We live in a culture of conflict, confusion, and chaos and it’s very easy to get caught up in it and captured by it. I’m on a long, memorable vacation from consuming its content and letting it coerce me into its image. Instead of being conformed to the culture, my goal is to influence it with a more hopeful and wholesome way of thinking and acting.
It’s human nature to want to silence and get rid of any voice that speaks against the things that make us comfortable. That’s why true freedom of speech is rare in human history. That’s why people who sincerely follow the inner leading and direction of the risen Jesus have been persecuted throughout the last 2,000 years (often by religious people who see them as a threat to their religious hierarchy and established traditions).
In the Bible Christ-followers didn’t bully, coerce, or try to use the government to make people live by their standards. They humbly spoke the truth in love and suffered verbal and physical attacks without retaliating. They blessed those who cursed them.
The first Christians didn’t conform to the verbal abuse or the physical violence of their culture. They transcended it. They were in the world but not of it–living with their minds transformed and renewed by Christ’s inner presence and supernatural perspective.
The transformation that matters most is inner transformation. That happens when the mind shifts its focus away from the demands and dictatorship of dominating desires and self-protection and aligns with the wisdom of the conscience (“Christ in you, the hope of glory,”) thus empowering a person to be in a crazed culture but not be conformed to it–to be a living example of clear thinking, inner peace, kindness, and joy.
A mind that is captured by the desire for comfort and surrendered to self-focus needs to be renewed and transformed by a better way of thinking. It takes courage to live in a culture that is caught up in confusion and not be conformed to its chaotic thinking.
The idea that someone hates, fears, or judges you just because they disagree with some of your behaviors or beliefs is irrational. If we won’t be kind to people who disagree with or disapprove of our lifestyle and world view, we’re not following the risen Jesus. Staged Christianity creates religious spectators who tend to be conformed to the comfort, carnality, and triviality of world around them, but where are the disciples whose hearts are constantly engaged in loving, adoring, and obeying the risen Jesus and demonstrating His command to bless those who curse you?
The Gospel of Luke and the other 3 Gospels in the Bible present Jesus as loving, passionate, provocative, and fiery. They never present Him as lukewarm.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 