It's been interesting to keep reading Romans 12 every day in addition to my normal Bible reading. Especially when the repetitiveness starts to show you things in both Romans 12 and in the places in the Old and New Testaments that you hadn't seen before or now highlight things you hadn't noticed.
Take morality. Morality in our day is not taken very seriously. In decades past it sort of used to be. Go back a hundred years and it certainly was more valuable than now.
Morality today isn't seen with the seriousness that the Bible says ought to be there concerning it.
Idolatry isn't seen today as being something of great concern to many yet if we really understand the Scriptures the way that we say we believe them then yes Idolatry is as real today as it was 2,000 years ago as it was 6,000 years ago.
Just as the Scriptures say that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, so is the Word of God. We are both taught and unfortunately accept what people tell us growing up rather than standing on the Word of God concerning morality, idolatry and all the other sins the Bible describes.
Being wishy-washy is actually a problem as far as the Bible says concerning it. The Bible says that a person's yes should be yes and their no should be a no. Anything else is not of God.
We go into each day...do we do it in our own strength and wisdom or are we calling on God first before getting going in it?
Do we interpret life in our own wisdom or to we see what God is telling us about it?
Scripture says that in everything by prayer and supplication to make our requests known to God. Would not that mean both the things that we think are of God and the things that don't appear to be, when the wording says everything?
Do you think about the impact of what your idleness does to your faith?
Do you think about where your morality is coming from? Is it rooted firmly in God's Word?
How do you spend your time, energy and money? If those could be quantified in a spreadsheet what would it reveal about you?
As I write these things it's just as much me looking in the mirror as it is me writing for you to consider about yourselves.
Is your life about just being busy doing things or are you doing worthwhile things for God’s Kingdom? Are things such as sports and entertainment more important to you than your walk with or your knowledge of God? A good test of that is to consider how well you know each. If you can easily quote statistics or considerable amounts of information on those things yet cannot say the same about your Bible or your relationship with Jesus....well then you just answered the question about your priorities and maybe about your morality. Your priorities easily affect your morality in that your passions become misplaced. Your zeal is misplaced. Your enthusiasm is misplaced. Easily your time and money get misplaced.
This isn't about bashing sports or entertainment...those are just the biggest things in today's world. The most visible people in social media are in those 2 categories.
Your life might not be that complicated but the question remains as to what are you doing with your faith? My desire for over 20 years has been to be involved with the body of Christ the way I had been before moving to Columbus or even more involved than that. My first priority after getting settled in here is to establish being involved with the body of Christ here.
It's been so long that I am seeking help in making sure that I am doing what it is that God wants me to be doing for Him. My interpretation of a few of the parables of Jesus concerning what I have been entrusted with by Him through the Spirit is to be found using what I have been given.
To be found in Christ Jesus doing what He has in mind for me to be doing will certainly impact my views on morality and other Godly things. Not at all that those works save me in any way, Jesus saved me completely when I came to Christ for salvation. The works that I am to be doing should be those things that are important to God before those things that are important to me.
In these times in which we live...the Bible is very clear. We indeed have wars and rumors of wars.
We certainly have earthquakes and famines in various places.
We certainly have people who are lovers of themselves. Who have a form of godliness but deny its power. We certainly have everything written in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 NASB "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."
We certainly have fathers against sons daughters against mothers. Families torn apart.
We have all of this and yet we as Christians aren't focusing all the more on both our walk with Jesus and promoting that in others. We see moral decline and aren't pointing people to the solution because we aren't living it out ourselves. We reflect the Levite and Pharisee rather than the Good Samaritan. Go and be warm and filled rather than ask how can I help you?
I have lived for 21 years in circumstances where a great many people claiming to be Christians looked down on me with disdain and criticism for daring to attempt to live out bearing one another’s burdens as the Bible says to do. I literally was branded as being trouble.
Look in the mirror, are YOU doing what you want in life or are you putting what God wants first?
These days it seems that the Spirit keeps putting a mirror in front of me to run into.
He wants me to be thinking about my why's of what I am doing.
I am honestly glad to be in turmoil about my activities in regards to my faith.
I really should be bothered if the things of God aren't important to me.
I really should be concerned if my life shows conformity to the world rather than a transformed life in Christ.
If you aren't as concerned then...maybe you should be.
If your thoughts on morality are like the world rather than like what God has established in the Bible then maybe that explains the world today.
You have to give an account of your life before Christ Jesus some day as do I.
What will it show? What excuses will you and I try to give for how we lived?
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