Christianity is fast losing fervor, flavor and the knack to positively impart and influence change in the world today.
…called out of darkness into His marvelous light.
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
– Matthew 5-14:16
WHAT seems to remain of Christianity in our world today is a semblance, mere form, a seeming existence without life. We are Christians by name, and confessions but we don’t have or live the life Christ purported for us – the light and salt of the world. No, we’re not any of that, we only have a form
Our quality of life as Christians is not in the vast knowledge of scriptural memory and quotations we display but in the life we live behind the scenes, after preaching the Good News of the Gospel of Christ – who are we? What is our private lifestyle within our neighborhood? Many unbelievers wonder if we are too full of God’s word but too short in the attitude and character that is commensurate or replicates the word we speak.
The place of the fruits of the Spirit has eluded believers, especially faith, and patience. While we would not endorse laziness and foolishness for Christians, we will not accept that a Christian becomes a terror, or vile in lifestyle because he or she wants to prove a point or disabuse people from not taking advantage of our vulnerability and simplicity.
Believers are very scared to open up to discuss personal weaknesses, nobody wants to show any kind of vulnerability, not even with pastors for fear of being let down. We know the struggle many men face today – walking around with a facade of having it all figured out while burying their true feelings and problems deep inside. The world, the flesh, and the devil try to convince us that vulnerability is a sign of weakness, leading many to hide their struggles, addictions, and need for others. But, my dear brothers, it is in vulnerability that we find true strength.
God tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” To God, strength lies in acknowledging our weaknesses and embracing our vulnerability. Let us journey together along the path of true biblical strength, where we become vulnerable in three essential ways: to ourselves, to God, and to those around us.
The first step is becoming vulnerable with ourselves. It means acknowledging the truth within us, even if it’s uncomfortable. We often know deep down that certain problems or sins are holding us back, but we tend to sweep them under the rug. The enemy feeds us lies, blinding us to our issues. But by being honest with ourselves about our shortcomings, we can begin to move forward and seek healing.
No doubt, Christianity is fast losing fervor, flavor and truly identity as the light and salt of the world. In times past, Christianity was used as a good example or a rallying beacon, the world looked up to us for direction and life. But we have become an example of mediocrity, jealousy and bickering amongst each other.
Today, the direction we’re headed in our faith in God is what could be defined as “Relics of Christianity and the history of its practice.” While we’re busy arguing about the irrelevant the light is dying.
Christianity is fast losing fervor, flavor and the knack to positively impart and influence change in the world today and this is why.
The younger generation of Christians have thrown away those values, they’re not interested in knowing and relating with their Lord, Jesus Christ. A majority of these people don’t have a single knowledge of scriptures hidden inside their minds because they’ve lost the meaning of what Christianity is. We are encouraged in Joshua 1:8, “This book of the law shall not depart out of the mouth but thou shall meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written in it, that thou mayest have good success.”
The quality and character of Christians on average has seriously declined. More and more, the worst strains of hateful, worldly politics driven, virtueless Christianity is becoming the norm. So much is at stake, most of the Christians today so not and cannot stand for what is right and true. People would rather go for gains than stand for what is right against the odds. The fear to stand alone, or to lose out on whatever gains is attached to the need to be resolute and stand for the truth.
During the reign of President Donald Trump as POTUS, an American showed his indignant on why Christians would front, present or portray someone like Donald Trump as a spiritual man. In his confessions, he said, “When I was a Christian decades back, a vile fraud like Trump would have been seen for what he is, any churches that fell for him would have been seen as fringe and even fallen. But now that is the mainstream of Christianity, here in the US.”
He believes that the deal to have voted Trump into power would, “What does he (Trump) have to offer?
It would definitely be this, “Give us money and vote Trump while we keep you in states of fear and hate, preaching to you every week our political agenda of who to hate and fear in society.”
Here are some of the reasons why Christianity is going down the drains: The worst strains of hate, driven by worldly politics, and virtueless Christianity.
It would be apt to understand that a person who is already lost cannot find redemption in these whore houses of God. What does that mean? A whore will flirt and have intercourse with about every man who is debased enough to engage her. Am I encouraging and promoting class differences amongst people in Church?
Absolutely not! The Church is home to everyone who has the desire to change their ways to submit to Christ as their Lord and Savior and would henceforth leave their vile and canal lifestyle to totally embrace Christ-likeness to love good and eschew evil.
It’s almost impossible to hear the true gospel taught in the Church that has the power to lead a man into that truth which sets free. A man who has lived an abusive life is not convicted and led to repentance, but he is celebrated and lauded as a real man, and so he continues to do that which destroys his relationships and sows misery in his life and the lives of those he’s supposed to love.
Sadly, there is no gentle and redeeming yoke of Christ taught, only self exalting madness and hypocrisy. And that both drives away the people most subject to the resulting abuses the church encourages (the children) and keeps away people of good conscience who are looking for clarity, because there is no clarity to be found in such churches, only political and end times madness.
What’s the goal of this write-up? Is it intended to put the Church down before the world?
No!
The Church as Christ intends for it is to provide the model for peace, love and freedom. But not the freedom to just live our lives as is pleasing to us or as we deem fitting. A well description of a modeled Church is one Pope Paul VI exemplified. He described the church as a mystery. He described the Church as a reality imbued with the hidden presence of God. This mystery of the Church is revealed in Jesus, the word of God, who became human. Jesus, as portrayed in the New Testament, is the touchstone for the mystery, message and mission of the Church. This image of mystery was used extensively in The Constitution of the Church in the Modern World. Church as a mystery opens up the richness and diversity of images and ways of understanding the concept ‘Church’. Such images and understandings are grounded in the Scriptures and form the basis of the so-called ‘Models of Church’.
Therefore, we expect so much more from the CHURCH than what we get these days.
It’s appalling to mention at this point that it is the child of Christians you find all senses of misdirections. Christians are not raising their children right. Whether you are a pastor or not, you have the responsibility of providing proper leadership for your family. You’re the minister, the bishop in your home, that’s a job no other person can carry out for another. The Scripture says, “He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect.” – 1 Timothy 3:4-5.
Lately, I watched a video clip a friend sent to me, a youngman, I believe he is Muslim. He took a census of young people, Christians and Muslims. The question he asked them was, “Are you a Christian or Muslim? All of the young people who claimed were Christians were asked to quote two verses in the Bible – none of the young Christians could quote a single verse. But then, all the Muslims could quote more than they were asked. It’s appalling but the true reality of the younger generation of Christians. In no time, Christianity will go extinct, like is the case in Europe today.
The Scripture says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he grows up, he won’t depart from it.” – Proverbs 22:6.
The future of Christianity is dependent on the kind of training or tutorials we present these younger Christian generation (our children) with. You are what you think.
We understand in Scripture that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word. If your children are not listening or hearing that word, which builds their faith in Christ, not too long, they will lose Christian virtues because of our carelessness. And the world is being fashioned by the values and traditions that is tutored and fashioned in the life of people.
On a gradual and continuous decline, Christian virtues and standard are fast eluding us replaced by vile, evil and demonic tenets.
Straightening The World:
World changers might not really be some kind of special or powerful people but anyone who is ready to make a difference in their conducts and lifestyle.
Changing the world requires a simple decision to not do what everyone else is doing to succeed or get ahead. You cannot change the world by the same standards that destroyed it; you change the world by standards that bring about renewal, revival, restoration and the regeneration of greatness.
You are in the world, for now, this is your aboard, you cannot take yourself out of the existence of life because you want to be different. The only way we can tell the difference between good and bad is where the two exist on par. “You are in the world but not of the world.” – John 17:16-26. That verse of Scripture expresses a distinction, it is telling us about who we are even as we sojourn here. The Scripture again says in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (ESV).
When the Bible says, “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” – Romans 9:19. What do you think that means?
Bible commentary has this explanation about that verse of Scripture:
- Earnest Expectation: A single word in Greek, and a very striking one. It means, literally, a straining forward with outstretched head, just as we might imagine the crowds outside a race-course straining over the ropes to catch a sight of the runners; an eager, intent expectation. The same word is used once again in the New Testament (Philippians 1:20).
- Creature: Creation, the whole world of nature, animate and inanimate.
- Waiteth for: Another strong word, “waits with concentrated longing and expectancy.”
- Manifestation: Translate rather by the ordinary word, revelation, as in the last verse (“glory which shall be revealed”). The Parusia, or Coming of Christ, is to be accompanied by an appearance of the redeemed in glorified form.
In a more broader meaning, manifestation is talking about the revelation of the sons – all who have confessed Jesus are Lord and Savior and consecrated unto Him.
The Revelation Of Sons:
Apostle Paul in that scripture describes believers as ‘sons’ and ‘heirs.’ He drops from these transcendent heights to contrast their present apparent condition with their true character and their future glory.
The sad realities of suffering darken his lofty hopes, even although these sad realities are to his faith tokens of joint-heirship with Jesus, and pledges that if our inheritance is here manifested by suffering with him, that very fact is a prophecy of common glory in the hereafter. He describes that future as the revealing of a glory, to which the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared; and then, in our text he varies the application of that thought of revealing and thinks of the subjects of it as being the ‘sons of God.’ They will be revealed when the glory which they have as joint-heirs with Christ is revealed in them. They walk, as it were, compassed with mist and cloud, but the splendour which will fall on them will scatter the envious darkness, and ‘when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall His co-heirs also appear with Him in glory.’
Well, that’s not all about it. If our Christianity is just about us dying and going to Heaven, God won’t allow us to come down to tie world anyway. But a believer in the world, what presents us differently from the lifestyle and standards of the world?
Our ability to stand out, shun everything that puts the Church and Jesus, its head in a bad light.
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