I Would Die For You

It is well established that the Old Testament is a shadow of God’s great promise and plan for mankind and that he had promised came into fulfilment in the New Testament. However the Old Testament is not redundant with regard to how we are to live our lives. Just because the new covenant has come which is better with regard to the promises and the fulfilment of those promises, it doesn’t mean we still can’t glean something from it. The Apostle Paul tells us that ALL Scripture is inspired by God for correction, instruction, reproof. There for the Old Testament definitely still has a lot of lessons for us with regards to the life we live in Christ.

In the book of Genesis we see the first marriage between Adam and Eve. The relationship is great and going on well until we see the Devil through the serpent enter the picture. He beguiles her, playing on her desire to be more than she is, to be like God. She doesn’t realise that she is already like God. In the end, she takes the fruit God had commanded them not to eat. Not only does she eat it, she gives it to her husband as well. When God calls Adam and ask him what happened, Adam lays the blame for the whole fiasco on Eve, even though he also eat the fruit in spite of the fact that God gave the commandment to him. As a result of their disobedience, God curses them and ejects them from the Garden of Eden. However, he makes a promise to them that Christ would come to save them from the effects of their sin.

Several prophets like Isaiah prophesied about the coming of the Messiah, the one who would save his people from their sin. When Jesus finally came, he said that he had come to take away the sins of the world. He came not to impute people sins on them but that as long as they believed on him and in him, he would not only save them from the effects of their sin but from sin itself. In the end, he hung on a cross to fulfil the word earlier spoken that cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. He took your sins and my sins on the cross and subsumed and erased them in himself. He did condemn anyone who came to him but he accepted all men as they are as long as they would allow him to make them.

Myles Munroe says that if you want to know how a thing is supposed to work, then you need to read the manual from the manufacturer. In the life of Christ we find a great pointer with regards to marriage. There are several new-fangled ideas about marriage. I must confess that I am amused by those who think that new ideas about ancient customs are the best. To best understand marriage we need to look at the relationship Christ has with the Church. We understand that marriage is a mystery and is similar to the relationship Christ has with us, his body. The first thing we see is that unlike Adam who blamed his wife for his failings and therefore died alongside her, Christ does not impute our sins on us and took them upon himself and died for the Church. He took our punishment, our pain, our exclusion and separation from God on himself and made everything right between us and God. Unlike Adam who did not seek the mercy of God but rather decided to take the path of blaming, Jesus took upon himself the role of mediator between God and men thereby bringing peace between both.

There are so many things we can learn from the life of Christ and the relationship between him and the Church as it pertains to marriage. Like Christ, a husband should “die” for his wife; protect her, as much as lies within his power keep her from hurt, pain and shame. He should not only be a mediator between her and God but also between her and men in that he has a role to play when she falls out with friends or others. Like Christ expects and believes the best about us, knowing that we can be more than we presently are, so the husband should be. Equality in marriage is all about being your own person and standing alone. If equality is what a wife seeks then she shouldn’t be surprised when as the first sign of trouble, the man takes off and leaves her to fend all by herself. You can’t be equal and expect help or support when trouble comes.

The Apostle Paul said men were to love their wives while wives were to respect their husbands. It wasn’t that he didn’t want wives to love their husbands or husbands to respect their wives but he understood that respect is what a man needs most while love is what a woman wants the most.  This is seen in our relationship with Christ. He showed his love by dying for us while we show our respect by first acknowledging him as Lord. When we model our marriages on the relationship Jesus has with his Church, we will have storms and trials but I believe we will come through them.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

All Of Us Are The Church

The Apostle Paul was quite different from the other Apostles. Unlike the others who had lived with Jesus and had developed a personal relationship with him based on proximity, Paul’s relationship with Jesus was based solely on revelation. Paul’s initial zeal in persecuting the early Christians was turned around and used in serving God. God saw his heart and turned him around because God saw his heart and understood that he did all he initially did out of a zeal for and a desire to please God. Unlike most of the Pharisees in Jesus days who loved themselves and wanted honour from men, Paul loved God. Therefore when God turned him around, he committed to Paul the deep revelations about the nature and structure of the Church and sent him as an Apostle to the Gentiles (that’s you and I).

Paul wrote most of the books of the New Testament. It was Paul that gave the analogy that the Church was like a body where everyone has something to contribute to the development of the Church. He therefore admonished that we should not think that one part of the body was more important than the other or that one part of the body was not needed. Unfortunately we have come to believe in the Church that the pastor is the most important person in the church because he feeds us with the word. I understand that the pastor is the person with the vision and the leader but I do believe that without people to help him achieve his vision, he would be a very frustrated person indeed. No matter how anointed a pastor is, he needs a choir leader and members, ushers, people to serve in the children’s ministry, even people to park cars and people to sit on the pews and listen to his message. In essence, we are all important in the Church of Christ. However, a note of warning. While we are all important, it is not about having a sense of pride in the fact. It’s about doing all that we are called to do with a sense of humility and thanking God for the privilege to serve. Someone recently said that even though God loves us, his investment in us is not solely because of that love. His investment in us is because of the purpose he seeks to achieve from our lives. What we are created for. If we fail to fulfil our purpose, God will find a replacement. Upon his triumphant entry into Jerusalem when the Pharisees were complaining about the people praising him, Jesus told them that if the people failed to praise God would cause the stones to praise.

When I go through a blog, I marvel at the number of people who criticise the Church. They have no church in which they are planted and all they can talk about is how no Church is good enough for their perfect natures. There is always a problem with somebody or everybody else. Either the pastor is wrong or the ushers are rude or the worship is not good enough. They criticise and complain and move from place to place, not setting down roots anywhere because there is just no church that can meet their high standards. Once in a while some go to a church so that it can’t be said they’ve forsaken the gathering of believers. They add nothing to the Church because they feel they’re not getting anything.  

I have come to understand that as long as men live, there will be problems with institutions. The high rate of divorce doesn’t mean there is a problem with marriage. The problem is not with the institution called marriage but with the people who get into it. Good sex cannot be the basis for marriage. Marriages mostly collapse because people do not know the reason for marriage neither do they understand that marriage is about the other person, not you. As long as we live in the flesh, there will be problems in the church. What we need more of is not the spirit of criticism or self-righteousness. We need less of finger pointing. We need more of people speaking in love. We need more of people praying for their leaders and the church.  We need more people led not by the spirit of their own self-importance but by the Holy Spirit who is always ready to help us. We need more of people practising biblical Christianity and not thinking it’s just an opinion we can ignore. We need more people with patience who led by the Holy Spirit are ready to change the things that are wrong.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal. 

The Myth of Equality

The California legislature is at it again. In the name of equality and a fairer society (as they see it) the law makers just passed Bill AB 1266 into law. One of the provisions of the law which comes into the force next year is that a student who is male but feels he is female can choose to use whichever bathroom he (or she wants). That means a guy who has not even had a sex change to into whatever he feels he should be, can waltz into any bathroom he feels like, male today; female tomorrow. He doesn't have to choose either one. On the other hand if anyone tries to stop him from entering either one, then that person will be guilty of discrimination.

The California legislature, emboldened by the Supreme Court's striking down of Proposition 8 and other laws and by a strong liberal lobby have passed this absurd law with a view to creating a picture of 'equality' not realising that equality is a myth and a myth not worth chasing after. When you chase after equality all you end up with is absurdity. Instead of chasing after the myth of equality, what we should be seeking after is fairness. There is a difference between equality and fairness and I'll write about that some other day. However what we have now is the tyranny of the minority over the majority.

People may think that I'm a pessimistic or an alarmist but I don't think so. I just believe that I see things. I honestly believe that the Bible is the Word of God and is the final authority on our lives here on earth. When we fail to adhere to God's Word and we feel something that God says doesn't matter, we will begin to see things we never believed were possible. I believe that when a country establishes as law something that is contrary to God's law, it won't come alone. The spirit of the age is equality and reasonableness. Slowly and silently, the spirit of the age will come slowly with the 'cousins' of that thing that is against the Word. Like I said yesterday, things will get worse. Sometime ago, I heard a lawyer in the United Kingdom asked that the age of consent be lowered to 13. If that doesn't sound like paedophilia, I don't know what is. We need to pray like we have never prayed before. But I believe that just like the Church came together with other people to get Proposition 8 passed, we need to partner with other like minded people to get the law changed.

We Are Not At War (Are We?)

There were two quite interesting posts on Michael Hyatt’s blog on Tuesday this week. For those who don’t know Michael Hyatt, he was the former CEO of Thomas Nelson publishers and he is the current chairman. The first was a link to a post by someone called Anne Marie Miller. Her post (http://www.annemariemiller.com/2013/08/19/three-things-you-dont-know-about-your-children-and-sex/). She is a children’s counsellor and she was basically talking about the threat Google posed to children. According to her, children were searching for answers to questions they couldn’t ask their parents on the search engine. Not only were they finding unwholesome answers, they were getting pictures as well. Also, children were getting involved in unspeakable acts at a much younger age and there was a need for parents to be closer to their children and develop a rapport with them so that the children would trust them enough to ask them questions they needed answers to.

His other post, Whatever Happened To Modesty (http://michaelhyatt.com/whatever-happened-to-modesty.html) reflected on the attire worn by the artistes at the MTV Awards and some of the comments made. Personally, I think modesty is dead in America and that it has become a dirty word. Unfortunately, I think that has also become the case in the Church. What struck me was how there were people on the comments page who defended people’s rights to wear whatever they wanted. I have no problem with that argument as long as they aren’t Christians. However, there were those who saw the argument about modesty as an attempt by men to control women in the Church. Those are the ones I have a problem with. According to Rebecca Maynard, one of the people I disagree with, the “legalism” of modesty was designed by men to control women. This was allegedly done so as stop men from falling.

I find it hard to understand why men are accused of misogyny or the oppression or suppression of women whenever they comment on female issues. I also fail to understand why it is that women, even Christian women, seem to retreat behind the wall of women liberation and give the impression that we are at war. Even in the Church. You’ll have to forgive me but I believe the Bible is the final authority on our lives as Christians and not the United States Constitution. Not the laws of the United States. I might have said it before but I do believe that most of the laws of the United States are against God’s laws. We have sadly taken the view that human concepts like equality are better than what God says. We believe democracy is better than theocracy. The Bible says women should dress modestly. It also says that a woman should cover her nakedness. I don’t think that’s misogynist. Unless of God and the Apostles are now misogynist. Don’t get me wrong, I believe modesty applies to both men and women. I have never understood why a man should walk about in his vest instead of a shirt. They say the law is an ass. When we take the concept of equality too far, we discountenance the differences between us all in the name of sameness. Whether we like it or not, we are anatomically different. Which is why I think the present rage of women bathing topless in public because “men can do it” is a step too far. Unless of course we take the view that anything the law says is right.

I honestly believe that God’s laws are better than man’s law. At times, we have made the mistake and error of presenting God as a God of do’s and don’ts who is trying to spoil our fun. Nothing could be further from the truth. When God asks us to do or not to do anything, it’s for our benefit. Besides, I really do not see how being naked in public glorifies the God we say we serve. How do we think God is represented to people when we can’t keep our clothes on? The Bible says in the book of Peter that a woman should be known more for her character than the type of clothes she wears. I would add that a woman should be known more for her character than her lack of clothes.     

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers (bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx). He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND,  (www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ) 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ or the Gospel of The Kingdom?

The other day I was reading Exodus Chapter 20 and I was going through the twelve commandments and something occurred to me. It struck me that each law was not so much in respect of the whole nation but in respect of each individual in the nation. Going through the verses in the chapter, it occurred to me that the “Thou” that began each verse at the beginning of each commandment was in really in respect of the whole nation but in respect of each person reading or hearing the words. God gave Moses the law in the Old Testament but he promised in the book of Jeremiah that the days would come when the laws would no longer be written on tablets of stone but on the tablets of our hearts. He also promised that God would give us hearts of flesh instead of hearts of stone.

That was Jesus agenda when he came. Jesus did not come to give us a religion but he came to offer each and every one of us a personal relationship with God. Jesus spoke out against religion. According to him, people set up religion to stop people from getting to know God and they didn’t get to know God themselves. However when Jesus talked about that new personal relationship with God, nowhere in the Scriptures did he refer to the new relationship as the “Gospel of Salvation”, “Gospel of Jesus Christ” or Christianity. When Peter or Paul referred to the new relationship, they also never referred to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They all talked about the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven which as Christ had taught was in our hearts.

We seem to have a fixation with getting people saved and getting them to on the road to Heaven. But Paul taught that as a result of us getting saved, our spirits are seated with Christ in heavenly places. If God wanted all just be in Heaven, then he would have translated all of us like Enoch. The fact is that as Christ said, we are in this world but not of this world. The question then is, if we are not of this world, then of which world are we? We are definitely not of Heaven because only spirits live in Heaven. The fact is that we are citizens of the place which Jesus talked about which starts in our hearts the moment we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a geographical place so to speak like Heaven or Earth but a place in our hearts where God dwells. We carry God in our hearts from the moment we were born of the spirit. While the liberals in America argue for the separation of Church and State, God doesn’t want us to do so. Peter says we are a royal priesthood. God wants us to carry the Kingdom of Heaven wherever we go and to establish outposts of Heaven as ambassadors.

While Jesus came to bring us the message of the Kingdom of Heaven, he himself said he wasn’t the be all and end all of the message. Jesus described himself as the door, the way into the Kingdom. We need to press past the “Gospel of Jesus” and walk into the kingdom. Jesus is our perfect example. He reached out to the all those who needed him and brought the kingdom to them in the form of healing, joy, peace, salvation, food. He exerted the power of Heaven on the Earth and created heaven on earth. He brought about the Kingdom of Heaven. He fed thousands, calmed the seas, walked on water, raised the dead. He was able to that because he had a deep and personal relationship with the Father. That’s what we have been called to do. To have a deep and personal relationship with the Father and by that relationship cause Heaven to exert on Earth and to bring others into the Kingdom. That is our mission. Not to have religion.       


JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a thriller about persecution of Christians. DECEPTIO is published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. The book is available here
http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-194087/Deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND available here http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ      

Entering The Kingdom of Heaven

The view from a hill

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” – John 3:3

“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” – John 3:5, 6

Most of the times when Christians talk about the gospel – the good news – what they are talking about is the gospel of Jesus Christ and they stop there. By that I mean they talk about the gospel of salvation as if that is the only the good news is all about. There are those who go a step further and preach heresy by saying that once you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Saviour, all your troubles would end. Nothing could be further from the truth. To quote a tweet from Pastor Rick Warren, “Not everything on earth has a happy ending. But we need to remember that this is not the end.” I believe that there is a problem with Christianity in that we are producing an assembly line of Christians (because the Bible says there are rewards for soul winning) but we are not doing enough to let people understand how to live the life or what to expect. A lot of Christians therefore go through life not understanding what they’ve signed up for.

In verse 3 of the third chapter of John, Jesus says we need to be born again for us to see the kingdom of God. In the Bible, Jesus described himself at various times either as the Way or the door. Therefore I believe Christ is the doorway into Christianity. A lot of people go to church never having accepted Christ and think they’re Christians. They’ve filled forms where when asked for their religion they filled Christianity. They think because their parents were “Christian”, they’re Christian too. Then one day they wake up and talk about how they’ve “rejected” Christianity never knowing they were never Christians. But no one goes to a house to visit and stays in the doorway. You have to enter the house. Jesus gives the formula for entering the house. The water and the Spirit. In the Bible, the water is synonymous with the Word of God. Therefore to enter the kingdom, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit must be your constant companies.

Sadly nowadays, a lot of people say they’re Christian but want to have nothing to do with either the Word or the Spirit. They would rather be led by their humanist thinking, which of course is their flesh. There are those who in this age of political correctness have rejected the Word. They say the Bible is too violent. To others, the Bible is old fashioned and out-dated. So they’ve replaced it with their own rules that they’ve formulated from their minds which have not been renewed. They believe Christianity should be a democracy or an equal rights movement. They lobby, scheme and blackmail to get their way and feel victorious when they achieve their aims. They are more concerned with the things the world is concerned about than they are concerned with the things God is concerned about. The Bible says that as many as led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. They are more concerned about culture and their place in history than they are with God’s purpose for man. That all should be saved and come to the knowledge of God.

It’s therefore evident that accepting Jesus is not enough. It’s not enough to stay at the door when the father is beckoning for you to come in. Sadly, a lot of people don’t want to come in to see or know the father. The Bible says that Jesus is our example. Jesus knew the Father intimately and knew the father’s will. This is because he spoke with him regularly. But we distance ourselves from him and then presume to speak for him. The Word and the Spirit are longing for us to know them and through them get to know the Father. Will we oblige them?

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a thriller published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers available here http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND, a story of love rejection and redemption http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ. 

Love Christ, Not the World

“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” – G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, 1925

“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.” – G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 4/19/30

“There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions.” - G. K. Chesterton,

As man deems to progress, cultures change. And as cultures change, men ditch moral values even as they make up new ones as they go along. A few centuries ago, it was frowned upon to break another person’s home and steal their wife or husband. However as society “progresses”, it has become quite acceptable especially in America to set your sights on another person’s wife or husband and break the home up. It doesn't even matter if there are children involved. After all, if you break the home up, the children are going to have a new mother or father in the person who contributed to the break up. I say contribute because I understand that it takes two people to engage in adultery. However it would help if the person who isn't a part of the couple had more discipline. But the current refrain is “We couldn't help ourselves, we were in love” and people are told not “to judge”. The person who was part of the initial couple also claimed to love their wife or husband. I was watching a programme on television the other day where a well known singer who contributed to the breakup of her present husband’s first marriage was being interviewed. She and the former wife have been engaged in an acrimonious battle on both social and publicity media. According to the singer, she found it amusing to be called a “home wrecker”. She seemed to take the whole thing with levity and seemed to find the fact that she contributed to the breakup of a home. All I have to say is there’s a saying that says: “The mistress who ends up marrying her married lover should recognise that the post of mistress has just become available.”

There are those who think Christianity is old fashioned and should be dragged, kicking and screaming into the 21^st century. Therefore, according to them Christianity should be more tolerant of new social developments, even if they are against the teachings of Christ and the Apostles as revealed to us in the Bible by the Holy Spirit and especially against the natural order of things. When Christians talk about how things should be, these people scoff and mock and talk about how we want everybody to be the same and it’s not possible. However they get angry and resort to name calling when we refuse to agree with them on other issues. They have found willing allies in governments and politicians who want votes. I am not so much concerned about the politicians as I am about the people who claim to be Christians but would rather support those who are against Christianity than Christ. They believe that Christ’s teachings should be subjected to culture and the feelings of our flesh. They talk about how Christ loved everybody. They fail to realise that Christ’s definition of love is different from that the world has put on it. Christ loved everyone yet never condoned what they did wrong. Love is a decision which is shown through acts of selflessness. Love is not sex. Cultures might change but truth will always remain the same. Cultures change everyday like quicksand but Christ is the only thing that will remain the same. He will never change. The saying goes, “Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are”. Especially when those friends hate Christ. The Apostle Paul talked about how all sins are either those of the "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes or the pride of life." That is still true today.

The tide is turning and a time is coming where in the name of reasonableness and equality, laws are going to be passed by governments in the West that would make even China, Cuba and North Korea seem tame. However, those laws are going to make those who say they are Christians decide on whose side they are going to be, Christ (the Truth) or the world. Which side are you going to choose?

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers available here http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/ a story of love and redemption.

The Myth of Equality (And The Tyranny of Progress)

The mantra on everyone's lips nowadays is that of equality. In everything there must be equality. Even where it is clear that equality has nothing to do with it, equality is used as a yardstick. The crazy notion of equality has also crept into the church. Last year, the Anglican Church in England held it's General Synod and voted against the ordination of women bishops. Comments that I read before and after the vote baffled me. In the end I had to come to the conclusion that the Anglican Church is seen as something of a club both by the media and even its members. I asked myself, whatever happened to having a calling? What happened to being led by God through the Holy Spirit? I am extremely baffled by the people who think that any change in culture automatically equals to some sort of progress.

Equality is a myth and when you chase a myth you end up creating confusion. What people should be looking at is what is just and fair. However in a world where everyone has the wrong idea of what should be and equality is the new fad, trouble is inevitable. I love sport, especially tennis. Thanks to people like Serena Williams and the world media, all the major tennis organisations now give equal prize money. The myth is that the men and the women do the same work. I disagree. If I were to randomly pick a hundred men and women, and ask them which match-up they would prefer to watch, a Roger Federer/Rafael Nadal contest or a Serena Williams/Caroline Wozniacki contest, I'm sure over 90 per cent of the people would want to watch the Federer/Nadal contest. The only people who might want to watch the female match-up would be Americans because of some strange sense of patriotism. That tells me that they are not equal. Especially when the men play five sets and the women three.

If you really want to push the idea of equality, you would find out that the women would be the losers. If all the tennis grand slams deecided that the women should also play five sets, or the army decided that women had to do the same number of push ups and run the same number of miles as the men, the women would find it extremely hard to cope. We only push for "equality" when it suits us. We all heard about how Navy SEAL Team 6 found Osama Bin Laden and assassinated him. How many women were part of the team?

The world has been gripped by the equality fever but the Church must stand firm. We are followers of Christ and we must not be ashamed to admit that we play by a different set of rules. It may offend people, even some who say they are Christians, but Christians but Christianity is not about equality. I have looked through my Bible and the God I love and who loves me is not a God of equality. He is a God of justice. Justice is different from equality. Equality is about what you want. Justice is about what you deserve. And not just because of you or what you've done. God's justice is based on who he is and his love for us.

 

Same Difference

“Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from strange wives.” Ezra 10: 11

Sometime ago, I read an article by Kay Warren where she was talking about her new book, “Choose Joy”. The article was in the form of an interview and she told the interviewer how she had suffered from depression and how she was different from her husband, Rick Warren in their outlook to life. She talked about how she hoped the book would help those that suffered from depression. The article was lovely and enlightening. However what disturbed me were the people commenting. One and all, they were all complaining about “the church”. Their grouse was with how the church did not understand what it was to suffer from depression and how the church looked down on those that suffered from depression. Their complaints were enough to make anyone feel depressed since I assumed they were Christians themselves to be reading an article from a Christian magazine. I might have been wrong. One of my thoughts was that if Christians were complaining about the church so much, why then would anyone want to become a Christian? Another thought was that the people who were complaining about the church so much had forgotten that they were part of the church.

I recently read another article via a link on Michael Hyatt’s Twitter feed that got me disturbed. The link was to an article by Joel Miller (I think). Mr. Miller was flabbergasted at the comments by Christians who saw nothing wrong with the pornographic content of the book, 50 Shades of Grey because according to some of them, “they got married in the end”. There were other comments by "Christians" along the lines of how the book could help married couples with their sexual lives.

These two things got me thinking about how there seems to be no difference between those who say they believe in Christ and those who don’t believe in anything. Christians now swear and use the F word because we think it cool, drink alcohol, dress provocatively in the name of fashion and looking good, we think the Bible is a story book filled with recommendations at best and totally old fashioned. We have as much divorce and extra marital affairs in the church as out of it. In fact, there is practically no difference now between those that say believe in God and those who curse God.

I believe the problem is that instead of letting the Word shine through us, we have allowed the world into our hearts. Because we do not know what the Words says and we are not living it, we have allowed the world to tell us how to live. Instead of being like Jesus and reflecting him, we have become like the world. Because we reflect the world and are like the world, the world sees no reason to change. Like the verse of scripture above and several other verses of Scripture in the Bible, God has always called us to be separate and not to be unequally yoked. We have not done this and therefore we are not expect from the upheaval that is in the world.

Over the next few weeks and months, I hope to share the ways in which the church has refused to give the world an alternative and had refused to reflect Jesus and has become like the world around it.

In your opinion, in what ways has the church become like the world around it?     

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
― G.K. Chesterton

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a novel published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers:

http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx

He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND, a story of love and redemption:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/