Many professing Christians say they believe that scripture is the word of God and yet somehow they “Cherry-Pick” the scriptures they like and avoid the parts they don’t like. This attitude of rejecting certain scriptures and embracing others ends up twisting our concepts about God and ourselves and can make our Christian faith either powerless or, at the worst, a counterfeit faith.

Somehow the body of Christ seems to think that if we are humble we should never desire or even confess the desire to be great. Why is this? Is it because we think or have been taught that to desire such a bold thing is sinful or carnal? 

A calling, as defined in the first article, is when we perceive God defining a purpose we are intended to pursue to change the world around us. In Matthew 5, Jesus is teaching on what is called “The Beatitudes” in which he defines people who will be blessed by God. One category of such people are those who work at establishing peace.

With Christmas almost upon us, I wonder what most Christian parents are communicating to their children about Christmas and its importance for them and the body of Christ?

In these articles on the subject of lying we have attempted to understand the why and the why not of telling the truth all the time. Making a hard law out of something the scripture does not teach is wrong but many times we try to justify a truth that seems right to us without really investigating the “Whole Truth” of God’s Word. Take, for example, the law of God about committing adultery. The pharisees who wanted to trap Jesus used the law of God against him so they brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to be judged by him. They thought they had him over a barrel where he would have to uphold the law and agree to stone the woman or show mercy and prove he was a law breaker. Jesus turned the tables on them and exposed their hypocrisy! If you haven’t read the first three articles please do so before reading this one or it will not make sense.

This article comes from a devotional subject I posted a few days ago on my Facebook page entitled “Are You Being Deceived?” in which I posed the question of wether we are discriminating in the kind of people we fellowship with, or are we allowing people who lie to us and others into our lives? One person asked the question of “Is It Always Wrong To Lie” or are there situations in which lying is allowed by God. So let’s get started!

Are we prone to judge people who we discover have some sin in their past or current lives? I think all to often as Christians, we want to live for Jesus in a sincere and honorable way, but when we discover some sin or fault in others we are quick to pass judgement because in some way these faulty people reflect poorly on our values and morals. The question is, are these principles we claim to hold real reflections of how we treat others, or just how we want to be treated?

I started the first article with this same title and confessed I get offended. I also admitted I don’t have this idea or practice under control and often need to confess my frustration and anger to God. All that being said, I also stated that we all get offended from time to time. If you never get offended I would suggest you aren’t passionate about anything or anyone. To have strong beliefs opens you up to being offended when someone or something seems to violate your values or loyalties. If you haven’t read the first article on this subject please do so before continuing as it will make more sense.

As the world gets more complex it also gets more stressful. You would think we would figure out that we need others in our lives to help navigate such difficult times, yet the world motivates us to separate and isolate ourselves as tech consumes our every move. For the most part, gone are the days of sitting in a field to just think and contemplate what’s going on in our lives. Instead we all are over-busy and so dominated by the news that our thinking is filled with stress and anxiety. If we don’t wake up and change things we will struggle to have faith in God’s power.

This subject matter of “Thinking & Doing” with regards to evil is incredibly important. So much of modern Christianity and teaching revolves around our feelings and well being rather than biblical truth.  The subject of evil seems to only be addressed with regards to how it affects us personally and not how it affects God and others. My desire for this series of articles is to stir true believers to have a balanced life with regards to living in this broken world. If you have not read the first eight articles please do so before proceeding with this final one.