People have a right to do what they want.
You are incomplete unless you have a successful career.
Christianity should be kept out of schools and government.
A woman's right to choose should be protected.
People should have the right to marry whoever they want even if they are the same gender.
I just told a little white lie. It doesn't hurt anyone.
I should live with my boyfriend before we get married to make sure he is the right person for me.
It's my body. If I want to drink, smoke or do drugs, it's nobody's business.
What is true for you, may not be true for me.
How many of these things do we hear on a daily basis? How many of these thing do we hear professing Christians say?
In order to live by God's standards, which are clearly laid out in the Bible, we must know what those standards are. The Bible is full of absolute truths.
3 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
13 "You shall not murder. 14 "You shall not commit adultery. 15 "You shall not steal. 16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
Ex 20:3-17 (NIV)
The majority of the statements above are in direct conflict with one of these ten commandments. And these are just the beginning of God's directions for how to live our lives.
When we are not in the Word of God frequently, if we do not know what it says, then we are in real danger of thinking and living like the rest of the world. We are not to conform to the world's standards but raise ourself above it to live according to God's plan for us.
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness
Eph 4:17-24 (NIV)
We are clearly to act differently than the rest of the world. If non-believers see no difference in us, then we have no witness.
1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1 John 3:1 (NIV)
We are children of God. What a beautiful statement. Isn't it time we began thinking like it?
In His Service,
Angela
1 comment:
I agree that Christians need to act differently than the world.
Too many in the world think that each person has the right to define right and wrong for themselves, but the Bible teaches that God defines right and wrong. Christians need to make the Bible their guide to their decisions, not their opinions, traditions, or the teachings of men.
Ministers can sometimes help people find answers in the Bible, but the authority of the ministry should never become a substitute for the authority of the Bible.
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