* drinking out of your "Jesus Fan Club" mug... $13
* eating a "test-a-mint"... 50 cents
* wearing your WWJD bracelet... $4
* showing off your Christian t-shirt... $15
* a perfectly placed Icthus (Christian fish) on your car... $7
... having merely the APPEARANCE of a Christian... WORTHLESS.
An author named George Barna wrote a book called "The 7 Faith Tribes". From a Christian perspective, perhaps Mr. Barna doesn't have the best approach, but his research and facts are still worth looking into. Beyond that- regardless of his intent or motives- he makes very valid points. He determined that there were 2 types (or "tribes", if you will) of Christianity and that when interviewing people for this book, THEY THEMSELVES classified themselves in one of the two following categories...
"Casual Christianity" and "Captivated Christianity"
Here's where it gets good and here's where toes get stepped on. :)
"CASUAL Christianity" is the flip-flop style of Christianity... and it's one of the most dangerous lies of the enemy. It's the "pick and choose what I want of CHRIST and pick and choose what I want of the WORLD and make my *PERFECT PACKAGE DEAL* of Christianity. Who wouldn't want that? Sounds great, right? I can still do the things I want of the flesh, still fit in with the world, still have my *fun* AND "serve Jesus"! I can party on Friday and go to church on Sunday. I can be in a crowd of people through the week and do whatever they do, not be set apart, not let people see the Christ in me and then give myself to God and the church on the weekend. Half Christian, half world. How do they coexist? Do they? No. They do not. And yet a whopping 66% (2/3 of the Christian population) classified themselves this way! Astounding. How does this work? When the very idea of Christianity is to be TRANSFORMED. The definition of the word "transformed" is:
| to change in form, appearance, or structure; |
| to change in condition, nature, or character; convert. |
and my personal favorite "to metamorphosize"!
So tell me something... when a caterpillar goes through metamorphosis and becomes a butterfly, can it ever go back to being a caterpillar? Even if it could, why would it want to? It has been TRANSFORMED into a BEAUTIFUL butterfly! Why in the world would it ever want to go back to being a simple little caterpillar? That would be ludicrous. And yet we try to do it all the time. Or we DO. When we became Christians, there was (or should have been) a RADICAL transformation. Now let's look at the word "radical".
thoroughgoing or extreme,
a person who holds or follows strong convictions or extreme principles;
How "RADICAL" is your Christian walk? How EXTREME? Do people see your RADICAL, EXTREME following of Christ? If not, why not? It should be evident. You shouldn't HAVE to wear a WWJD bracelet or a Christian t-shirt or have a Christian fish symbol on your car- your OUTSIDE SELF should be EVIDENT of what's on the INside. Is it?
Your deeds/works do NOT save you, but the LACK of deeds/works reflect your incompleteness on the INside. If you struggle with something- an outwardly sin- there is a direct correlation with that outwardly sin and what is going on on the inside.
We are called "the Bride of Christ" and yet we *cheat* on Him all the time. Can you imagine what your relationship with your spouse would be like if you gave them the same time and devotion that you give to Christ? What if you only talked to THEM a couple of times a week? Probably wouldn't work, right? What if you were only faithful to THEM a couple of times a week and the rest of the week, did whatever you wanted with whomever you wanted? Your relationship would be doomed to fail under those conditions. So what makes us think we can give only that to Christ and it be acceptable? What makes us think that the limited time and attention we give to Him will be enough to sustain our relationship with Christ? Does it?
Pastor Seth gave a great analogy of a rose. When you buy roses at the store, on the corner, from the florist- wherever- it's beautiful and smells good and is still alive, right? Or is it? If you leave that same beautiful, perfect rose that smells so good for any length of time without water and care- what will happen to it? It will die. And if let for a long time, it will start to smell. You cannot see any of the beauty that rose once held when it was still alive. The thing is... once you purchased or picked that rose- it was already in the process of dying. It was in that process as soon as you (or whoever) detached it from the rose bush that gave it life. Jesus said I am the vine and you are the branches- what did he mean by this? The same as the rose analogy. If a branch gets detached from the vine, it is cut off and it dies. We cannot be cut off from Christ and still "live".
We are under a period of grace and the Bible says there will come a time when that grace will end. And there will come a day when some will appear before Him and will say Lord, Lord and will tell of all the things they did in "His" name and He will say- depart from me... I never knew you. What a shockening day of awareness that will be for those that THOUGHT they were doing all the right things, saying all the right things, living like the Church of Sardis in Revelations 3. I'm pretty sure they were shocked by that, too. Our period of grace is running out and time is of the essence... will you wait? Can you afford to risk it? Why would you want to? The fruit we bear MUST resemble that of Christ. It is our birthright, it is our inheritance. Our desire should be for that. It should not be to be able to get away with whatever we can of living in the world and of the world and doing the little bit we *THINK* we'll get us there. First, it's a deception to think that way. Second, it is a selfish, self-centered way of living. And it's not representative of Christ.
It is so easy to get bogged down in the day to day of living and just going about our daily lives, getting bound by our problems and struggles and whatever is going on in our lives at the time. I understand, I do it everyday. I have many things I'm struggling with right now. But satan would have it that I get so wound up in all that that I forget what my purpose here truly is, what I am called to do in this life. It is NOT allow those things to overtake me and captivate my mind and attention away from Him. He IS the core of my being, He IS the very essence of my existence. I should be showing that... always. So should you...
be blessed!
- Melanie
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