Empty Christianity

2 Timothy 3:1-5 says, 1“But mark this: There will terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”
Sadly, this is the state of modern Christianity in the developed world today. The lie of the enemy has been swallowed by the church. The truth of God has been exchanged for a lie. The lie is that there is no absolute truth, everything is relative and situational. Here are a few examples:
1. Abortion: Incredibly there are many, many Christians today who, at best, are noncommittal, and, at worst, are blatantly for the killing of the most vulnerable among us. Satan has convinced many of us that the “rights” of the mother are more important than the life of the baby. How terrible it is that we condone the taking of any human life because it may cause some inconvenience. Many Christians are celebrating the recent victory of president-elect Obama, but are somehow indifferent to the fact that he is for the free and liberal slaughter of the unborn. How is it possible that we have been so browbeaten by the world that we are not willing to stand up and say that abortion is, without exception, wrong?
2. Sexual perversion and homosexuality: Once again the church has been cowed by the world into a position of silence on this issue. Or in some cases, the church is supportive of this abomination, on which the Bible is quite clear.
3. Divorce: Jesus said that Moses gave the children of Israel divorce because of the hardness of their hearts. However, the New Testament is quite clear that divorce, and especially remarriage is wrong. Why then are our churches full of divorcees? Why do we never hear any teaching on this issue? Because we have bought the lie that God’s word does not really say that it is wrong.
In all these issues and more it is time that the church speak up and not be intimidated by the hate-mongers of the world that would try to tell us that we dare not say that anything is wrong. Jesus did not walk around trying to be liked by the people. He was never afraid to speak the truth, even when he knew that it would lead to his death. We must do the same.
Our churches are full of people who have knowledge about God, but have no relationship with God. Faith has become meaningless because it does not make any difference in our lives. We say that we believe in an all-powerful God, but we live as though He can’t do anything. We do not pray in power, we are afraid to speak His name and the truth of His word. We are content to go to the church building on a Sunday morning to hang out and talk about our lives, and perhaps mention God a couple times. Our churches have become social clubs, a place to go to see some “friends”, but the power is God is not present. We are not willing to be transparent about our struggles, our doubts, or our fears. And if we dare to speak from our heart we are looked at strangely and the conversation moves on to something else.
I will try a bit of transparency here and you see how it makes you feel. I too, have spent many years going to church on Sunday, purportedly to worship God, but if I am going to brutally honest with myself and you, I went for the chit-chat and the hang-out time. I went to make myself feel good by saying “hey” to some acquaintances, but I was rarely, if ever, challenged to walk in closer relationship with God. I dare say that this is the case for the majority of people that fill our churches on a Sunday morning. Think about what is the subject of most conversations at the church: how you are doing, what you are going to do that week, the weather, your work, your kids, etc. Do you ever talk, excitedly, about what God is doing in your life? How about what new revelation you have had from His word? Or how about some miracle you have seen?
As Paul said in Timothy, “having a form of Godliness, but denying its power”. I will dare to say that this has been my Christian walk for many years. My faith was something that made me feel good about myself, but I never walked in the power of God. This is evident in a couple ways.
1. I have always been afraid to speak up when someone, especially a Christian, would say something that I know is in direct contradiction to the word of God.
2. I have not really believed that God is an all-powerful God. I will relate a part of our lives that speaks to this lack of faith and also speaks to the earlier abortion issue.
Some of you know something about the rough times that we went through 3-1/2 years ago. First, we lost our 2-day old daughter, and a few months later we found out that we were expecting another baby. We were told by the best doctors that we needed to abort the baby because there was no way that he could survive because of his position in the uterus and that it was likely that Colleen would die in the process. So we, not knowing what else to do, terminated the pregnancy at an early stage, and comforted ourselves by saying that there was no alternative. This was one of the cases of “the mother’s life at risk”. However, looking back, with some new revelation of who God is, I realize two things:
1. We asked for the advice and counsel of the best earthly doctors, but we never asked the “Great Physician” to work in the situation. This, of course, was because I did not really believe that he was able to do anything.
2. I had no right to decide that it was okay to end one life because of my fear of what might happen.
Thankfully, I serve a merciful and forgiving God, and I know that He forgives me for wrong choices and lack of faith. However, I am now challenged by my new-found revelation of the Father, God to step out in faith and believe that He will work.
So I challenge you to examine yourself and your relationship with God. Do you really have a relationship with Him or is your faith simply convenient and nice? Are the activities that you are doing, especially at church and as a church, really of eternal value, or are they simply a substitute for a relationship with Him?