Are Your Christian Values God's Values?
Posted: Wednesday, June 17, 2009
by Mark Parsec
Wordcasters
In Isaiah 5:20-21 the Word of God tells us,
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight!
We live in an age where people are creating prisons for themselves and others because they have rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they have embraced demonic doctrines, fictitious philosophies, treacherous teachings, and erroneous ideas about reality, the nature of man, God and the universe.
A crisis is upon our land... and it is a crisis of values. The general population is being blinded by a media blitz that is determined to undermine righteousness and replace it with hedonism, materialism, socialism, atheism, agnosticism, selfishness, self-centeredness and false pride.
And the sad fact of the matter is these unrighteous values are being propagated upon our people straight from the gates of hell and the father of lies who has even succeeded in infiltrating our churches with divorce, drugs, promiscuity, abuse, abortion and homosexuality. And, brothers and sisters in Christ, these false values are destroying the righteousness of our nation and creating spiritual prisons in the hearts and minds of our children.
The problem that destroyed the Roman civilization is the very same problem that our nation is facing today. It is a problem of values.
So important is the foundation of values to our faith that I would like you to read the following Scripture and reflect upon how these values are being manifested in our society around you...
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." (Romans 1:29-32
Values... values... values...
Values are learned.
Let me tell you about a value that I learned when I was a little boy... it was the value of lying. Lying could save people a whole lot of pain. You may read about this childhood experience of mine in my article When the Summer Winds Blow - Memories of Domestic Violence at /swa352616.htm .
It is easy enough for us to sometimes see the false values that others hold. But, the coin of values has two sides to it. One side we label righteous and the other we label as unrighteous. The problem is that all too often it is both sides of the coin that are tarnished. And in our so-called righteousness we hold on to unrighteous values.
Jesus made this very clear to us when he ministered to the Jews of his day. You see, in their eyes they were the "Chosen people of God". They were the "children of God", a "holy nation", a "righteous people". And in their minds they were convinced that being a circumcised Jew was the equivalent to holding a passport to heaven... a get out of jail free card. It didn't matter whether or not they compromised their values and broke the laws of God because in their opinion God was obligated to honor His part of the covenant.
In the minds of the Jews, the more wealth they accumulated the holier they believed they were. After all, material possessions were a blessing from God. So, the richer you were the more righteous you were. Right? Yet, they were mistaken, because God does not count our material wealth as a pre-requisite for going to heaven. But, He does value the richness of our giving.
The Jews believed that if they were successful in observing the Sabbath day and all other holy days that it made them more righteous. Yet, they were mistaken. For God does not care about how often we go to church. But, He does value our sincere gratitude, praise and worship that comes forth from our hearts wherever we may be.
The Jews believed that the burnt sacrifices and offerings would take away their sins and make them acceptable to God. Yet, they were mistaken. For God does not delight in sacrifice, but loves a broken and contrite spirit.
The Jews believed that if they did not eat certain foods it would purify them and make them more righteous. But, Jesus taught that it was not what goes into your body that makes you impure, but what comes out of the heart that makes a person sin.
The Jews believed that Gentiles were filthy, dirty polluted individuals and that contact with them would make them impure. But, Jesus laid his hands upon lepers and healed them.
How often Christians become so much like the Jews that Jesus preached to. You see, sometimes we mistake our own values for the values of the Lord. Sometimes our worldly ideas of what is better are really nothing more than that... worldly ideas.
It is not the clothes we wear to church that makes us better Christians, but the fabric of our heart.
It is not the songs that we sing, or how well that we sing them, that is pleasing to the Lord, but the sincerity and honesty with which we sing them.
It is not how good we think we are that impresses the Lord, but how deeply we understand our own sin and unworthiness.
There is not a person in the world, not in any church, who is not guilty of sinning at least in some small way... every day. You may not smoke, but if you drive a car you are polluting God's creation. If you use household cleansers around the house, insecticides, pesticides or fertilizers in the garden, then you are harming God's creation.
Have you harbored ill feelings towards a neighbor, relative or stranger? Have you gossiped? Have you been angry at or falsely accused another? Have you been envious or jealous? Have you told a little white lie to keep from hurting someone else's feelings? Or have you committed the lie of omission? What they don't know won't hurt them right? Or have you looked at someone of the opposite sex, maybe just on television and thought sexual thoughts? Have you been proud, or selfish, or self-centered? Have you been vengeful? Do you turn the cheek when someone hurts your feelings or insults you? Do you tithe ten percent of your income to God, feed the hungry, take in the homeless or visit those that are in jail or prison?
Suddenly, our perception of our "goodness" comes into focus and with it the realization that we are not really all that good after all. You see, sometimes as Christians we start to feel pretty good about ourselves and forget that we are just sinners saved by the grace of God. Somehow we allow our own values to get mixed up with worldly values and the next thing you know they aren't God's values.
The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2 Be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Elsewhere, the Apostle tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Christians and non-Christians alike. But, if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. For by faith we have been saved through grace, and that not by ourselves, it is a FREE gift of God, so nobody may boast.
The author gives his permission to copy or use this article in any manner that glorifies God.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Good lesson Mark, we often justify ourselves in the name of God when in reality we uphold the wiles of the devil. Thank you for the great thoughts to ponder. As the Scripture says it is circumcision of the heart that matters, for the Jew fist and also for the Greek.Blessings to you! Teresa
Thank you Teresa,I trust the Lord is blessing you abundantly.Mark
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