We are living in a war
zone—a spiritual war that is. When Saddam Hussein used chemical
weapons to kill his own people and paid terrorists to attack Israel and the
United States, as well as trying to assassinate George H.W. Bush in the 1980’s,
we put up with it for a while, but finally after September 11, 2001, we had had
enough! The United States attacked the terrorists in
Afghanistan and Iraq in the hopes that the terrorists would learn that they
couldn’t attack us and get away with it.
But now, when Bashar
al-Assad, the president of Syria, started killing his own people with chemical
weapons we drew a red line and allowed him to cross it. Then we
trusted Putin, the fox, to watch the hen house. The Nigerian school
girls have been kidnapped so we tweet “#Bring back our girls.” And
meanwhile, the European Union, instead of helping Ukraine, they voted on a
“talent” show. A bearded man wearing a dress, wins. That
is supposed to tell us that they are tolerant. Well they are
tolerant to the detriment of society. See this blog by Robert
Tracinski--http://thefederalist.com/2014/05/13/eurovision-raises-the-question-how-many-divisions-has-rupaul/.
The United States under
its present leadership has also become tolerant of everything except
Christianity.
So what is a Christian to
do? I would say do this:
1st –Pray,
I Timothy
2:1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession
and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2 for
kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet
lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is
good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who
wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the
truth.
2nd, study the Bible,
II Timothy 2:15 Do your
best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to
be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
Ephesians
6:17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God.
3rd, Confess
your sins,
Psalm 51:3 For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
4th, forgive as God has forgiven you,
Psalm 51:3 For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
4th, forgive as God has forgiven you,
Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to
one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ
forgave you.
5th, Have faith and do works:
Ephesians 2:10 For we are
God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which
God prepared in advance for us to do.
Matthew 5: 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the
salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good
for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You
are the light of the world. A town
built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither
do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its
stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the
same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Ephesians 5:11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them.
Ephesians 5:11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them.
6th, Live Life
Jeremiah
29:5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens
and eat what they produce.6 Marry and have sons and
daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so
that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not
decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and
prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to
the Lord for it, because
if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
We know that God wins in
the end. We can “Cast all our cares on Him because He cares for
us.” Don’t worry –be happy! God is in control!
What would be your advice as how to live in the midst of all this craziness?
What would be your advice as how to live in the midst of all this craziness?
These are very solid principles for staying grounded in Christ through good times and bad. Thank you for this clear and concise exposition. I recommend one more thing. I believe that we must be the voice for absolute morality in the culture. That is a tough stance, but I think we must. If nobody says a word, then nothing changes. We may be hushed or suppressed when we speak, but we must speak. As you point out, we must be centered in Christ and our comments must be Christ-like, but it is completely Christ-like to differ with evil agendas.
ReplyDeleteThe above comment was made by Katherine Harms.My reply to her is this:I agree. Ephesians 4: 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
Delete. I believe we can do this in several ways. One way is to vote for candidates who support life and traditional marriage. Another way is to have conversations with those who have the opposite view even though they say they follow Jesus. But if they will not listen then I Corinthians 5:5 says “5 I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”
I left a church because even though the pastor does not condone homosexual behavior he believes that we can vote for candidates who support homosexual rights. He believes that the woman is more important than the unborn baby. I told him that James Dobson believes that people who support these issues are borderline heretics. The pastor told me then that up to half the congregation of the church would be considered borderline heretics then.
I left the church and I pray for them.
From Katherine Harms:It is my opinion that “borderline heresy” is a contradiction in terms. Either we believe that God gave us the Bible as a guide for faith and life or we don’t.
DeleteMy husband and I changed churches over the Bible itself. Progressive Christians (their term, not mine) claim that the Bible is a precious record of sacred experience written by ancient people but not binding as instruction for people today. When our church chose to go down that path, we chose to find a different church.
I hope you found a Bible believing church. So far the pastor in my new church has preached the gospel and is a apologist about the inerrancy of the Bible.
DeleteDid you hear about this? Tony Campolo was the subject of an informal heresy hearing in 1985 brought about by several assertions in his 1983 book A Reasonable Faith, particularly his claim that, “Jesus is actually present in each other person.” The book became a hot button issue, and the controversy caused Campus Crusade for Christ and Youth for Christ to block a planned speaking engagement by Campolo. The Christian Legal Society empowered a “reconciliation panel”, led by noted theologian J. I. Packer, to examine the issue and resolve the controversy. The panel examined the book and questioned Campolo. The panel later issued a statement saying that although it found Campolo’s statements “methodologically naïve.
So was Compolo a borderline heretic or a heretic? I don’t know. There are many like him who are going in the wrong direction in the United States and around the world. I think God wants us to tell the truth and if people won’t listen we have to give them over to Satan. It is God’s business to convict them. God is winnowing out the tares and soon the remnant will be raptured out of here!