Devotionals

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Mathew 23:13; "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. -NIV

Like I was saying yesterday, people are constantly challenging what I put on this site. It usually goes something like this. Why is insurance (or job helps, or rock music, or bathing suits, or ... well you get the point someone objects to something) on your site that is not Christian.

This question is basically an attempt to say “You are a hypocrite just like all the other Christians I meet and I have now found my reason not to listen to you”. The underlying question is actually a fair one. I routinely meet people who claim Christ but live so very different and this witness has served to drive many people away from Gods Love. By living this way they serve to give a bad impression of all Christianity. On the other hand I also meet many who live what they claim and yet are still held up to this “impossible” standard by non-christians. Is it hypocritical to claim Christ but still watch sports? To Follow Jesus and follow the drama on CSI? To believe in a God who heals and protects but still go to a doctor and have insurance? I say the answer to all three of these and many other questions like it is NO. We live in this world and do not have to be part of it but we also have a right and even an obligation to understand it. God never asked us to give up being who he created us to be. We are called to reach out to the world and spread the Good News of Gods love and deliverance. How can we do that if we do not even understand the world we live in. Nobody will listen to you until after you have demonstrated that you will first listen to them. You need to be able to hear what they are saying and where they have been and if your only response to their lives is a blank stare of incomprehension then how do you expect them to listen to your news of life and love with anything but the same blank stare. I have been trying to link the real world to Gods Message throughout this site and in the real world people buy things like pet medicine and glasses, insurance and clothing, they need to get trained for and find jobs and they forget to get a birthday present until the last minute and need to get a good idea fast. That is the real world and God wants us to live in it for his glory can we do that by ignoring those problems of the people we meet?

Can we truly convince the people we meet that we do not face these same problems? What is more hypocritical to lie and pretend we do not have a life to deal with or to pretend that such things do not exist? I know I cannot lie so I will continue to have a site that not only glorifies God but also acknowledges the daily life he has given us to live in.

By Gethsemene Rose
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