Has Your Walk Turned Into a Crawl? (Part 2)

Has Your Walk Turned Into a Crawl?  Part 2

It seems like professing “Christians” are always losing focus on who the reason for the season is.  We all know that it’s really Jesus, whose birth we celebrate this time of the year.  I’m continually seeing professing Christians lose sight of what Christmas is all about, and focus instead on wishing everyone a “Happy Holidays”, or focusing on what gifts they can get at the best price on Black Friday.

Now-before you all begin to call me judgmental, let me just state that I am only observing what I see.  The Bible is clear that if you put anything above God, it’s idolatry.  We need to focus on Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Focusing on anything and everything else can cause our walk to turn into a crawl! We need to focus on following Him, and doing what He would do-not what our flesh wants to do.  The Bible is also clear on certain things-in both the old & new Testaments.  Let me list them here to remind you, no-to remind us all what God says.

1)      Exodus 20:3 – “You shall have no other gods before me.”  I think this is clear!

2)      Exodus 20:4-6  – “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Sounds clear to me, although many professing Christians clearly have issues here.

3)      Exodus 20:17 – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” This is clear.  Sounds clear to me.

4)      Exodus 20:22-23 – “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.” Sometimes, we can unintentionally do this-we need to be careful.

5)      Isaiah 29:9-10 – “Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless;

be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer.

The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);

 he has covered your heads (the seers).”  It’s easy to get caught up in all these ecumenical circles, and then find that you lose track about the Reason for the season…

6)      Isaiah 29:13-16 - The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth
   and honor me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
   is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Therefore once more I will astound these people
   with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
   the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
 Woe to those who go to great depths
   to hide their plans from the LORD,
who do their work in darkness and think,
   “Who sees us? Who will know?”
 You turn things upside down,
   as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
   “You did not make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter,
   “You know nothing”?  Sometimes, Christians even put God in a box at Christmas time.  They tend to forget about Jesus altogether…

7)      Romans 12:1-2 –“ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  It’s easy to get sucked into all these worldly things going on.

8)      Romans 8:1-11 - “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,  because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,  in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.  Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.”  Freedom in Christ is NOT a license to do whatever you want-even if you know it’s NOT of God!

9)      1 Corinthians 10:21 - “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.” I think this explains itself-all you Twilight fans out there…

10)   2 Corinthians 6:11-7:1 - We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. ¹² We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. ¹³ As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.

11)    Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. “ As God has said:

 “I will live with them
   and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
   and they will be my people.”

Therefore,

“Come out from them
   and be separate,
            says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
   and I will receive you.”

And,

   “I will be a Father to you,
   and you will be my sons and daughters,
            says the Lord Almighty.”

“Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” Can we as believers in Jesus Christ straddle both sides of the fence?

12)   Galatians 1:8-9 –“ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!  As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!” There are lots of false gospels being preached at Christmas time.  You need to be aware of them.  We all need discernment in this area!

13)   James 4:4 – “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” I believe this is not only self-explanatory, but also confirms some of the earlier Scriptures I used.

14)   1 Peter 2:11 – “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.  Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” We MUST ask ourselves this important question: Does the world see Jesus Christ in us?  Do we reflect His glory in all we do?  Or-are we just like everyone else?

15)   1 John 2:15 – “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.  For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” I think these verses are easily understandable.

OK-WHY am I posting all these scriptures which God gave to me?  I believe that Jesus is trying to tell us that we need to act in such a way that the non-believers out there will see Jesus in us.  We need to NOT be afraid to say Merry Christmas.  We need to tell people about the Love of Jesus Christ, and share The Gospel with them.  We need to keep our eyes on Jesus, and not on what Christmas we get (or don’t get).  We need to help others who are less fortunate than us, and in doing so-show them the way to Jesus.  We need to show the world what The Father’s Love is!

Ask yourselves this important question:  Are you crawling in your Christian walk?  Think about the points above, and if needed, correct yourself.  By not obeying the scriptures above, it becomes very easy to stumble in our walks.  Get your face off of FaceBook, and get your face into The Book-God’s Holy Bible!  If you only listen to that one piece of advice, you’ll see how quickly you get off the ground, and run the race to the finish line!

Merry Christmas!

\O/