Christian Living
Consider Your Ways
“Many are the words we speak, many are the songs we sing, many kinds of offerings but now to live the life”
This is a lyric out of Matt Redman’s song ‘Now to live the life’ and it is a good introduction to what I want to speak about in this article.
This article is a commentary and not Bible teaching on what is happening in the world today concerning attitudes towards the Bible. Christians need to wake up and stand up for the truth of the Bible. In other words we should either believe what the Bible says or disregard it, the middle road is not an option. There are compromises with sinful behavior where so called ‘Churches’ condone things like living together before marrying, homosexuality, uniting with other religions, abortion, evolution and the like, when the Bible expressly without mincing its words oppose it. Nevertheless some ‘Christians’ seems to think that there is no problem with the above-mentioned list.
The problem is not that people are doing these things, they have been sinning right from the beginning of the world, but if the Bible is disagreeing with these practices, why do some people calling themselves ‘Christian’ agree with them? I can understand if somebody was illiterate and only now starting to read; that they will have a problem understanding the Bible, but what is the matter with people who have doctorates and are called professors of theology, they can read with understanding, nevertheless they openly disregard what they have a good knowledge of, which is the Bible.
We as Christians must decide what stance we should take in the world today. Jesus called the Church to a specific purpose, and if we neglect that purpose what are we busy with then? Another point to raise is this; if Jesus called us into existence we should conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of His name and in accordance with His Word. However, today we are doing things against His Word, and then have the audacity to implement it in the Church as doctrine. How can we do things and condone things which the Bible prohibit and then make it okay because we as the Church wants to “move with the times and be relevant to the world” as people put it. The views of the world are irrelevant when the Bible has already spoken on a subject.
If people want to go down the gutter in the manner of speaking with their morality, why must the Church follow them? We will look like total hypocrites if somebody would read what the Bible say and look at what we do. It will be painfully obvious that we are busy with double standards if our rulebook says the one thing but we do and condone something else. Is it too hard to understand that if the rule says ‘do not’, that it means do not? If you still want to go against the rules, you are on your own. Two thousand years ago Jesus said we as the Church should be the light to the world and the salt of the earth, but today instead of showing the way to God’s high standards, we buckle under the pressure of wanting to please people and therefore they influence us instead of we influencing them.
Let me put it to you that the follower of Christ will as a matter of course offend many people because they have a higher authority than public opinion to answer to. Therefore in your own view of the Church do you think that we do and say what we ought to?
Let us get down to basics first, what is a Christian? Like I said in an article a long time ago, today almost everyone who does not belong to the Muslim, Jewish or any other of the fringe religions, consider themselves Christians. We must get this straight, nobody was ever born a Christian, it does not matter if you were christened in the Church as a baby, that does not make you a Christian nor are you born again according to the Bible’s definition. I have heard people say, ‘well I consider myself a Christian’, but what kind of statement is that? Are you or are you not?
Watch out for traditional views, it will make you relaxed in believing a lie. Not that all traditions are bad, but when it comes to Church tradition, the tradition should only be; follow the Bible. The truth of the Bible is too tough for many nowadays and you will not hear it taught with vigilance everywhere because they do not want to offend you with the standards of the Bible but what are we going to do if the Bible requires a high level of morality?
In a country normally you have a constitution, which is the highest law of the land, we as Christians also have our highest law, which is the Bible. Anything lower than that Law is not where a Christian should walk. But if we have people and I am sad to say people who ‘consider’ themselves Christians openly disregarding the truth of the Bible, saying ‘it is an outdated document written by old men’, then there is a problem with the perception the world has of the Bible. So we as Christians should consider our ways, and become a bit of an obstacle to those who conveniently disregard what we have to hold as vital for living and that is what the Bible teaches to be the truth.
Why are Christians sending around these prayers and “sweet” little so called Christian sayings via e-mail that end of like this? I quote,
“REMEMBER to make a wish before you read the poem. That's all you have to do. There is nothing attached. This is a powerful novena. Just send this to four people and let me know what happens on the fourth day. Do not break this, please. Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive. There is no cost but a lot of reward. (Did you make a wish?) If you don't make a wish, it won't come true. Last Chance to Make a Wish...”
Can you believe the nerve or is that ignorance of someone actually writing something like the above quoted nonsense? Since when do Christians wish for anything? Can you imagine Jesus saying, oh I wish in the next four days something will happen and send an e-mail along just to make sure? The people who believe in things like that should start to read the Bible for a change.
I know I sound critical, but if you think about our great commission from Jesus, where does wishing come in when Jesus actually said, “ without Me you can do nothing” that means no wishing. With Jesus all things are possible, no wishing needed here.
So what am I actually saying? Well let us start with, do we follow what the Bible says or don’t we? If we do, then our conduct must change to what the Bible says and turn away from what the world wants.
Let us take the issue of homosexuality into consideration. It is a person’s prerogative to do what they want with their lives and believe what they want because God gave us all a free will to choose our lifestyle. And if your lifestyle is not against the law of the land, I suppose people should not stick their noses in your business. Nevertheless what I cannot understand is why should homosexuals and other groupings like racists, look for validation from the Bible?
It is a known fact that in South Africa and I suppose in other parts of the world, that people went to the Bible to try and prove that their racism or apartheid were justified. Like I said people have the right to believe what they want, but why should the Bible justify your ignorant beliefs? If it is not in the Bible, it is not in the Bible, but people do not want to understand that. Now there are some homosexual ‘clergy men’ who will fight with you and say they are called to the Christian ministry, but the fact of the matter is that the Bible condemns the homosexual act in the same manner as adultery, we know that God hates sin, but these people do not seem to get the picture.
If you want to be homosexual that is your choice, and I must not ridicule or hate or treat you with disdain, in fact I must love you, but if I have to respect your beliefs in what you do why are some of you disrespecting what the Bible say and wanting to be a teacher of the very thing that condemns your behavior? I am not picking on homosexuals now but only using them as an example because it is actually a topic of discussion in the Church here in South Africa at the moment(2006). It must also be said that there are people who are not looking for validation from the Bible. My point is this, stand for your actions, be a man/women with a backbone for your decisions and stop looking for excuses for sinful behavior by trying to use the Bible to make you feel better about your lifestyle.
I heard people saying that Jesus never said anything against homosexuality, but the question is did He need to? He is called the Word of God and the Word of God already said what there is to be said on the topic. Therefore if you are a Christian with this lifestyle or any other sinful lifestyle, you should either stop and repent or go for it with all you got, but do not look for validation where there isn’t any. Consider your ways!
The question I would like to ask those who misuse the Bible in this fashion is this, why should a born again Christian continually put his/her life under a magnifying glass to continually iron out his faults by the power of the Holy Spirit and you want to continually justify your wrongs? Why should we make our bodies a living sacrifice acceptable to God and you want to gratify your bodies and still use the Bible to defend your sinful gratification? Is that not unfair? Who is doing what God wants? It is easy and I stress EASY to bash you with what the Bible say on homosexuality, adultery, racism, greed and so forth but why should I?
You can read the Bible for yourself and see what it says, all those things are abominable to God, but people refuse to believe hat. I hope you can see what I mean. I am not looking for a fight with people because of their sin, We all sin , but if I should go before God and ask for forgiveness, shouldn’t you? What did Jesus die for? It is for the reason that He knows our weaknesses, which includes homosexuality, but if we want to justify our sin by making like the Bible agrees that it is not wrong then we have a problem.
Just remember we are all going to stand before God one day and what are you going to say? You cannot justify yourself before Jesus. He is the judge of the world and He is fair and His Word is His measuring tool, but if you disregard His measuring tool, where will that put you in that day? Think about it. I am actually pleading with you at this moment. If you believe in God you have the correct belief, but that belief does not save you, what will save you is what you believe He has said. And all that He has said is in His Word, the Bible.
This is actually a warning to all who disregard the Word of God. I am not homophobic and not into Bible bashing but what you do with what the Bible teaches could be everlasting life threatening to you. The Bible is and was always the Word of God and God says what He means and means what He says. If He do not approve of something and He said it then that was exactly what He meant with no malice intended, but rather to motivate you in your personal holiness.
What would happen to this world if we all started to justify our wrong actions? You could say, but my actions do not hurt anybody and nobody knows of them. That is just the thing if you believe in God then somebody knows of them and they hurt Him who made you. What would happen if the murderer justified his actions? Or the rapist his? Will you jump on the human rights bandwagon to help them defend their lifestyles? You can say what you want and do what you want, but what happens to your viewpoints when they contradict what God says?
Do you yield or must God yield to you?
Copyright 2007 Richard D Kloosman. All rights reserved
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wow! brim stone preaching, I love it ! right to the point. I'm new to the site but I see there's a lot of fire here. keep it up and never back down.
This is an unusually long piece for me to read and I must admit I started skipping bits until things jumped out at me! Then I went back and read some I`d missed but you did make some points several times. I am so glad to be hearing these words though - we need to stand up an be counted for God now, for as you say, one day we will stand before Him and be counted WORTHY or NOT? People do not realize just how holy and precious the word of God is...even He says ..."for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name".(Ps 138 vs 2). Finally the original Authorised Version of scripture is the ONLY inspired book of God - the other`s are copies and fakes! Thank you for such hard work - I hope many will take the time to read it and take it to heart! Best wishes.
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