Polluted water.

Today I was reading a daily devotional that I had not picked up in sometime. Having been mistaken for which day it was, I read yesterdays. As it turns out, it was exactly what God has placed on my heart to be confirmed.

Today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many people are devoted to causes and so few are devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their Friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way. Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of people— the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble. But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity, even though people may treat me like a “doormat.” The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness. Yet it is like a grain of wheat that “falls into the ground and dies”— it will spring up and change the entire landscape (John 12:24).

I have been watching the church turn toward a new age (universal/postmodernist) of thinking and living. I have watched and listened to Jesus Christ become less of what He is. The process has been ratifying for my current walk; opening my eyes to an evil that is polluting the life giving water of Christ.

The first sentence is what pulled at the strings of my heart; the core at which I see a devotion to Christ being turned to a devotion of self gratification and worth--fitting Jesus in our personal box of what seems just, peaceful, good, and fair. We have seen a shift in doctrinal belief-- People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. The risk of being a true follower of Christ comes at too great a price for people; "doormat" treatment is undesirable in a world where our desires can easily be met by self.

I recently watched an interview of a tearful woman who claimed Christ and her thoughts on how the gospel was being presented. It was interesting to watch how a watered down gospel was more appealing to her and the masses. Again, this idea of how we think Jesus should be presented and understood.

It has been made clear by Jesus that the path to life is narrow. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it. Paul wrote some of the most profound words that have stuck with me as I discern the Truth about who Jesus Christ is and how we are to live out the life He desires us to live. 

 

Romans 12:2 says, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

 

As your daily walk leads you, may it be grounded in the Truth of who God is and always has been. Don't let the new ideas of man shift your eyes away from Christ.