What are We Standing For?

All this talk about standing for the anthem got me thinking about the circumstances surrounding it and what we truly need to be thinking about today…and I’m here to tell you….I’m not so sure that it’s the flag or whether we stand or sit that we should be paying attention to.

In fact, while I do believe that we should respect the country we are in as Jesus told those who asked about taxes, to “Rend Caesar what is Caesar’s”, but he also added that we should give to God what is His also.  That means we owe God our lives…we are His, created in His Image…we bear HIS likeness, just like the coin bore the likeness of Caesar.

However, here is what we are missing while this is going on around us…that division has always been around…we have always been told that, “if we don’t stand for something, we will fall for anything.” While that may be true in some cases, I think that we are choosing to stand for the wrong things. Christians, why are we not standing for the WORD OF GOD? If we showed half the passion for the scripture that we have shown for the flag or for social issues this country would be a different place than it is.  If we stand for God’s Word, we will see love take precedence over hate…we would see unity rather than division…we would see things in a much happier and better light.

We have gotten so wrapped up in the idea of battle, that we have forgotten that Jesus has already fought and won the battle…but instead, we feel that we need to fight it…we feel we need to “guess” what Jesus would say today because, “Times are different…it’s just not the same today as it was then culturally.” We don’t need to guess anything….it is high time we realize this today: GOD’S WORD is the same yesterday, today, and forever….it is timeless…it is boundless…it is His bond to His people.

I challenge you to stop the hate…stop the bickering….stop the arguments…who cares if someone doesn’t agree with you…is it the Christlike attitude to attack personally or fight back in a way that destroys your witness? NO! It is our duty to be the example…why is the country in a battle today like we have never seen? Because the Church is fighting the same battles…don’t believe me? Which Version of the Bible to you use? Is there a fight about it? Are you in the midst of a church split because someone got upset with someone else?

I challenge each of us to look at the circumstances surrounding our lives…are you living in bitterness toward someone because they don’t share your opinion? Are you constantly upset because something didn’t go your way? It doesn’t matter what side of an issue you’re on, it is something that we have seen for decades in this country…we are broken…

Love like Jesus loved, who didn’t come to divide, but unite…through love. The greatest division ever recorded on earth was caused by sin, but Jesus came to unite us back to God through his blood…so let’s let the blood of Jesus continue to work today! Show love to one another today and stop with the hateful speech and bickering that only feeds division…because we are dividing the church and pushing people away from Jesus rather than winning them to Him…What are you standing for?

Puzzling Times

Life is one big puzzle sometimes, and the problem that we have as Christians is our inability to see the big picture.

The best example I can think of for this is a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. There are a lot of pieces that may look the same, they may even be shaped similarly, but there are no two pieces that are fully alike.

In the same way, there are no two Christians that are exactly the same. A puzzle will only fit together one way; in the same way, Christians are shaped and shaded to piece together according to the picture that is on the box. The difference between a puzzle and God’s children is that we don’t see the big picture. We can only see the pieces that are around us.

Too many times we as Christians want to assume we know how the final picture is supposed to look. We try to fit in where we don’t belong, and at times try to force ourselves into the spaces that are not reserved for us. God wants to work our puzzle. He wants to place us where we fit. He wants to show us the right place to fit in. It is up to us to allow God to place us where we belong.

There are many times in life where we try and take the reigns; where we try too hard to fit into a space where we were never slated to be. These are the times that we feel depressed, discouraged and torn apart by the world around us. It is in these times where we cry out for help; where we allow God to pick us up out of the wrong, and place us in the right direction.

We differ, however, from the puzzle in that we have the freedom to move and look for our space. A puzzle will lay there until you pick up the piece and look for the space in which it fits. God does not try to fit us in to His puzzle; He tries to show us the direction of our space. It is up to us to head in that direction.

God is showing us the right way to go. Why do we as Christians try to avoid it? We are selfish. We tend to think we know best what is right for our lives…this is where we as Christians forget how we arrived where we are.

This is the reason many churches seem to sit dormant. The pieces that have been placed are trying to force themselves into spaces that are reserved for others. The only true way for us to successfully piece the puzzle together is to become fully accepting of the plan that is laid out by God.

We have to allow God to place us where we fit. We have to stop holding on to the things that are tying us down to a spot that is not reserved for us. Allow God to place you in your proper spot; surrender to the plans He has for your life, and let go of the baggage, let go of the world. Cling to God…let Him work this puzzle; after all, He’s the one with the box to look at.

Christian

I want to take the moment to address something that has been on my heart and I feel is important to each of us as part of The Church today! This is the title of Christian.

The struggle that I have seen is that there are too many today who are “Christians”. I know this may sound like I’m saying that there is only a select few who are called, but that is not the case. What I am saying however is that we need to stop being “Christians” and start being Christians.

There are many non-believers who refuse to come to church or to get involved because they see many in the church who are calling themselves Christians, but are not living the life that is worthy of the call that is placed on their lives. There are many today who live like they wish during the week, but when it comes to the Change in the life that is to take place, it is absent. They are going through the motions on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday evening, but they are not living the life that they claim.

I’m not pointing fingers, and in no way am I saying I have it all figured out, but friends, we need to address this problem in our churches today. If we want to see the church grow we must show that there is a difference in our lives. If we are claiming to be Christians, then we need to be the change we want to see in others. We cannot look like the world and win souls for Christ.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Brennan Manning who passed away earlier this month on April 12 and it states, “The GREATEST single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

I think we can all take a look at our own lives and see if we are living what we say we live. Paul mentioned it to the Church at Ephesus when he said in Ephesians 4:

“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ! — assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” – Ephesians 4:17-24, ESV

To give the non-believer a reason to believe we must look like the One in which we claim to have belief…We must look like Christ if we want the world to see the change that He can make in a life. Today, I encourage each of you to not just be a Christian in word, but also in deed. Do not be afraid to allow God to do a great work in you; don’t just say you are a Christian, but show them in how you live your life.