28.5.09

like everyone else...

several posts ago, i typed up the lyrics to a song i really, really love by a group i think is wonderful...the song is "Opposite Way" by Leland...here are those lyrics again if you missed them the first time:

Living in the same town
for all these years
Doing the same old things
hanging with the same crowd
And its starting to get crippling

You've never felt in place
And you tell yourself its all okay
But something is different today
You want to run the opposite way

And it seems like you're locked in a cage
and you need to find a way of escape
When everyone is setting the pace
Its okay to run the opposite way

The Father sent His Son down
The Light of men
and the cross He bore was crippling
Rejected in His own town
And they couldn't see the Son shining

He knelt in the garden, and prayed
Father let this cup pass from me
Its not your will for me to stay
your will for me's the opposite way

It seemed like He was locked in a cage
and He couldn’t find a way of escape
But through the cross He conquered the grave
My Jesus ran the opposite way

And through the cross He conquered the grave
He ran the opposite way

And through the cross He conquered the grave
So you could run the opposite way


there's an inner struggle in me going on, and it started the day i chose to run the opposite way

it's a battle that is always raging...a battle between Spirit and flesh...between heaven and hell...between good and evil...between right and wrong...between the Truth and lies...between what's right, and what's easy

it's the age old question for Christians of how to be in the world, but not of it

it's a battle that all those who seek the face of God in this life should have to fight...but often i find myself completely alone in this battle...going the opposite way, looking around me, and find myself running alone

if we are truly seeking Christ though, the way we live, and the way the world lives, should be in direct opposition to one another...yet more and more, the secular continues to invade the spiritual, and all the while Christians continue to bring the spiritual into the secular...

what i mean is, we try to justify certain behaviors, beliefs, etc... all for the price of what? to be "politically correct"? to fit in? to be popular? to enjoy "the good life"?

i don't know about you, but i want to enjoy "the God life"...and i am tired of compromising God's standards for what the rest of the world thinks is okay...i'm tired of not standing up for what i know His Word says because i am worried that someone else will be offended...

quite often, speaking the Truth, even while speaking with Grace, is confused with arrogance and self-righteousness...yet the Son of God, God himself in the flesh, was neither of those things...

Jesus Christ


those 2 words...that name alone, was and is and always will be offensive to the world...the scary thing is, in His time on earth, those who were stuck in the world's ways, AND those who were stuck in their superior religious mindsets, found him to be offensive...both parties nailed Him to the cross...how often do we in this day and age do the same???

it was the poor in spirit, the humble, the ones who sought after truth and righteousness, and those who were persecuted for what they believed (see Matthew 5) who were called by Christ as His followers...the world hated them the same way they hated Him...they were to be His imitators...to be His reflectors...they were called Christians, because the word Christian means "little Christ"

i am a Christian by choice...not because i was raised that way or because i sit in a pew every Sunday...it's because i have seen what death on a cross and a ressurrection three days later can do...it can change lives...it changed mine

i choose to fight the battle as well...i refuse to lower the standards by which the Lord has called me to live in the face of a world that has denied and continues to deny Him...if i am going to call Him Lord and Savior of my life, then that is who He will be...

so no more of this nonsense of proclaiming God as our Father if we are going to live like orphans...that is exactly what a non-believing world wants to see...and it is exactly what gives fuel to the fire!

no, not everything is black and white...sometimes there are issues that are gray...but anything that separates us from the heart of God is wrong...and anything that looks like the world is not of God either...and we, who have been given the Holy Spirit, the power of God, also have the ability to discern what is and isn't of the Lord:

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." ~ Romans 12:2

when our hearts belong to Christ alone, and our minds are constantly on the things of Him alone, we are transformed into the people who are called by Him...and it is then that we can know how to live...it is then that our desires change, because what we want is no longer what the world offers, but only what God offers

i'm not going to be like everyone else and do as the world tells me to do...i am going to listen to the voice of my Father and follow His will, whether that brings me friendship with everyone around me or persecution from even my closest friends and relatives...because i know, i can testify, that the things of this world fade away, and so we fade with it...

but those who do the will of God, live forever (1 John 2:15-17)


what about you?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

hey girl! just dropping by to say hi and see how you're doing. how is the soap business going? i used mine the other day and thought of you!

Kim said...

I always love your posts. They seem to always be relevant to what is going on in my life. I wish serving God was so easy that everyone would respect my choice. I suppose it's a small glimpse into how Christ must've felt. I don't know how non Christians live each day without his saving grace. God bless.