Christianity is not 'me' and 'I', it is 'you' and 'God Almighty'.
The church has been fooled and hoodwinked. The individuals within the church have become unknowingly decieved. Many Christians have become misguided and warped in their personal application of their well-intentioned faith in God.
Many Christians have lost sight of what being a Christian is. The devil has been able to bring this state about with little opposition or struggle because he has cleverly played on our greatest weakness - our pride. The same pride that led the devil to believe he was as great as God, resulting in him being cast down to earth from heaven - like lightening he fell, that same pride that so easily ensnares us, the devil has used to puff us up to the point where we have lost sight of what faith in God really is.
A principle of our nature that will never change is that we love to exalt ourselves. It is this trait that is so natural to us that has allowed the devil to so easily infiltrate our reltionship with God. That self-exalting nature that we possess is so strong that we do not even realise when it happens. In our minds we are completely and undoubtedly sincere in our faith in the Lord. In our minds we even consider ourselves humble before the Lord (how ironic that more often than not we are very proud of the fact that we have been able to be so humble!).
Because of this deceptive double-mindedness that we all possess, it is near impossible to see that the lord we relate to and the lord whom we pray to; admittedly with all sincerity and good intentions, is in fact not the Lord our Father and Creator. Instead he is a figure conjured by our imaginations with the sub-concious purpose to exalt ourselves. This deception over our state of mind of which we are wholly unaware of surely makes our prayers to null effect?
Romans 1:25 "who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."
The entire modern church has become geared towards 'ourselves'. People used to believe that the sun revolved around the earth and that the earth was in the centre. Now we know that it is the earth that revolves around the Sun. The sun is the centre, not the earth.
In the church today we act as though we are in the centre. In our faith in God we have placed ourselves at the centre rather than God. Everything is told as if it revolves around us, the creatures. Every personal interpretation of God is a subjective one, rather than objective. We have become so self-indulgent and self-centred in our faith.
The Christian's typical prayer life sounds something like, "me, me, me!" - "help me", "make me humble", "speak to me", "use me". Everything is so inward looking.
Jesus tells us to be like Him, yet the state of mind of the majority of Christians is the complete opposite of who He is.
Christianity is not 'me' and 'I', it is 'you' and 'God Almighty'.
We must realise that it is not God that revolves around us but us that revovle around God. Modern church is no more than guidance counselling on how to live better. It has become some strange form of Buddhism where people go to church each Sunday to learn from the preacher how to apply Biblical principles to their lives so that they may be happy and acheive some weird Christ based enlightenment.
We need to stop focusing inward and start to focus outward. We must focus upon God Almighty and keep our eyes on Him like Peter did when he walked on water. Now that does not mean that we should focus on Him to see how His attributes and truths can benefit us and strengthen us, because that is an inward self-indulgent motive, but it means to focus solely on Him for who He is and for His goodness.
The effect of focusing solely upon Almighty God
The main effect that focusing upon God should have is to convict us of our sin and show us our need for a Saviour in Christ Jesus. For it is a bleak contrast between ourselves and the perfection of God. God is whiter than white in comparison to our black sludgy hearts.
Focusing upon God should wake us up to the fact that we can do nothing and need nothing more than to put our trust in Him. Faith in God should not puff us up, if anything it should knock us down!
You hear people pray, "Lord do amazing things in this place here today" and "Lord use me". How often prayers like these are prayed. How shallow and inward looking these prayers are. Yes, a desire for God to use you is a good thing, but if you must pray it, pray it once and then move on. If you are continuously praying for God to use you then then He will never have the chance because you are too inward focused in such prayer. People who pray this prayer again and again will find that they become despondent, maybe even angry at the fact that God seemingly won't use them. They may begin to pray more fervently and desperately, "God Use Me!"... But they are missing the point, for they are too inward focused. They do not realise that the minute they stop praying "God use me" and start to pray for their church, or their neighbour, or their family, is the minute that God has begun to use them.
The minute they stop focusing on themselves and start focusing on others is the minute they become Christ-like in their lives. How God will use them then and how their joy and contentment and wisdom and knowledge will increase and abound to great heights.
We must stop placing ourselves at the centre and we must stop treating church as a life coaching session or a social event. We must start to focus on Almighty God, that is the objective God in the Bible, not the subjective one in our minds.
We will get nowhere by keeping ourself at the centre for we cannot do what is required in our own strength. We must forget ourselves and focus on Christ. Then through the renewal of our minds will we become sanctified and fulfilled in our relationship with Him and our life.
Only once we have cast off our old self and begin to focus on God truly will we be really serving the one true God.
-BACChristian
Many Christians have lost sight of what being a Christian is. The devil has been able to bring this state about with little opposition or struggle because he has cleverly played on our greatest weakness - our pride. The same pride that led the devil to believe he was as great as God, resulting in him being cast down to earth from heaven - like lightening he fell, that same pride that so easily ensnares us, the devil has used to puff us up to the point where we have lost sight of what faith in God really is.
A principle of our nature that will never change is that we love to exalt ourselves. It is this trait that is so natural to us that has allowed the devil to so easily infiltrate our reltionship with God. That self-exalting nature that we possess is so strong that we do not even realise when it happens. In our minds we are completely and undoubtedly sincere in our faith in the Lord. In our minds we even consider ourselves humble before the Lord (how ironic that more often than not we are very proud of the fact that we have been able to be so humble!).
Because of this deceptive double-mindedness that we all possess, it is near impossible to see that the lord we relate to and the lord whom we pray to; admittedly with all sincerity and good intentions, is in fact not the Lord our Father and Creator. Instead he is a figure conjured by our imaginations with the sub-concious purpose to exalt ourselves. This deception over our state of mind of which we are wholly unaware of surely makes our prayers to null effect?
Romans 1:25 "who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."
The entire modern church has become geared towards 'ourselves'. People used to believe that the sun revolved around the earth and that the earth was in the centre. Now we know that it is the earth that revolves around the Sun. The sun is the centre, not the earth.
In the church today we act as though we are in the centre. In our faith in God we have placed ourselves at the centre rather than God. Everything is told as if it revolves around us, the creatures. Every personal interpretation of God is a subjective one, rather than objective. We have become so self-indulgent and self-centred in our faith.
The Christian's typical prayer life sounds something like, "me, me, me!" - "help me", "make me humble", "speak to me", "use me". Everything is so inward looking.
Jesus tells us to be like Him, yet the state of mind of the majority of Christians is the complete opposite of who He is.
Christianity is not 'me' and 'I', it is 'you' and 'God Almighty'.
We must realise that it is not God that revolves around us but us that revovle around God. Modern church is no more than guidance counselling on how to live better. It has become some strange form of Buddhism where people go to church each Sunday to learn from the preacher how to apply Biblical principles to their lives so that they may be happy and acheive some weird Christ based enlightenment.
We need to stop focusing inward and start to focus outward. We must focus upon God Almighty and keep our eyes on Him like Peter did when he walked on water. Now that does not mean that we should focus on Him to see how His attributes and truths can benefit us and strengthen us, because that is an inward self-indulgent motive, but it means to focus solely on Him for who He is and for His goodness.
The effect of focusing solely upon Almighty God
The main effect that focusing upon God should have is to convict us of our sin and show us our need for a Saviour in Christ Jesus. For it is a bleak contrast between ourselves and the perfection of God. God is whiter than white in comparison to our black sludgy hearts.
Focusing upon God should wake us up to the fact that we can do nothing and need nothing more than to put our trust in Him. Faith in God should not puff us up, if anything it should knock us down!
You hear people pray, "Lord do amazing things in this place here today" and "Lord use me". How often prayers like these are prayed. How shallow and inward looking these prayers are. Yes, a desire for God to use you is a good thing, but if you must pray it, pray it once and then move on. If you are continuously praying for God to use you then then He will never have the chance because you are too inward focused in such prayer. People who pray this prayer again and again will find that they become despondent, maybe even angry at the fact that God seemingly won't use them. They may begin to pray more fervently and desperately, "God Use Me!"... But they are missing the point, for they are too inward focused. They do not realise that the minute they stop praying "God use me" and start to pray for their church, or their neighbour, or their family, is the minute that God has begun to use them.
The minute they stop focusing on themselves and start focusing on others is the minute they become Christ-like in their lives. How God will use them then and how their joy and contentment and wisdom and knowledge will increase and abound to great heights.
We must stop placing ourselves at the centre and we must stop treating church as a life coaching session or a social event. We must start to focus on Almighty God, that is the objective God in the Bible, not the subjective one in our minds.
We will get nowhere by keeping ourself at the centre for we cannot do what is required in our own strength. We must forget ourselves and focus on Christ. Then through the renewal of our minds will we become sanctified and fulfilled in our relationship with Him and our life.
Only once we have cast off our old self and begin to focus on God truly will we be really serving the one true God.
-BACChristian
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