The Christian Fool

During family devotions, Peter read a statement that was very insightful. I am going to paraphrase it, since I don’t have it right infront of me.

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God!”, but the real fool is the person who claims to know God and yet lives as though there is no God.

And that is so true. If we claim to be followers of Christ, and don’t do things he tells us, WE ARE FOOLS!

God has told us his will. We read it in the Bible. It is all spelled out for us there.

And yet, every time we sin, we live as if there is no God. 

So many Christians live their lives “parked” on a few external rules and regulations, all the while ignoring the expressly written word. They find comfort in rules. Unfortunately, they are their own rules and not the ones that matter.

They wouldn’t dream of listening to THAT music, or THAT teacher,  or wearing THAT clothing, or watching THAT program, and will tell you so in a “self righteous” tone. (don’t you love how vocal people can be on these issues?)

But they will practice things forbidden in scripture, such as gossip, whisperings, ungreatfulness, envy, jealousy, manipulating people,  discontentment and complaining and other things that God calls sin. It shows that they value their opinion and the cultural opinions around them, more than they value what God is saying.

When God says that you are to love the Lord with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself, and you claim to  love God, but then mistreat your neighbor by sinning against them (gossip, whisperings, ungreatfulness, envy, jealousy ) you are not the Christian you think you are in your mind. You are self deceived, and you will never be effective for Christ or in helping others until you get rid of what displeases God.

You can never affect others for Christ while you are gossiping, manipulating, complaining, controlling, bitter, jealous and angry, because these sins spring from a heart full of self love, not God and others love. Do you see your sin that way?

My friend and pastor’s wife, Ann shared this quote on Facebook:

‎”I learned the depth to which I had sunk by the length of the chain let down to updraw me. The greatest revelation of sin is the Cross of Jesus Christ. Every sin I have committed, I have committed against the Infinite love of God.” – Henry Melville

And you can give your kids all of the rules and regulations you want, but if you are practicing things forbidden in scripture,(gossiping, manipulating, complaining, controlling, bitter, jealous and angry)
your children will see through your thin veneer of formalism and know that it is not the God of the Bible you serve. You are serving yourself.

I love this definition of sin: “Sin is any act, attitude or disposition that fails to measure up to God’s standards.”

So, my challenge today is Romans 12:1, 2

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God , which is your reasonable worship.

“Presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice” means that we turn over all aspects of our lives: Our words, our works, our attitudes, our will, our desires, our plans, our children, our suffering. We are placing our lives in His hands, because he rescued, redeemed and is restoring us and this is the least that we can do. It is only reasonable.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 

This means that we need to let God’s Word– his written will– change our mindset and then our lives and actions.

So, today, let’s live as though we believe that God really exists!  Let’s live with the reality that He sees our hearts and our motives and will uphold, judge, correct, avenges or deliver based on how we treat His commands. 

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

And if we fail, 1 John 1:9 is the go to verse. If we fail against others, we need to get things right with our brother as well as with God.