By Staff
If your Christian faith is becoming more settled and comfortable, maybe it is not truly Christian. If the Word of God is not shaking our life and causing continual reassessment, maybe we have tuned out, or worse yet, perhaps we have migrated to a well kept Christian ghetto, where no challenge to our established lifestyle and mindset can reach us.
What we call belief may not be true, biblical, saving faith. In the New Testament book of James, James is writing to a group of people who are being persecuted for their faith, belief, and practice. What is this persecution?
We hear of it, but for the most part never experience it. James makes this statement in chapter 2, verse 19, as he was challenging the authenticity of the people's faith, "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe-and tremble!"
Demons are, by definition, godless rebels, opposed to everything of God, and destined to eternal punishment. If they tremble at the thought of God, should there not be some bowing of our heart before Him.
The writer of Hebrews declares in chapter 10, verse 31, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Thinking about our life relationship with God or the lack of relationship with Him should cause a catch of breath, an assessment, a measure against the standard, Jesus Christ the Righteous.
Life is sequential. We grow up, we train, we work, we accumulate, we enjoy. If we get any of that out of order, we could fall on hard times.
The Christian life in faith and practice is not sequential. Certainly, we grow in faith and deepen our walk with God, but we should never postpone any act of obedience revealed to us through the Word of God.
A man named Felix, who was a governor, listened to the apostle Paul recount the gospel. Acts, chapter 24, verse 25, tells us that Felix was afraid when he heard the gospel and said to Paul, "Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you." There is never a convenient time for obedience to God. The faith-walk is a series of choices against our comfort and ease.
What is belief in God doing for you? Hopefully, it is daily shaking your lifestyle to the core.
What is a "Christian ghetto"? It is a place where we seldom meet the other side-the ragged sinner, the poor, the oppressed, or an antagonist to our well-ordered belief system. A Christian ghetto could be a church where smoking, drinking, carousing, and loud raucous music are spoken against, but somehow the preacher never gets around to selfishness, greed, bitterness, gossip, and pride. When the preacher, the "teller of truth," is dependent on the ones he must exhort and correct for his living, something gets lost in the process. Our belief in God should be ever moving us to the radical lifestyle modeled by Jesus Christ as He walked among men.
We are told to be "salt and light" (Matthew 5:13-16). Salt is used to season and preserve. Is our life seasoning the people around us that are not like us? Light dispels darkness. If the light of God is going to light up the darkness of the world, the light is going to have to be taken to some dark places. Risky, yes, but belief in God is all about taking risks as God directs.
The demons believe in God and tremble. Their trembling is out of stark terror at their declared future. Our trembling should be a mixture of fear in that we are dealing with the Living God of Heaven, the sustainer of our souls, and trembling breathlessly, in the knowledge that God knows and cares for us.
When you are truly loved and you know it, there is that flush of excitement when you come into the presence of the one who loves you. That is what our belief in God should do for us.
It should excite us; it should cause us to exercise our faith continually in newer and more exciting ways. God loves to be proven at His Word. God says, for example, in Malachi, chapter 3, verse 10, "Try Me now in this."
Jesus Christ is radical, cutting-edge. Does your belief in God have you on that edge?