WHY DO CHRISTIANS ACT THE WAY THEY DO?

What is a Christian? According to the Bible a Christian is one who understands first Who God is, Who Jesus Christ is, and why He came. They understand that sin is anything that violates God's law which is righteous, holy, and just. Sin is the love of self and wanting to be our own god rather than acknowledging the One true God. God Himself is perfect in righteousness, holiness, and justice. He would fail to be that if He even tolerated one sin in His kingdom. One flaw, pollutes all purity. But God is also perfect in love, mercy, and grace. Love demands mercy and holiness demands justice. How can the two be met in a fallen world? Only through God Himself, perfect as He is, righteous as He is, being love itself, becoming a man, taking on human flesh, and living out that perfect righteousness on earth and then becoming the sacrifice that fulfills His perfect law of justice, paying the penalty for sin - eternal death and becoming salvation for all who believe in Him. He alone is the sufficient sacrifice for the penalty, and the only way to become right before God, Whose law we have all broken, so have been separated from Him. A Christian is one who turns away from that sin that he/she sees has separated them from God and turns to Christ, accepting Him alone as the sufficient salvation that will save them, forgive them, cleanse them and renew them, causing them to be "born again." They are those who in faith have received the gift of the Holy Spirit to indwell them and give them a new nature, a nature that will now conform their outward life into the image of the inward indwelling of the Son. This is a gradual thing. He changes us from the inside as He reveals Himself to us little by little as we abide in His Word, feeding on His life and Words and yielding to the working of His Spirit in our hearts. He promises us eternal righteousness and salvation and joy and peace in His presence, sharing in His glory forever. We do not judge others but we stand with God's judgment against sin, because we have seen it and been saved from it. We yearn to save the one trapped and deceived by sin.

Why do Christians become so passionate about sin in the world? Why do they care? Christians are not better than anyone else. We know we're not. That's why we came to Jesus. Because we know we're helpless to save ourselves from our own sin, or to keep ourselves from being deceived and corrupted by the philosophies, sins, and corruptions the devil has persuaded men of in the world. Those who think they don't need Him and think they are righteous in their own works and in themselves are those who are "self-righteous," though they call Christians the very thing they are. When the Bible calls Christians "the righteous" it is not because we are somehow better people. We don't call ourselves righteous, but we call ourselves saved by His righteousness. It is because we have, by faith, received HIS righteousness in our hearts and allow that to be worked in us by faith, though we are still very much aware that "but for the grace of God there go I." Only God is righteous. He calls "righteous" whoever HE will. We are more aware probably than anyone else of our shortcomings and sins that need His forgiveness and grace. But we have come to see how awful sin is in first of all how it was the very thing that separated us from God's love and salvation. Second of all, it has a progression to it and may start out as a tiny grain of yeast…very small and seemingly insignificant but it grows and becomes terribly vile, and soon overtakes and destroys and corrupts everything else in its path and blinds minds and hearts completely and hardens them against the only love and salvation possible for them. Rom. 1 shows this progression and the utter giving over to that hardness of heart that ultimately comes of it. The world loves sin and the more it embraces sin, the more it hates the God of righteousness. We, as Christians, cannot but stand with God as we have seen sin's depravity and its destruction on the human race. Man blames God for evil all the while rejecting His goodness, His mercy, His righteousness, and then calls evil good, embracing it, and calling God evil and all that is good evil. They join satan's rebellion and so his punishment. As Christians, we see the destruction sin brings to a life, and a community, and a nation, and to the world. Ultimately sin will fill the earth and "come to its fullness" and finally when it does God will say "enough!" Christians know this day of His wrath against evil is coming and that all evil and those who have chosen it will be judged and destroyed forever, so that is why we are passionate against it, and passionate to tell people there is a way of escape, and there is a salvation and God is opening the door at this very moment saying, "Today is the day of salvation!" While it is today, choose Him!! The day will end soon. It's coming to a conclusion. You may not have tomorrow. Don't fritter away your opportunity for His grace and love as He holds it out even to the vilest sinner - whosoever will! Man's utopia is a lie and a false hope. Soon there will be a world leader called "the antichrist" who will convince the world that he can set up this utopia, and it will very quickly fall apart and be seen to be the evil that it is, and be destroyed and God's true utopia, His kingdom will come to the earth when Jesus returns, as promised, just as He came the first time as promised, and be set up as His true Kingdom that will be forever.

If you consider us "haters" for loving you and hating your sin, I hope you'll take another look at your heart and discard the hypocrisy of political correctness. Discard the hypocrisy that keeps you blinded to your own hatred towards God and all who love Him and His truth and His righteousness. Take another look and look into His Word for yourself, reading it for yourself, not letting others tell you what is in it and falsely representing it, but reading it and finding out what He says in truth. The truth shall set you free, if you embrace it. If you face yourself in His light. If you don't let your mind be manipulated and overtaken by the powers of darkness that know very well if you know that truth it would save you. You have been convinced to read and listen only to what promises you a false hope in this world, and have been kept from looking at the other side honestly. Try being honest with yourself. Discard your hypocrisy. Admit it. Face it. It will save you.

Satan knows that truth, and that is why he works so earnestly to keep people away from it, to silence it, to stomp on it, to cause people to fear to associate with it, and to deceive them into inventing all sorts of ways to accept evil calling it good and to call good evil.

Many Christians are immature in understanding how to live according to God's Spirit within them, and out of their passion they act in ways that do not represent Christ, even though they think they are doing His will. And many profess Christ but live for themselves and do not have His truth in their hearts but are following an apostasy, a counterfeit Christianity that caters to the love of their own "godhood." But those who grow in the maturity of their faith and are abiding in Christ daily learn to wait on God to work in them and through them as HE WILL, not as we will. You see, even Peter, who loved His Lord and would have laid down his life for Him, acted out of passion and ignorance to "save" His Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, raising His sword to defend Him. Yet Jesus stopped him and said "Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" He also told Pilate, that if His kingdom were of this world His servants would fight. Some don't understand His kingdom or His calling. As Christians we can act in our "flesh" or carnal nature, or ignorance of His Word, rather than yielding to His will and understanding and walking by His Spirit. As Christians we can misrepresent Him and His calling. But nobody is without excuse because we all have His Word to seek understanding, to ask of Him, and to read. You cannot blame any Christian who misrepresented God to you, for your failure to come to Him yourself and seek Him. You are the hypocrite if you do so. You cannot blame the church, if you did not go to Christ yourself to become a part of HIS church, which is eternal.

Are Christians haters? Yes we are haters of sin, because we understand it and the world does not. (Psalm_119:104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way… Psalm_119:128 Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way). We hate it as God Himself hates it, and see that it was so important that Jesus came here specifically to suffer and die because of it. We are not haters of sinners. We're all sinners. Jesus even on the cross, said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." He said to us to "love our enemies, to pray for them, and to forgive them." If we hated non-Christians, we'd let them go ahead and have their sin and not tell them the truth about it and that it is leading them to an eternal damnation if not turned from and His salvation received. Those who oppose God and embrace everything that opposes His standards are haters of God, as well as haters of all who love God. They are haters of truth and propagators of lies which are continually made up to twist facts to bend to their worldview so to deceive whoever they can. They are those who are tools in the hands of evil spirits and don't even realize it or realize that they will be devoured by and with those spirits after they do their bidding and destroyed. (We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one John 5:19). They are pawns in the hands of powers of darkness that they are not even aware of though they think themselves to be "free." Their minds and wills are controlled by these powers and lies and they think them to be their own (2 Cor._4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them). They are kept blinded and unable to see or listen to the truth, unless God opens their eyes and hearts and draws them, which He will do to all who will call out to Him. It is when He does this, and calls you to His salvation, that He is giving you the opportunity to come and receive freely that love and grace and be saved. If you resist Him when He calls, and deny Him, then you may not get another chance. If you heart convicts you of your sin, and you feel the tug, it is Him calling you. Don't fight Him or run from Him. People who continually harden their hearts eventually may become too hardened to anymore feel it at all (Romans 1:18-32).

John 6:37-40
(37) All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
(38) For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
(39) And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
(40) And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Romans 10:9-15
(9) because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
(10) For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
(11) For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."
(12) For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
(13) For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
(14) How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
(15) And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

So you see, this is why Christians must take God's side and stand with Him today in the face of evil spreading across the land as wildfire. This is why we'll take abuse, defamation, slander, injustice, and let ourselves be marginalized, hated, and we will all the more boldly proclaim Christ, and His truth, and stand with Him, just as Jesus Himself did in His day against the powers of evil and went to the cross because of it rather than fail to please God. This is why Christians across the world will let themselves be slaughtered rather than deny Christ and give themselves up to joining evil. This is why we will not become politically correct and compromise with God's Word, but will stand against what God Himself stands against for the sake of all who would be saved. This is why we are passionate about our beliefs no matter what it costs us or what we lose. If family, friends, or anyone else hate us because of it, we know what is true and cannot turn from it. Those who know Him, and have Him living in their hearts, and experience the joy of His presence and love, cannot deny Him. So do as you will, but I pray that you will turn to the truth, and turn away from evil and find the one true hope there is in this world that will be an eternal hope and never perish.

1 Peter 3:9-17
(9) Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
(10) For "Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;
(11) let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
(12) For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
(13) Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?
(14) But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,
(15) but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
(16) having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
(17) For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. 1 Peter 4:3-5
(3) For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.
(4) With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you;
(5) but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

2 Peter 3:3-18
(3) knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
(4) They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation."
(5) For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,
(6) and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
(7) But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
(8) But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
(9) The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
(10) But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
(11) Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,
(12) waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
(13) But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
(14) Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
(15) And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
(16) as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
(17) You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
(18) But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

That day will come. Maranatha to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ!

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SPIRITUAL SLUMBER, SPIRITUAL WAKEFULNESS

Proverbs 6:4-11
(4) Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;
(5) save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
(6) Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.
(7) Without having any chief, officer, or ruler,
(8) she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.
(9) How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?
(10) A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,
(11) and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

(1 Peter 5:8) Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

F. B. Meyer: "The ants swarm in the woods and fields, and rebuke our laziness and thriftlessness. They work day and might, storing their galleries with food, building mounds which relatively to the size of the builders are three or four times larger than the Pyramids. In sickness they nurse one another; in the winter they feed on their supplies. Learn from the ceaseless industry of Nature, and do something worthy before sundown!"

There is a busyness that is deceptive. There is the busyness of the flesh that actually keeps us from being about the Lord's business, and causes us to be "lazy" regarding our spiritual life. It keeps us slumbering spiritually, all the while giving the semblance of being busy and serving the Lord. When we put God off, put off making right in our lives those things He would have us to deal with, put off spending time developing an abiding relationship with Him, put off learning His Word and growing in it, and put off that thing He has been gently convicting us to do or to deal with, we may not realize we are in a spiritual slumber. We know we must be diligent to take care of our families, to work and bring home provision for ourselves and our families and have something to share with others as well. We know we must be busy and diligent to get things done that have to be done, and not let them slide. We may be very good at that, yet be in a spiritual slumber, and not be spiritually awake, alert, and on guard against the schemes of the enemy. We may be busy working in the church or doing many "Christian" duties, and works, all good, but be in a spiritual slumber, actually running away from dealing with the things God wants to deal with in our lives.

When we have a task before us, we gear up for it and prepare. We muster up the strength to do it, and we stick to it even through the fatigue in order to finish it and get it done. J, F, & B commentary says, "The danger requires promptness." There are spiritual dangers we face, even unawares, every day. It requires the effort to be prompt and diligent in the meditation of the Word, in prayer, and in waiting on the Lord. We cannot measure up to the spiritual battles in our own strength. To think we can is very foolish. Jesus warned His disciples that even though the spirit is willing in them to do right, to follow Him, the flesh is very weak, and we must not slumber or suddenly calamity overtakes us.

Matthew 26:33-35
(33) Peter answered him, "Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away."
(34) Jesus said to him, "Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times."
(35) Peter said to him, "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!" And all the disciples said the same.

Matthew 26:40-41
(40) And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour?
(41) Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Matthew 26:74-75
(74) Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, "I do not know the man." And immediately the rooster crowed.
(75) And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.

We must learn to know our own flesh, its weaknesses, and how many subtle ways it demands to have its way in us, giving a foothold to the enemy to tempt us and lead us down the wrong path, or into sin, or into a deceptive busyness that is not the business of the Lord. To be wakeful and watchful, is to be spiritually alert through prayer and listening to the voice of our Lord in His Word, as He reveals these things to us daily, and to take His side against our own flesh and pride, against the enemy and against everything false. Then we must put forth the effort to respond accordingly, as He shows us what must be acted on. We must be diligent to act on it and not let it slide.

Sleep is very subtle. You wake up in the morning to an alarm, and you are still groggy. Your body is telling you, "just a little more rest, and then I'll get up." But you fall back into a deep sleep and before you know it a couple more hours have passed and you wake up to a phone call telling you you are late! Or you have to get up and hurry and scramble to make up for the 2 hours you just slept through, and you can't possibly get the quality of time you would have had if you had gotten up on time. It is the same spiritually. If we tell ourselves, "I'll take care of it tomorrow." We find ourselves ignoring it and even forgetting it, and the longer we do so the easier it is to do. Suddenly the trial comes and we are scrambling to find the Lord's presence, to find His counsel, and to know what to do. If we had been diligent in the first place we would always be ready to stand dressed in His armor and ready for the battle, ready to face the problem, the temptation, the loss, or whatever it is. If not we are left to our own devices many times and that will always fail to bring about God's purposes in our lives.

Is the Lord drawing you to seek His face? Do you feel that heart tug to spend more time with Him? Do you feel conviction to talk to someone or make something right in your home or in a relationship? Are you being called to pursue a certain path God wants to take you on? Don't put it off, because the opportunity won't be there forever. When God calls us that is the time He will give us the grace to obey. Later is many times too late. We lose the ferver and the will many times, and miss out on what God would have for us.

Rising up out of a deep sleep takes strong will-power and effort. Rising up out of spiritual slumber takes effort on our parts as well, and when the Lord is convicting and drawing and saying to your heart, "arise!" that is the time He will also give you the grace to obey as you yield yourself to Him, and simply say, "Yes, Lord, I give myself over to your strength to do so." There is no gain without effort.

I remember a movie line once where a woman in the movie was always saying, "you have to put forth the effort!" For some reason that line has stuck with me, and when I feel weary, and wanting to lay my spiritual head down and slumber for a time, that line comes back to me again and again, "Ginny, you have to put forth the effort!"

(Colossians 1:29) For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

When the Lord calls us, He Himself works His own energy in us powerfully to do the task. When we work on our own, we become weary. We must continually be built up in Him and strengthened in the power of His might.

Many times when I have a job to do, I tend to put it off and go do a job that I enjoy more...like working in my kitchen, baking or doing something creative, rather than spending time on my hands and knees scrubbing the bathroom floor or toilet. Many times we look for something we find self-fulfilling or rewarding to do in the church and busy ourselves with that which enriches our social life, rather than that which the Lord is calling us to do. It can take the place of the more important things the Lord is working in our lives, and actually hinder our spiritual growth. We think we are growing spiritually when we are doing something we thrive in and have lots of feedback and reward immediately for it. But maybe the Lord is calling you to do something else that takes time and commitment and a loss of pride, hard spiritual work of seeking His face and struggling in prayer, and waiting on Him, and causing you to give up things that you enjoy for a time, even though good things. We can put ourselves in a spiritual slumber by replacing God's will with other seemingly good works, yet disregarding the very thing He is pointing to, and calling us to, which would require us to give up our fulfilling "works" and doings in order to answer Him in humility and obedience. Maybe He has us in a place we don't want to be, and is calling us there for a time, even though it is not pleasant. We try to escape. We think to ourselves, "I would be much more effective for God if I were in this other place, or able to do so much more if I were over there!" But God has us here, where He is dealing with us, where He is exposing things to ourselves in our own hearts, where He is teaching us humility, love, patience, longsuffering, and where He is wanting to reveal Himself to us and conform us to the image of Jesus. We don't understand, but He is doing a work in us wherever He calls us and puts us. Wherever that is, we must wake up from our slumber, and seek His face, and wait on Him, and find HIS path through it giving up our own, no matter how long that takes. We must not mistake emotional fulfillment with the fulfillment of God's will in our lives. Real growth comes from true obedience to God, denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Him. He takes us aside at times to work in us to make us, before He can truly use us in the work He has for us.

We must not slumber through this life, just passively going along wherever the waves of life take us. But we must be diligent and wakeful. He has provided all we need for this. His Word gives us the guidance and the knowledge of His will, the washing and cleansing from our own ways and that of the world, and His Spirit provides us the energy, the indwelling strength and power to do so, and to carry out what He calls us to. Now is not the time to slumber. Now is the time to be awake and alert, as the world and the powers of darkness are surrounding us, and to be diligent, putting forth the effort, to stand and to walk unwavering, the path He has before us, setting aside every weight, and running the race, as we wait for His coming.

Maranatha!

If you want to know more about this salvation and are not sure you are going to Heaven, you can know. His Word assures us how we can know. Click here to read more.