CULTURAL CHRISTIANITY

CULTURAL CHRISTIANITY

Is Christianity shaping our culture or is the culture shaping our Christianity?  Are you a Biblical Christian or a cultural Christian?  Are you trying to have the best of both worlds by compromising your beliefs as a Christian?  

Sadly to say, we seem to be adopting some of the values of the world.  We have been exchanging the truth and the absolutes of God with the lies of the enemy.  We have become saturated in the material world and have sought after fleshly desires. 

We use God as an ATM.  God I want this.  God I want that.  We make God Who we want Him to be, not Who He is.  How many of us who call ourselves Christians are born again and read and know the scriptures?

In the parable of the sower, Jesus says, in Matthew 13:19, “While anyone is hearing the Word of the kingdom and does not grasp and comprehend it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.  This is what was sown along the roadside.”  Jesus is making it clear that not everyone who hears the Word of God accepts it.

The cultural Christian is the one who is living a counterfeit faith because he or she is not living out the true Gospel.  It is not genuine.  They are Christian in name only because they think that just going to church and filling up a pew qualifies them to be a Christian but when they go home “they live like the devil.”  Remember, even the devil shows up at church!!  He can also quote the gospel such as when Jesus was being tempted by the devil when Jesus had been fasting in the desert.

In many instances, there appears to be little difference between some Christians and other people in the world.  The temptations of the world are sought out more than the fruits of the Spirit.  They seem more influenced by what the world is saying than what God is saying in His Word.  They may have faith but have not made Jesus Lord over their lives.

Who is the true Christian, the Biblical Christian so to speak?  He or she is a person who has surrendered their life to Christ.  They are obedient to the Word of God.  They stand up to the world and are not afraid to speak out against laws or ideas that are not Biblically based.  They are not afraid to speak truth in love.  They do not fear back lash and give in to popular beliefs for fear that they will lose their job or that others will ridicule them.  There have been brave people who have stood such as the baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple because he did not want to be forced to do something that his faith did not support.  

We live in a world that is rapidly losing its way.  Universities and colleges and even high schools are rewriting history.  If they can rewrite history, then the Bible becomes a myth and ancient history in which people can ignore it or redefine it with their own agenda and dogma.

Don’t get sucked in to the world.  Jesus talked a lot about being in the world but not being of the world.  Jesus came down from heaven to show us how to be.  We need to be who He made us to be.  We are not robots being programed by the world but we are sons and daughters of the most High King of the Universe.  We need to act as such.  We have authority over the evil one.  Jesus came so we could take back our authority that was stolen from us at the Garden.  We have authority in and through Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Live the Word.  Be the Word to others.  Stand and don’t become a cultural Christian.  Just remember that people are being martyred every day because they will not renounce their faith and some of us are afraid to speak out for the Kingdom.  Let us look, act, and speak like Jesus and we will truly be able to stand against those that would have us cave in to their agenda and beliefs.

For those of you who would like to give your life to Jesus or those of you who want to rekindle your commitment to the Lord, say this prayer out loud with me:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for sending your Son, Jesus to die on the Cross for my sins

Forgive me for my sins.

Wash them away with the Blood of Jesus

Jesus, take over my life. 

I give it to you

Reign in my heart and my soul

Change me and make me whole

I ask all of these things in Jesus Name

Amen