What happened when Jesus crossed your path? Was He disruptive to your life? Do you remember your ways of thinking being changed, transformed, renewed, altered in a way that you knew something other than yourself was working within you? (If not, you may not have encountered the love of Jesus.)
The changes are sometimes hard to allow, but we still bow to a loving king who knows what is best for those whom He created and loves.
For years I have witnessed behaviors in the church from the “leadership” to the congregants that would make one ask how much of ones culture influences how much they let God change in their beliefs. Many of the churches I have been around I would say are influenced by the American culture that believes without saying it that “I am an American, so therefore I am a Christian” (this is a reason I prefer to call myself a believer instead of Christian.) This cultural influence, if believed, will keep a person from seeing their need for the savior and the need for change in themselves. This person when pushed will fall on their patriotism and rights as their pillar of hope rather than the love of the Father. This is shown by the words they use and the anger when their rights as an American are challenged more than the commandment to love thy neighbor. Their anger, hatred, revenge filled angst matches that of any non-believer but they do it with “Jesus” as a covering. Can you imagine what this does for the image of Christ? I find this group of people to be very legalistic since the heart change hasn’t happened and all they have are rules to cling to. The rules of “the church” become more important than anything a changed heart would do. Loving others is all based on obedience to these rules. At this point they are just another worldly religion of rules to follow, appearance to keep, and more like a social club of those who look and act like you.
John 13:35 NLT
Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
We saw too many examples of “Christians” stomping love while proclaiming their “rights.” The unbelievers see this as a representation of Jesus! Woah. Lord forgive me for every time I have done the same! As a believer we can look at the rights that are supposed to be protected by the US Constitution and see these are good, they protect everyone from the tyrant, the fascist, the bad politician, or rulers. These rights are for the poor and the rich, no matter the color of their skin, no matter their sex. Yes, as a believer we want all people to be free from bad rulers and we can see in today’s world how many politicians don’t agree with these rights. Many are fighting against those rights because of their desire of power that those rights are barriers against their desires. They work around these rights while gaslighting those who want to protect the rights of the common man. Jesus was one who stood up for the common man, the destitute, the one that was the outcast and hated, but, and this is a big but, His kingdom is the one we really belong to as believers!
Kingdom – Yes, a kingdom. This king is the one we are vowing to obey when we come to him and call him “Lord” and savior. This king is unlike any king of the earth, this one is always good and will always reign. His kingdom will never end. Can we pledge an allegiance to any other government or rule AND to the Kingdom of God? If you don’t answer “Yes” then you may find yourself in conflict with Jesus quite often.
Now, lets look at another culture that has infiltrated the church. The world in general. This is today’s western culture that is fearful of not fitting in. It is controlled by the bully of the mob. You have to believe certain things to be accepted and if you step outside those boundaries you are going to be attacked and “cancelled.” Just l like the cults of the world, you are not even allowed to question their beliefs without the fear of excommunication. The culture is creeping into the churches. People are allowing the culture to dictate what parts of God’s word they are going to believe. So all of a sudden sin is no longer called sin if the particular sin is being praised and worshipped in the world. The fear of even thinking that what the world is doing is wrong becomes more powerful than the fear of God, the creator, ruler and judge. We see beliefs of the world become absolutes that override the words of Jesus. This belief system has been integrated with the “sciences” of people like Dr. Spock, Margaret Sanger, John Money and the beliefs of the musicians and actors.
The world uses the word Love, but the meaning is completely lacking compared to God’s use of the word. When the word love is used in today’s culture it is commonly used in place of lust or narcissistic gain and nothing to do with actually loving a person in a way that puts the person before oneself. Based on Dr. Spock’s form of child rearing that won’t allow for correction of a child or even, God forbid, you tell them “no.” This produced and creates a system of children who can’t do wrong, who are entitled to everything, who bully those who won’t give them their way, who throw fits as adults, who don’t care about others unless it furthers their own narcissistic agenda. The parents are stressed and overwhelmed while raising these children as they are always trying to please an unruly child that simply wants the parent to actually parent them. This “love” is destructive to the child and the family as a whole.
I Corinthians 13 4-8a Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
Let’s look at the effect on the church as this culture dictates the belief. We now have “christian” churches accepting sin as something to celebrate! These churches look no different than the world. As the cultural ideas change what the church teaches and believes it looks less and less like Jesus and more like His adversary. Here you can expect to be accepted no matter what, as that has become the priority over God’s love and grace. Rather than repentance of sin, you have excuses and praise for the sin. Even 20 years ago the revelation that this was going to happen was laughed at. How would the church accept all things as good? The next prediction is the acceptance of pedophilia and again, the idea of that being a possibility will be mocked. “That could never happen.” will be the response especially from those who have already embraced the world’s beliefs into their own.
The people who have not left this culture will also view anyone who questions these beliefs as evil. Their theology will be informed by videos on TikTok and other social media as they have a bubble in which all their information will come from. Again, the idea of questioning brings terror to their hearts as the cult like manner of punishment is always at the door. This culture is easily controlled, it can be told instantly what the next thing is to believe. There is no question when they see it in their feeds, this is today’s truth, and this is what you are supposed to be angry about! So strange how the enemy of the soul also uses God’s words to manipulate. Terms like justice, truth, love and care are all changed to mean something different. Anger, revenge, force, abuse are acceptable when the culture is told that it is for “good.”
This is where the biggest clash happens. Two cultures that are not putting the kingdom and culture of Christ first. Both are within the “church” and neither is showing the world the love of Christ. Both are giving The Church a bad rap, misrepresenting Jesus and not caring for people. The legalistic “american” church pushes people away and the church that accepts the world’s beliefs sucks them into a lie that produces no change.
Church – yes, you who call themselves believers – what are we doing????