Extreme Faith

Admittedly, I am a person given to extremes.  My husband can attest to that.   He has had to endure many of my, “I am not going to ever again,”   “this is the best thing ever,”   “I will always” speeches.  God bless his patient soul.  If I find something new, I take it and run with it.  I mean sprint.  I remember when I first learned of all the gross things they are doing to our foods, especially our meats.  I made up my mind that I would never again purchase meats that aren’t pasture fed, grass fed, etc.  Then the inevitable moments came.  I saw our bank account and remembered the power of praying, “Lord bless this food and remove all impurities; antibiotics, hormones & all.  In Jesus’ name I pray. AMEN!”   Money in the bank, food in my tummy! He did it for Elijah and the poisonous pot of stew in 2 Kings 4:38-41 and I am confident that He will do it for me.

Yes I have had to soften my stance and back down on many of my extreme statements BUT there are some EXTREMES I still hold to.

  • Jesus is still the only way.  I mean ONLY! (John 14:6).
  • Holiness is still a command, not an option! (1 Peter 1:16).
  • God is still good, even when things don’t turn out the way I want them to and I hurt (Job 13:15).
  • He still perform miracles, not just paying my light bill miracle.  I am talking about dead coming back to life miracle!  (Hebrews 13:8)

I am amazed and even disheartened at how compromise has seeped into the church because we avoid being too extreme in our faith. Remind me again, did Jesus not die an extreme death?  We don’t want to be considered politically incorrect.  We worry too much about offending people so we bite our tongues when we have opportunities to share.  We want to fit in.  We want to be liked.  We have become sophisticated cowards.   But let me remind you, the gospel is offensive and it cuts, no way around it.

Do you currently have any areas of compromise in your life?  In what ways have you strayed from the extreme truth of the gospel?  I encourage you to repent and ask God to give you the grace to WALK IN ALL OF THE TRUTH OF HIS WORD!  No matter how Extreme!

Romans 12:2 NLT

2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Hebrews 4:12-12 NLT

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

 

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Gods Truth Isn’t Accommodating

“I’m glad it’s going to warm up in the next few days,” said the librarian. Are you kidding me? Did she just say warm up? It’s amazing how after dealing with temperatures below zero, the mid 20s can be referred to as warming up. Her experience with the bitter cold caused her definition of warm to be redefined. As I was sweeping my kitchen floor later on that day I began to reflect on the comment made by the librarian. That’s exactly what has happened to a lot of “Christians” today. We live in a culture where sin is rampant and we have become desensitized to truth. We give in to the temptation to redefine Gods standards, something we have no business or authority to do. Contrary to popular belief, truth is not relative. God has not called us to be versatile Christians, willing to redefine his truth to be more “accommodating.” He has called us to be holy , standing for truth even if it’s not embraced (1 Peter 1:16 ). His truth doesn’t change like the weather. It’s constant.

Greed, lying, homosexuality, fornicating, stealing, cheating is NEVER ok (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). As my pastor previously mentioned, God created marriage so try as we might, we can’t redefine it. it’s so easy for us to give a nod of approval to the very nice gay couple or the well educated boyfriend and girlfriend who are living together and fornicating. Or say it’s ok for the poor person to tell a “white lie,” because they are struggling and the system has robbed them anyway. I mean after all we are seeing worse sins happen around us so that ain’t too bad. WRONG! It is that bad, not because that’s my opinion but because God said it. Believe me, I am not trying to act as if I have never sinned or that I am perfect. I have displeased God many times and have not always lived out or loved HIS truth. But hear me when I say, I thank God for mercy and grace and Him giving me a chance to repent and get it right. Cause Lord knows I haven’t always done right and was a very nice sinner. The good news is, that opportunity for repentance was not only extended to me, but to all (John 3:16). How awesome!

Truth is God will never change his mind about his truth(Hebrews 13:8) no matter how extreme sin gets, and it will continue to get worse. The manual for holiness will not be rewritten, sorry no updated copies of the bible where that extreme holiness is edited out. He wants us hot or cold (Revelation 3:16), not lukewarm, not straddling the fence, not somewhere in the middle, not a versatile Christian. By his grace I want to remain hot and live out and speak His truth…and you?