Lukewarm

Lately I’ve been having a big issue with the standards that Christians are lacking, me especially. Why don’t we hate sin as much as we should? We are told to flee ALL appearances of evil yet we put ourselves in tempting situations daily! I guess we become so desensitized to it that we get to a state of indifference. So how do we stop ourselves from becoming desensitized?

Well I thought about this for a while and realized that we have to begin by relearning what it means to be a Christian before we’ll understand the importance of living this life the way God desires. So the first thing to think about is our definition of the Christian life. We do this by understanding the word standard. When I asked people around me, the consensus for a good definition was a reference or a compass for how things should be. Basically, it is what you choose to live your life by. So, for a Christian, the thing we use as our compass for life is the Bible. But what does that mean? Each person has their own convictions about the issues that the Bible raises, so it is hard to figure out what we use as our example.

Well, more than the Bible alone, our standard is Christ. Christian means little Christ, so every aspect of our lives should immolate Christ. Again we ask what that means, because it is easy to argue that He was perfect so there is no way to live up to His standard. But shouldn’t we, in all ways possible, strive for that mark however far it may seem? That old saying goes “if we are aiming for the sky and miss, at least we’ll be numbered among the stars.” So if we are trying our hardest to live as Christ would, then things will undoubtedly fall into place.

We become more and more like whoever we place ourselves around, so we will obviously become more like Christ; the things that He hates will eventually become detestable to us if we are seeking to be in His presence. For example, I used to hate drunkenness not solely because the Bible says it’s wrong, but because I hated how it changed the personality of the drinker. I would never allow myself to be around drinking and heaven forbid I ever had a drink myself! But it only takes a few times of letting your guard down enough until you finally get to a place of simply not caring. It wasn't like I decided one day to change my beliefs, I just got out of that close fellowship with Christ and my standards changed. I no longer loathed drunkenness like Christ does because I wasn't close enough to Him. I am not about to preach a sermon on drinking because there are not enough clear distinctions in the Bible, but it does say that we are to never let something become our master and alcohol has that ability without us realizing until it is too late. So if we allow something into our lives that the Bible clearly warns against, we are taking away from the example of Christ that we are called to live. How do I sin and immolate Christ? I don’t, that’s called hypocrisy!

So the answer to the question of how we keep ourselves from becoming callous to these detestable things is to draw so close to Christ that we take on His character. I should be sold out to Him because we are called to be set apart and it is as simple as just doing it! God works in awesome ways, because when I really started thinking about this topic, a friend showed me this song that illustrates the reactions I'll get when I'm truly living for Him and how that shouldn't matter because I'm completely devoted to Him. It is an amazing song that is so helpful for those days that are discouraging my Christlike desires…

“Am I foolishness to you, And is it laughable the things I do Can your callused minds see past yourselves to His divine Am I foolishness to you Can I sing about my Maker, And have you not role your eyes Can I weep about my Savior, And the way He died I know it don't make sense, To those who ride the fence But I'm sold out to Christ You call it loosening up, Loosening up I call it spiraling down, Only one thing's the same, Only one thing remains, Jesus Jesus Can I sing about my Maker, And have you not role your eyes Can I weep about my Savior, And the way He died I know it don't make sense, To those who ride the fence But I'm sold out to Christ You're all asleep, You're all asleep You're all asleep oh children But He's all you need, You don't see it no Can I sing about my Maker, And have you not role your eyes Can I weep about my Savior, And the way He died I know it don't make sense, To those who ride the fence But I'm sold out to Christ” Fence Riders by Jimmy Needham