Thank the Lord for $1.50 movie theatres, because if I had paid any more for my ticket to see The Breakup I would have flipped. If you know me, you know that I think with my heart, that things hit deeper with me than the 'average' person, whatever that means. The entire time we were sitting in this flick, all I could think about is how I want to be the farthest thing away from the character that Vince Vaughn plays. Hollywood has contorted and twisted the image of men and women that sometimes it's hard to see the clear line. Women are made into this adulterous, self-absorbed hootch, while men are degraded into a pile of beer cans, naked women parading around them, with no regard to integrity or honor. Honestly, this bothers me so much. I think it bothers me right now not because that image is being cast upon us men and women of God, but that the world has fallen to such a pit of superficiality that it can't see past the skin. This world continues to see what is in it for itself, what it can get for it's own selfish gain. For some reason, this has moved my heart. Call it compassion, call it pity, call it whatever you may; my heart is crying for something more. Something more than this world can offer. Yes, I have Jesus Christ, and I'm not saying that He's not sufficent, because He surely is! What bothers me is that I feel that, at times, this superficial filth is rubbed off on us. Yes, we are in this world and not of it, and praise the Lord the day that we don't have to be surrounded in this trash, but us a Christians need to be above these things, we need not to be swayed and influenced by our circumstances.
This is how God operates. God is holy, which in turn makes him outside of the influence of anyting in all Creation. The downward spiral that our culture is in doesn't bring Him down, nor make Him less omnipotent. But for some reason now, my heart has never wanted to be more like God than now. I'm so tired and sick of seeing my brothers and sisters be influenced by what is around us. God told us to be holy because He himself was first holy. Our conversations, our choices in entertainment, even our music, is shaded with the trash of this world, some areas more than others.
Something that the Lord has really taught me this summer is the importance of what a man or woman of God talks about. Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. How true this is! Listen to a Christian for half an hour in a group setting, and you will start to see what is on their heart. Granted, this quantity of time won't give away all of what is in there, but I'm certain that some key elements of their character will come out. What are they talking about? Food? Music? Sports? Temporal things that really just don't matter? Or are we talking about how God is shaping us into His bride? Are we talking about how we are faithfully carrying out His command to this lost, and obviously, seriously bleeding society? Our culture has suffered a massive blow to the head, bleeding from the inside out, and we don't do anything about it. We think that by our lifestyles we evangelize. No, I'm sorry, it's by the constant dedication to evangelism that shapes our lifestyle. That is the true definition of lifestyle evangelism. How are people going to know of our risen Savior if we don't tell them? How are they going to know of the consequence of sin in their lives and the needed repentance if we don't tell them. How is anyone going to be with us when He comes through the clouds unless we tell them? Unless we stop talking about sports teams that we devote more time to than our time in the Word, stop talking about food that we do or do not like for whatever pointless reason. Granted there is a time and a place for these things, but when the majority of comments made by a person fall under this temporal category, what does that say about the condition of our hearts? We sing songs about how our hearts are totally God's, but do we REALLY mean it? Do we really believe that God is INSIDE of us? Do we really believe that we have a mission here, and that people are hurting and dying in their sin?
I guess what this all boils down to is that my heart is hurting for our Body. That we belive that these things matter, when in reality, they don't. They don't change the course of events of our lives, they don't change eternal destinations, they don't change our character to be more godlike. It's my prayer that God would bring men and women to GCL that have a heart to reach this place, to reach the University of Florida with their whole heart. Titus 2 says that "they profess to know Him, but by their deeds they deny Him." I'm not saying that our brothers and sisters are denying God or Christ, but that our deeds dictate what is really in us, what really makes us tick. That probably isn't the best verse to use, but it's the first one that came to mind. I'm tired of people being afraid or unwilling to put both of their feet in this water of the river of Christ. If you find yourself in this category, I'm praying for you, that God would bring you to a place of complete trust in Him, and that He would completely wrap around your mind, your heart, your words. God WILL build His church, do you want to be a part of it? Come, now is the time...
