I can’t help but wonder what we as Christians do, say or think that is particularly indicative of our specific culture or upbringing that is influencing us. What things from our culture are influencing us that are un-Christian? What things might influence us that contradict our faith? What things could we be learning from Christians from other time periods or other countries and therefore from other cultures?
We’ve got tons of Christian websites, Christian music, Christian movies, Christian political groups–in effect we’ve created an alternative to just about everything the secular world offers and slapped a Christian-approved stamp on it.
We all know that God has a plan for our lives. I think often we’re afraid that plan will be boring or that His plan will lead us somewhere we don’t want to go. I think we often hope that God will bless our plans. That He will simply let us drive and just come along for the ride. But what if living like that wasn’t God’s plan for us? I think the concept of God’s will for our lives has left Christians divided and confused.
But make no mistake, when I talk about faith, I mean how you live your life–the whole thing–however you live it. We all have faith. The question more often than not is what are you putting that faith in? You trust your doctor. You trust your bank. You trust that chair you’re sitting in. You trust yourself. You trust that you won’t forget that password. You trust your parents. You trust that the chef of the dinner you’re eating won’t spit in your food. We all are living by faith in what we don’t know, can’t see and don’t even consciously think about.
He watches their face as they hear about who Jesus is and what He has done for them. Then just like on Christmas morning and you realize just all the nifty things your gift can actually do–God waits to see the smile on that person’s face when they realize their sins can be forgiven through Jesus. You know, the Bible is chalked full of stories about people who heard about God’s gift to them for the first time.
That doesn’t sound safe. That doesn’t sound like Abraham was in his comfort zone. That doesn’t sound like Abraham was trusting in himself and leaning on his own understanding. Further, when God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son–the one thing that was his dream and his great love and joy Abraham was willing to do this demonstrating that he loved God more than anything or anyone else (see Luke 14:26). Would you be willing to follow God to a foreign land or be willing to give up as a sacrifice to God the one thing/person you loved the most?
Think about the phrases we use. “Ask Jesus into your heart” “Become born again.” “Trust Jesus with your soul.” “Just believe.” These things become “Christianise” to the world. Here’s the thing. There’s not a specific terminology. There’s not a special wording you need when you pray. There’s no secret or magic based on what you say when you pray or exact wording to use when you ask for grace. God is more interested with what is in your heart then how many “hail Mary”s you can say and He cares more about what you do than whether or not you can recite the Lord’s Prayer.
Why did I leave Facebook open on my computer? Then, slowly at first but quickly I realized why in a age by-gone we used to disconnect with people. The grim reality strikes that you cannot possibly keep up with hundreds of people even if you wanted to. It is not humanly possible to be close friends with so many people. Who has time for that anyways?
So many Christians in our day and age wonder what God’s will is for their lives. When we read Jeremiah 29:11, we wonder what plans God has for our lives. Sadly, we’ve somehow been lead to believe that we must grope about in the darkness for this secret plan God must be hiding from us, since we don’t know what it is. The first problem with this subconscious view on our lives is that if God had a specific plan for us, why would He hide it from us? If He truly loves us, which I do believe—would He hide His plan for our good from us, if we needed to know it to somehow follow it??
To me, the “PLAN” was falling apart, this was not how it was supposed to go. But let’s remember, that God’s definition of “good” isn’t always our definition of “good”. See when I think of “good” I think “happy”, “comfortable”, “cool”, “not-stressful”. But see often God’s good plan for my life is for the good of my character, and He knows that my character won’t get stretched and I that I won’t grow if I’m always “comfortable” and never “stressed”. “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21)