How are things going for you in your life as a Christian? How is your walk with Christ? What, exactly, does that look like in day-to-day life? What — for you — does “CHRISTIANITY” consist of?
I ask these questions because so many church-goers seem to be living in what I call a “Christian bubble.” We seem to be increasingly isolated within the four walls of our church buildings. Regular church-attenders and pastors alike have become so intimidated by the ever-increasing anti-God bias of our modern American culture. So much so, that we choose to just keep our mouths shut, keep our faith to ourselves.
In the past, I’ve described it this way: as the LGBT movement has been embraced and emboldened with the support of corporate America, the media, the government, the public school systems, and even the churches, unrepentant sodomites have “come out of the closet,” pridefully waving rainbow flags and celebrating their sin, while Christians have been perfectly content to take up residence INSIDE those same “closets,” too afraid to speak up, stand out or even QUESTION the abominations raging throughout our land.
I dare say, Christianity has become all about US. We go to church on the weekend, and for most, that is the extent of our Christianity. SOME of us read the Bible on our own at home, but not very many. SOME of us also have a regular prayer time, but not very many. These things are all well and good, but there’s just one problem: living this way is not biblical! You see, the Christian life is not supposed to be all about US and OUR needs. We are not just supposed to be feeding OUR souls — we are supposed to be winning OTHER souls, discipling them, and teaching them all Jesus commanded. We are SUPPOSED to be the Salt and Light of the Earth. But we’re not. Even if we DO pray — and a surprisingly low number of professing Christians make this a priority — we pray in error; usually asking God for only those things that affect US, only those things that WE feel WE need. Instead of praying, “Thy will be done,” we thank the Father for His provision, and then proceed to ask for more and more and more… but sadly, usually, only for OUR own personal needs and wants.
Equally disturbing is this notion that Christians are to have nothing to do with the things of this world. We are told by our pastors and church leaders to stay out of “politics,” to stay out of controversy, to mind our own business, to focus all of our attention, give all of our tithes and offerings ONLY to the church. It is continuously drilled into our heads that we’re to have nothing to do with anything outside the four walls of our meeting places. This is SO unbiblical, I can barely believe we have bought into such lies. Yet it is the prevailing practice in nearly every church I know of.
Just ask your Pastor if you would be allowed to announce a gathering of church folks at the local abortion center, to stand in the gap for the voiceless, preborn babies about to be torn limb from limb in their mothers’ wombs. Ask your pastor if you can recruit others from your church to go to a schoolboard meeting and protest the pro-LGBT curriculum being used to indoctrinate your children. Ask your pastor if you might use a room of the church on a special night to show a documentary about the evil agenda of the socialists, liberals, feminists, and muslims seeking to throw God out of every corner of America. I already KNOW the answer: “Sorry, NO. We can’t get involved in things like that.” And THEN the church leadership will begin to view you as a “right wing wacko,” and start seeking ways to marginalize you. They’ll tell others to avoid you. They will secretly laugh at you behind your back, because you are so radical, so “counter-cultural.”
But I have news for you: our Savior, was the most radical, and the most counter-cultural Person to ever walk the face of the Earth. And HE Himself gave us COMMANDS to follow, most of which we KNOW about, but most of which are NEVER preached on nor taken seriously — except of course, the ever-popular out-of-context, misinterpreted “Judge Not,” which sadly, even our Christian leaders are now teaching as the “Whole Counsel of God.”
Turn to Matthew 5. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under the feet of men.” He was speaking to His disciples here. Those who truly WERE — in every sense of the word — CHRIST-FOLLOWERS. He told them they were the SALT of the Earth. In this passage, Jesus was explaining a concept in terms His followers could understand. In those days, “salt that had lost its savor” really only HAD one possible use: it was used, literally, as PAVEMENT on roads. They paved the roads with otherwise useless salt. So it REALLY WAS trodden under the feet of men.
There are many translations of the Bible, and some say “…if the salt has lost IT’S savor…” But in the original text, Jesus ACTUALLY said, “…if the salt has lost HIS savor…” This makes quite a difference. Because He wasn’t just talking about table salt here. He was talking about PEOPLE. WE, as Christians, are to be SALTY! We are to have SAVOR! If we DON’T, Jesus said, we are literally GOOD FOR NOTHING in the Kingdom of God!
Likewise, Jesus continued by saying, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let YOUR light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
So unless I am grossly misinterpreting this, Jesus specifically told His disciples, in one of His most important teaching times, that His followers were to be the SALT and the LIGHT of the world. We are not to lose our savor and we are not to hide our light. Why would He teach these things, if in reality, He meant for us to hide inside the four walls of our church and NEVER EVER EVEN ATTEMPT to impact the culture around us? Never EVER get involved in the things outside our churches? Never EVER speak of Jesus’ commands or stand up for God’s Word and truth when sin is pridefully celebrated and normalized, and the doctrines of demons taught to our children and grandchildren as “the new normal?!”
My friends, we live — most of us — inside a “Christian bubble.” Most of us know nothing about the horiffic abominations going on outside our churches, nor do most of us CARE. We occupy ourselves with vain religion, with ritualistic “praise and worship.” But if we are NOT engaging the culture… if we are NOT being salt and light to a lost, deceived and dying world all around us, all our “praise and worship” is useless. In fact, the very form of “Christianity” we practice has, today, become “good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled on by men.” And so why are we suprised that Christianity no longer has a “voice” in America? It’s simple: we NEVER open our mouths!
What was the message of John the Baptist, as he made way for the start of Jesus’ work here on earth? “Repent!” And what was Jesus’ first message when He began His earthly ministry? You got it: “Repent!” Jesus also gave the Great Commission at the end of Matthew 28: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; TEACHING THEM TO OBSERVE ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER I HAVE COMMANDED YOU.” This “Great Commission” is also recorded in Acts 1: “You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth.” He said all these things as His final instructions to His followers, and then ascended into Heaven.
But my friends, we have been TAUGHT — most of us all our lives — to misinterpret these commands of Christ. We have been taught that the Great Commission means we are to 1) either give money to overseas missionaries, or 2) to go overseas and feed the poor, dig wells and build houses. Again, these are not BAD things to do, but it’s NOT what Jesus commanded.
In Matthew 28, He commanded us to TEACH EVERYONE to observe all He had commanded. So did He actually mean the exact opposite? That we are to keep our mouths SHUT and never speak out against evil, never talk about sin and the need for repentance, but rather to be loving, accepting, “open and affirming” of sin, lest we offend someone who may be pridefully embracing and celebrating their sin? And when He said we are to be His witnesses, He put it THIS way: “first in Jerusalem, then in all Judea, then in all Samaria, and THEN to the uttermost parts of the Earth.” So did Jesus actually mean the exact opposite?
Did He mean we are to FIRST go to the uttermost parts of the Earth and do service projects, all the while neglecting our personal “Jerusalems?” And WHAT IS “Jerusalem” to us? It is our HOME TOWN. FIRST, He said, we go to our HOME TOWN. Then we go to our state, then we go to our nation, and LASTLY, we go to the ends of the Earth. If we do not have the COURAGE to be salt and light in our own home towns, we have no business going on a tropical vacation disguised as a missions trip. Sorry to sound harsh here, and I do NOT mean to downplay the vital work of those saving lives in foreign lands. Certainly the missionaries that go there have good intentions and many absolutely ARE doing the Lord’s work.
But what about the rest of us? They are KILLING BABIES down the street from our churches, and Christians just “praise and worship and pray” louder. Tell me: do you think God hears such prayers? They are teaching ‘TRANSGENDERISM” as a normal, natural alternative lifestyle to your CHILDREN and GRANDCHILDREN, and most of us do nothing about it, for fear of being looked upon as “judgmental,” “offensive,” or “harsh.” They kicked God out of our public schools in 1962 and Christians did nothing. Now they are erasing and rewriting history. They are KILLING BABIES! And we KNOW BETTER, yet we remain silent, content, fat and happy inside our “Christian bubbles.”
If you want to talk about “harsh,” Jesus had some VERY harsh words for people like this. He did not show LOVE to everybody. Matthew 15, “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying ‘this people honors Me with their lips but their heart is far from Me. In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”
Truly, Jesus had some VERY harsh words for the cowardly religious leaders of His day. He called them: “hypocrites,” “blind guides,” “fools,” “whitewashed tombs,” “serpents,” “brood of vipers,” and “liars.” In John 8, He told them, “You are of your father the devil.” It seems Jesus was not very “Christian” by today’s standards, was He? He also reacted with righteous anger when He found the temple had been turned into a den of thieves, making a whip, physically attacking the wicked ones and overturning tables. I doubt He would be very welcome in most of today’s churches.
So do you think He would just “be ok” with abortion? With a sodomite “pride” parade? With leading innocent little children astray with the lies of the devil, teaching them to question their very gender? Do you think He would be ok with people just going to church, listening to the sermon, babysitting kids in “Childrens’ Church,” serving as money collectors during the “offering time,” and never DOING anything more? Never engaging the culture or questioning the lies of the wicked, evil liars who are leading our precious little ones to hell — or worse yet, KILLING THEM in cold blood before they are even born?!
SATAN rejoices, no doubt. But what would Jesus do about all this? Would He be sitting and listening to endless sermons, raising His hands in so-called “praise and worship” while MILLIONS outside those four walls are perishing in their sinful delusions? Come on, folks! It’s time we pop the bubble.
There is a WHOLE WORLD of REAL CHRISTIANITY going on outside the building where you go every weekend. You need to understand, you don’t GO to Church, you ARE the Church — IF you’re a true Christ follower.
I was just as guilty of living inside that Christian bubble. For years, I never knew, never realized, there is a WHOLE WORLD of REAL CHRISTIANITY outside those four walls. There’s so much more to it than a weekly “service,” personal Bible study and personal prayer time. We are to the the Salt of the Earth. The Light of the World. We ABSOLUTELY ARE called to ENGAGE the culture, and there are MANY TRUE CHRISTIANS who are doing just that. Most likely you have no idea about this world, because your pastors forbid you to associate with such Christians, and certainly will never promote such “radical activism.”
Why? Because it takes COURAGE. It takes thinking outside the box. Bottom line: it takes taking Jesus Christ at His Word, taking up our crosses daily and REALLY — I mean REALLY — following Him.
Do you want to be a part of this? Do you want the REAL DEAL? Or are you content just “playing church?” The day will come when the Righteous Judge will separate the sheep from the goats, placing the goats on His left and the sheep on His right. And the lukewarm — those happy and content inside their “Christian bubbles,” — He will vomit out of His mouth and say, “Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you.”
If YOU ARE READY to get serious about these issues and if you’re ready to meet like-minded people, I encourage you to join us, March 9th and 10th at the 2018 Wisconsin Christian News Ministry Expo and Conference in Marshfield, Wisconsin. All these issues and more will be discussed by some of the most notable leaders in the Christian world from around the nation. You will be educated, informed and equipped to have an IMPACT for Jesus in this lost, sad, sick world. If you don’t already know about this EXTREMELY VITAL Conference, I encourage you to call me for all the details. No matter where you live, anywhere in America, if you are serious about your faith, you NEED to be at this Conference. And you need to bring your children and grandchildren with you as well! I guarantee it will be life-changing. And if you actually ACT on what you learn there, God may yet have mercy and heal our land. Please don’t miss this opportunity. We may never get another one.
Audio CDs and transcripts of this message are available when you call me at Wisconsin Christian News, (715) 486-8066. Or email Rob@WisconsinChristianNews.com. Ask for message number 219.
© 2018 Rob Pue – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Rob Pue: Rob@WisconsinChristianNews.com
