09/02/2011 – Archived Post from Salvation Soldier Blog
Many Christians in America probably don’t understand the extreme nature of being a follower of Jesus. Perhaps we haven’t had to make extreme choices to separate our everyday lives in American culture from our beliefs in God to feel comfortable in our eternal destination. After a while of living the American way and attending church the American way we just kind of get comfortable. In Scripture Jesus was never satisfied with comfortable.
From new birth to physical death and beyond, Jesus calls His followers to live extraordinary lives. Even the label “Christian” can be considered extreme. First coined in Acts 11, the term “Christian” may have been used to deride Christians of the early church living in Antioch, but they embraced the term. Many are quoted as saying “Christian” means “little Christ” but whatever it meant exactly, it indicated that the Christian was with Christ, on His side! This blog tells us that the term “Christian” means “slave of Christ.” What a great idea! I want to be known as someone who is so surrendered to Christ that I am willing to be His slave. In fact, it would be an honor to serve Jesus in any capacity – see Psalm 84:10.
In 1 Peter chapter 2 we are called to be a holy people. This takes an extreme obedience to Jesus that means that we should never allow ourselves to be comfortable in this world. This world is not our home (1 Peter 2:11). There are good things in this world, but anything that is not associated with Jesus Christ lacks the power and integrity of the Kingdom of God, and is never worth getting comfortable with. For us to be effective witnesses of Christ we need to be drenched in the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit, not in the things of the world.
When we get too comfortable as Christians with the things of this world we get in the way of God accomplishing His plans for us. When Christians in the church don’t stand up for Christ it affects the whole community, because it is God’s holy people who are called to preserve morality and decency in society. We don’t leave that up to a government that ascribes to the separation of church and state.
1 Peter 2:4-5
As you come to Him, the Living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit is refining every Christian who is listening to God’s will. He is building us into a spiritual houses because we have been made living, like the Living Stone Jesus Christ. Now as living stones, having Jesus Christ within us, He can build us into one unified house. That is one unified body of Christ who will bring many in this world right to the foot of the cross. This takes a community of Christians that are on fire for Jesus Christ, populated by those who are willing to be uncomfortable for the sake of the cross. Are you up to the challenge?
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Picture: Daniel Case [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons