I think there's an unintended disconnect sometimes between some of the words we might say these days and reality - especially if we don't understand the full weight of those words and what they mean. I think this is particularly true at times when new "Christians" are taught to say a few words in order to gain the title "Christian". I view some of the alter call processing of new believers a little like the process of branding cattle. The cows get a new brand ... but they have no idea what it really means or why they have it ...
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? He requires only that you fear the LORD your God, and live in a way that pleases him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul. And you must always obey the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good." Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (NLT)
The Apostle Paul pointed out in the book of Romans that we gentile believers are grafted into God's chosen people - Israel. And that means that all of the warnings, promises, offers and life that He's declared to Israel apply to us as well. God does not change, so if we are truly accepting Christ because we understand what it truly means, we have to be paying attention to what it requires of us ... And there are requirements we must honor in order to be worthy of the "brand" we declare. We need to study to know what they are - simultaneously allowing God to bless us as we respond to the prerequisites that He lays out with the promises that He makes to us.
We live now under a new covenant with God through Christ, but it's important that we don't miss what our God's said prior - what He still requires of us as His people, or mistake the seriousness of it. While we may be free of some things, we can know what the unchanging, Sovereign God likes and dislikes ... and even what He hates from the Old Testament (because our God does not change) - things important to a true and serious relationship. So if it's our intention to have an intimate relationship with our Sovereign Creator, we still have unchanging requirements that require solemn respect for what God cares about (And while some would say that to hate is wrong, we'd do well to consider what the Sovereign God of heaven and earth declares that He hates). Most of these requirements deal with the quality and content of our heart and the outward flow of it - the core of our eternal being and what God sees clearly without any ability on our part to hide from Him. A truly branded heart for Christ is one driven by a true desire for Him fed by love, gratitude, humility, and so much more. A heart truly branded by and for Christ is a heart unmistakably drawn to Him and in continually increasing surrender to Him.
We dare not get so comfortable - feeling warm and fuzzy in the trap of "Modern Christianity" that we drift from true belief. True belief requires far more than regimented religion or lip service. It requires action on our part - reaction in response to what God's declared and what He continues to require from us in an ongoing process of sanctification because our heart's desire is to please Him out of our love for Him.
The Billy Graham Library defines sanctification as... "By definition, sanctification means to be reserved for holy use. The objective of every believer should be to hastily pursue this. Sanctification demonstrates the urgency to be emptied out of anything that impairs against being a useful vessel for God’s glory. It’s a process that starts in the heart and transforms outwardly living. The Bible is the instrument that God uses to clean our hearts."
I'm convinced that if we're not submitting ourselves to what God so clearly requires from us through His Word in that process of sanctification - working toward getting rid of all of the old habits, motives, thoughts, speech and actions that defy the standards of godliness that our God's so clearly set out for us in His word, we have good reason to consider whether or not we truly believe and are invested in a true relationship with Him. If we indeed love Him with all of our being and hold Him first above all others as He's commanded, it would seem obvious that we should be concerned about what offends Him and submit ourselves to changing to please Him .
So much of the message that we hear about God most prevalently in modern Christianity would lead us to believe that God is the way to get what we want - as though He were some heavenly genie waiting to serve us. And also overwhelmingly that God is love. God is in fact love, but if that alone is the message, it misses the mark of being inclusive of all that God is, who He is in fact, and the many reasons that we have to reverently respect and fear God with holy fear - humbling ourselves before Him, because He is in fact so much more. If we were to visualize our God's character as a diamond, I think it likely true that love would be represented merely as one facet of all that He is. He is also terrifying in power, all holy, the perfection of righteousness and of justice, and so much more. And if our motivation in a supposed relationship with God is primarily a selfish desire to get what we want from Him we've not only missed the mark of true relationship, but we may have instead presented something of an offense to Him as our reason for desiring relationship with Him.
Too many of the dessert messages broadcasted and desired by so many these days can make us spiritually sick and deprive us of the health and spiritual prosperity that the meat and potatoes truth of all that God is and has said, can provide. It's truth that is so desperately lacking in worldly society and even among some who claim to have the brand of Christ. What should be concerning to all of those, should be the fact that that brand is clearly seen by God and is found on changed hearts. No amount of mere claiming can verify it's existence. It either exists or it doesn't and our God sees clearly - with nothing hidden.
We're living in a very concerning time of disillusion, disinformation and deception. The "world" is so clearly corrupted and satan uses its messaging constantly in the continual effort to mislead, confuse and to lie to mankind at every opportunity. Many slight adjustments to, or misuse of otherwise true content, or other times passages used out of context, also become misleading misrepresentations or even outright lies. Even sources that we've trusted in the past to tell or teach us the truth may have become tainted ... how would we know? If we don't already have the truth of God in us (what He's said through scripture), what hope would we have of preventing ourselves from being led astray?
"Religion" is not the answer. Developing a true relationship with the Author Of Truth is. I guarantee that a sustained effort to come to know our God in sincerity will result in a hunger to continually know more of Him and what He's said. Knowing Him and what He's said becomes the sieve through which we can sift all things - knowing the truth from anything less. Without that sieve we're defenseless.
Relationship begins here on our knees and in our thoughtful seeking and study...
"In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me." Jeremiah 29:12-13 (NLT)
Intimate relationship with Himself for His glory is what God created us for. Anything less risks missing the fulfillment of our purpose.The exercise of a duty or requirement when acted out of a sense of obligation will never outweigh the same when enacted out of love, reverence and respect. And when it comes to the most important issues in all of the universe, one respondent reaction is religion, the other ... intimate relationship. Don't settle for a religion that only requires you to say a few words and then remain unchanged. If you do, you have no idea how much you'll be missing - cheating yourself out of your potential and inheritance in Christ. It's an inheritance far richer in God's economy than an "unknowing" heart can begin to imagine.
"No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8 (NLT)
Romans 11:17-21 (NLT)
"But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree. But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root.
“Well,” you may say, “those branches were broken off to make room for me.” Yes, but remember—those branches were broken off because they didn’t believe in Christ, and you are there because you do believe. So don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen. For if God did not spare the original branches, he won’t spare you either."
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