As I turn on the news and go through my social media outlets, I am confronted with a blaring and disheartening observation: The world has seemingly turned its back on anything associated with religion (with a particular interest to anything that resembles Christianity). But as sad is this scenario may be this is not what I consider disheartening.
When I see the response of “Christians” to the dilemma at hand, I am blown away by their adamant stance against leftist political leaders; the right to their expression of beliefs; the act of abortion; gay marriage (gay anything); health care; their vocal accusations of religious intolerance , the teachings of evolution in schools, and so on. All of these things come across loud and clear from the lips of Christians. But you know what I am not hearing from these same mouths? The Gospel.
There is one thing and one thing only that Christians should be so adamant about, and that is the Gospel. God’s glorious work (so glorious) of humbling Himself to die on a cross, to pay for the sins of many in order to make salvation possible. This is not being preached, illustrated, or spread. All I hear from religious people are cantankerous ramblings of the ills of society. Of course there is always the exception to the apparent norm (and for these I am grateful).
But let’s reason for a moment. In the scriptures, we don’t see these zealous accusations from our Lord and savior, nor do we see them from his apostles. Rather, we see a furious zeal for the spreading of the Gospel; the Kingdom of God and the Good news of a risen savior. In fact, when the issue of “righteousness” or adherence to the law was brought up against the gentiles, Paul pointed them to freedom in Christ rather than a flurry of “don’t do this and don’t do that”(pretty much the whole book of 1 Corinthians). So the argument that I keep hearing is “so are you saying that Christians can sin and live a godless life and is still ok?”. Those who possess the Holy Spirit will know the foolishness of this argument, for those who have the Holy Spirit are compelled towards righteousness. This is a Law, there is no mistake in this. If you claim to be a Christian, filled with the Spirit and have no desire towards righteousness; sorry to break to you but you don’t have the Holy Spirit (i.e. you’re not a Christian).
Sadly, it is this same truth that “Christians” miss. God did not send us out into the world to convict it of sin. HE does that. He sent us out into the world to show them where and who to turn to WHEN they are convicted. He sent us to tell them about Him.
Do they sin? Absolutely, but what do you expect? Would you expect an elephant to climb a tree? Or a snake to fly across the skies? Sinners act according to their nature, you can’t expect anything else. Moreover, the battle for righteousness or conviction is not waged by us, is waged by God. It is Him who begins the work of conviction. As a youth pastor friend of mine once said, “If someone can convince your mind of something, someone else can convince your mind of something else”. Meaning, we are not the ones who should be doing the convincing here. But if the spirit has truly taken a hold of you, there is no need for “convincing”, the spirit will guide.
Do you not see this; those of you who are so loud to testify against these petty things? It’s as if you are wasting your time plucking the leaves of an invasive weed without pulling it from the roots in hopes that this weed dies. How foolish! You must extract the weed from its roots in order for it to die and not spread.
The root issue in our world is the rejection of Christ. That’s it. It’s not gay marriage, it’s not Obama (I see what some of you say about him in your posts…but that’s a different blog), it’s not our health care, its’ not abortion, it’s not any of the above! It’s Jesus. Plain and simple.
Stop rolling around in the quagmire of futileness and pick up the banner of love. Let people be drawn to the beauty of Christ and not to the reasoning (or lack of) of vain and unnecessary arguments. Does not Christ say, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me”? Let’s start lifting HIM up, not ourselves, for scripture says “Knowledge puffeth up” but God, “resists the proud” and “Gives grace to the humble”.
Pick up the mantle of love. Pick up the mantle of Christ. Let’s lift his banner and see what HE does!
Amen?
Juan Castillo
Tales from a Nut Shell cracked open 