A Context of Heart

You know that inner monologue that narrates a boring meeting, rehearses the grocery or chore list while brushing your teeth, and reminds you to make sure you and family are fully dressed before racing out the door early in the morning? (okay... so sometimes I don't heed that last one...) Well mine has been wrestling with one topic for the past few days, and I've been on the fence about sharing it, but after reading Scripture today I think it might be helpful.

Something I did in middle school and into high school was memorize "famous verses", you know, the ones on coffee cups / t shirts / etc. Now I'm not knocking memorizing Scripture... at all! We desperately need the Word implanted in our hearts. Memorizing Scripture gives us solid ground to stand on when our emotions / circumstances create a fog hindering our sense of what's right, what word / action / thought would honor Jesus. He has given us all we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). But what I did wrong then was only memorize the words in that sentence or two. I would take that sentence, devoid of its context, and supplant my own wishes on it. Praise Him some wonderful faithful Christians taught me about context before I started twisting Scripture to say that it did not say or even say the opposite.

So moving to present time.... my heart is broken. I've read letter after letter, article upon article... all people writing to say:  the Bible says it doesn't matter what we do in our lives, God loves the world so much; my hang-ups aren't wrong, it's just part of the human condition; no one can judge me; God's plan is for me to have all I want, to be happy with what I think will make me happy.
Friends, this isn't true. Satan slips little lies in with some truth and we don't notice them.... so he slips in a few more... and a few more.... and without desperate prayer and studying of God's Word we end up far from the truth of Scripture and walking down the wide path that leads to destruction (Matt 7). Our natural self likes this road, it's drawn to rebellion against God. It has become popular to glory in our shame. Point in case, there's a commercial for an energy drink themed "I'm not ashamed". It features individuals waking up in random people's beds, wearing clothes that aren't there own, unsure of how they got there... then popping open an energy drink and cheerful music plays as they leave and go about there life. Like it's no big deal.

There are devastating consequences when we start to believe that what we do doesn't matter, that what the Bible teaches is irrelevant, and that we can decide for ourselves what is good and right. Christians can't pick and choose: this sin is okay, this one's not. The Gospel is an all-or-nothing deal. If someone refuses to believe the Bible when it says greed / lust / etc are wrong.... then how can they claim its way of salvation? Oh, how I pray that Christians would wake up, study the Scripture closely, and live lives that are radically changed for the glory of Christ! I pray we would put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6), duel rightly with the sword of the Word, and with humility and compassion show the world the Light.