Unambiguous
It is time for the Church of Jesus Christ to stand up and say some things boldly and clearly, without being ambiguous about it. Some things are easy to see. There is only one True and Living God. Salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone and that salvation is not found in any other religion or religious leader.
One area where we (the Church at large) fails miserably is in calling sin what it really is ... sin! The Bible says "Woe unto them who evil good and good evil." It also says that "friendship with the world is enmity against God." God called us (Christians) out of the world to be a holy people. We are to be a people who are set apart to Him. It is more than calling ourselves "saved" and "saints" or even "disciples." We are bought and paid for with the precious blood of Jesus. Now he owns us. He calls us "brothers" and "sisters" and members of God's own household. We are to be holy as He is holy.
But we have forgotten that, by and large. Therefore, large amounts of worldliness and sin have infiltrated the Church. Consider this ... some studies have shown that incidents of child abuse, divorce, spousal abuse, pornography, gambling, lying, stealing and so on ... exist at the same levels as they exist in the lost world around us. In short, we have become, in many ways, just like the world. And the worse part is that many Christians don't know that what they are doing is wrong.
Why? Because we have come to a time when we (the royal "we") do not want to be offensive. So, we changed our terms. We make things sound better than they really are. In this, we sin greatly.
It is time we stood up and called sin sin. It is time we started calling the Church to truth and holiness. It is time we restored accountability among our leadership. And we need to quit finding reasons to explain away the clear passages of the Bible that deal with sin and start believing it as it is written. We need clear voices who are not afraid to thunder out "Thus saith the Lord..."
We are set apart for God, for holiness. Our lives are supposed to be living testimonies to the truth of the existence of God and to the truth of the life changing gospel. People are supposed to be able to look at us and see the truth of the things we proclaim. For that to happen, we need to have some clear talking among the saints of God. Until we can learn to say what we mean, we will not be able to truly mean what we say. It bears thinking about.
It is time for the Church of Jesus Christ to stand up and say some things boldly and clearly, without being ambiguous about it. Some things are easy to see. There is only one True and Living God. Salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone and that salvation is not found in any other religion or religious leader.
One area where we (the Church at large) fails miserably is in calling sin what it really is ... sin! The Bible says "Woe unto them who evil good and good evil." It also says that "friendship with the world is enmity against God." God called us (Christians) out of the world to be a holy people. We are to be a people who are set apart to Him. It is more than calling ourselves "saved" and "saints" or even "disciples." We are bought and paid for with the precious blood of Jesus. Now he owns us. He calls us "brothers" and "sisters" and members of God's own household. We are to be holy as He is holy.
But we have forgotten that, by and large. Therefore, large amounts of worldliness and sin have infiltrated the Church. Consider this ... some studies have shown that incidents of child abuse, divorce, spousal abuse, pornography, gambling, lying, stealing and so on ... exist at the same levels as they exist in the lost world around us. In short, we have become, in many ways, just like the world. And the worse part is that many Christians don't know that what they are doing is wrong.
Why? Because we have come to a time when we (the royal "we") do not want to be offensive. So, we changed our terms. We make things sound better than they really are. In this, we sin greatly.
It is time we stood up and called sin sin. It is time we started calling the Church to truth and holiness. It is time we restored accountability among our leadership. And we need to quit finding reasons to explain away the clear passages of the Bible that deal with sin and start believing it as it is written. We need clear voices who are not afraid to thunder out "Thus saith the Lord..."
We are set apart for God, for holiness. Our lives are supposed to be living testimonies to the truth of the existence of God and to the truth of the life changing gospel. People are supposed to be able to look at us and see the truth of the things we proclaim. For that to happen, we need to have some clear talking among the saints of God. Until we can learn to say what we mean, we will not be able to truly mean what we say. It bears thinking about.
posted by John | Saturday, December 02, 2006
1 Comments:
Sin is a plague, yea, the greatest and most infectious plague in the world; and yet, ah! how few are there that tremble at it, that keep at a distance from it!
—Thomas Brooks
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