Seeing More Clearly by Thinking Outside the Culture
View all responsesI love people who look beyond the natural, who think outside of their culture. They inspire me.
Lifestyle-Christianity requires ongoing Christ-focus–continually “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” It looks “not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are unseen.” Christians don’t need more information about Jesus. We need to look up in order to behold and embrace a much greater level of awareness of and surrender to the presence and daily reality of the Lamb of God.
Lifestyle matters. Lifestyle-Christians live Spirit-led lives. They daily demonstrate the presence of the risen Jesus through what they say and do. Lifestyle-Christians always look to Jesus first!
Lifestyle-Christianity isn’t powered by human effort, but by “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It requires looking up with full surrender, not looking around with self-righteousness. Christ came to impact and to empower people so they can demonstrate His presence and reality. He didn’t come to make people religious. (The Pharisees were already doing a good job of that.)
Lifestyle-atheists say that they believe God exists but act like they don’t. They honor God with their lips but keep their heart far from Him. Many lifestyle-atheists regularly attend church. (Some lifestyle-Christans don’t.)
Intense Christ-focus produces a Christian lifestyle. Self-focus, even when coated with religious words, is an atheistic lifestyle. Refuse to let society’s pressure pry you away from persistently pursuing and nonstop gazing at the glorious presence of the risen Jesus.
Think about your daily lifestyle for a while. Does it say and demonstrate that Jesus is alive, or does it deny His reality? Your words may say that you are a Christian, but your lifestyle says what you really are. Your lifestyle speaks louder than a thousand words. If you love Jesus, incessantly act like you do. Lifestyle-Christians take on and daily demonstrate the presence, influence, character, and reality of Jesus Christ.
It’s easy to be a religious observer of religious observances yet neglect to daily listen to and obey the living Jesus. If you aren’t able to consistently maintain a Christian lifestyle you need a greater awareness of and deeper surrender to the presence and reality of the risen Jesus. Continually drinking Christ’s living water is essential to a Spirit-led lifestyle. Open up your heart and look up to taste and see that the Lord Jesus is real.
Leave behind the compromise of your comfort zone. Embrace the lifestyle and the courage of the Spirit-empowered commitment zone. Christ’s table-flips never flop! You can trust Him with your tables. Look up and let Him flip them.
A high percentage of church attendance and the Ten Commandments hanging in schools don’t make a nation Christian. An abundant harvest of the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit that organically permeates throughout the entire culture and produces multitudes of Spirit-led lifestyles, does.
Christianity is a lifestyle
That goes far beyond
Sitting in church for a while
With the passive rank and file.
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