heaven and who they think does this is wrong.

Now, I admit this is often not an easy thing to say to someone. I once had a conversation with a gentleman at the laundry mat. I believe he was in his late forties, had no children and had been divorced. With all sincerity he told me that it was the Mormon church that saved him and kept him from committing suicide. He had a book of Mormon with him and clutched it as if his life depended on it. 

I could have taken the easy route and just not delved deeper into the topic. But I realized that this wouldn't be the loving thing to do. After all a soul was at stake here. While he spoke, I silently prayed to God about what I should say and how I should say it. When he finished telling me about his experience I calmly and gently began a dialogue with him that I knew would lead him to pick apart his own faulty theology. 

I understand that this would or perhaps will be labeled as intolerant or wrong on my part. But I am convinced that we all have a duty to carry out the Great Commission and carry the gospel to all the people in the world. It just so happens that when we do this we often encounter someones "truth". It may seem feasible to have one person's beliefs to be true for them and ours be true for us and have them both equally accepted as valid. But what happens when our truth says their truth is false? At this point we obviously can't both be right.

This brings us to the label "intolerant". By definition, if I'm tolerant of someone it means I disagree with them about what they think or believe, but I'm okay with them continuing to believe it. I'm tolerating their contradictory beliefs and perhaps even their lifestyle. I'm content to let them live on that way if they choose to do so. Intolerance on the other hand would be if I attacked or ridiculed them and attempted to force them to change their minds or views to match my own. Ironically this is what we see directed towards Christians all the time, be it by the threat of death under Islamic law abroad or in our own cities by the LGBT community doing such things as boycotting their businesses or outright attacking them.

All that being said, you may not find it comfortable that we say you're wrong. But if we didn't do it, then we'd be displaying the lack of love you accuse us of. Do we always do it the right or best way? No. And I apologize for that, but we are human and we tend to err. But in the end your ego and feelings don't matter as much as your soul and believe me it's with all the love in the world that we say...you're wrong!